When Joe DeRosa graduated from college, he couldn't find a job as a bank examiner, so he became a manager trainee with a restaurant chain.  "I weighed two hundred and forty-five pounds," recalls Joe, "and I figured I knew something about food."

Seven months later, the entrepreneurial bent Joe inherited from his father inspired him to launch out and start his own casual family restaurant.  It filled a niche that existed between pubs and dinner clubs and became an immediate success.

That was thirty-five years ago.  Today Joe owns fourteen restaurants, all in Wisconsin, ranging from popular pancake houses to nationally recognized fine dining steakhouses.

"I wasn't a Christian during the early part of my business career," says Joe, "but I had an inkling that something bigger than me was behind my success.  Terrific people were coming to work for me, some of them strong Christians, and it seemed as though they were being sent."

Joe and his wife, Pam, met on a blind date in June 1993. She was already a Christian; he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior during premarital counseling the following January. Together they began to study God's Word and look for ways they could use their resources to bless others.  

In the beginning, the DeRosas simply wrote personal checks to various ministries.  However, they felt a bit uncomfortable knowing that their names were attached to every gift.  "We're kind of private," admits Pam, "and we prefer to give anonymously.  Every good gift comes from above, and everything we have belongs to God.  It seems inappropriate to put our names on gifts that don't come from us."

"And for selfish reasons, we don't want our names out there on lists that report who gives $10,000, who gives $5,000, and so on," adds Joe.  "We simply don't want to be overwhelmed by time-consuming, emotion-draining solicitations.  Besides, we're not looking for an audience, because we already have an audience of One.  If we need credit for our gifts, what's our real motive for giving?"

Joe and Pam found that making donations out of their personal checkbook had other disadvantages besides the lack of anonymity.  "We had a sizable amount of highly appreciated securities," explains Joe, "which we had acquired when I sold half of the company to the employees through an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) tax-deferred exchange.  We wanted to sell some of these securities so we could write checks to charities, but selling them personally would have created very large capital gains tax obligations."

The DeRosas gave some securities directly to charities to avoid capital gains taxes on the appreciated values.  But that was a cumbersome procedure, and the opportune time to dispose of securities didn't always coincide with the needs of the charities.

In 2000, Joe joined several other local business leaders in the Milwaukee area and founded the Christian Stewardship Foundation (CSF) as an affiliate of The National Christian Foundation (NCF).  He and Pam opened a CSF Giving Fund.

"Our Giving Fund is so easy to use," exclaims Joe.  "We simply go online and  within ten minutes we can make ten giving recommendations. CSF writes the checks to the charities, collects the receipts, and handles all the paperwork."

"And we're able to give anonymously," adds Pam, "because the grant checks come from CSF.  Our names don't appear unless we want them to.  We sometimes give small gifts with our name attached, but nothing of significance.  We even give anonymously to our church when a larger amount is involved, such as for a building fund.  Giving Fund records are not available to the public, unlike the records of private foundations." 

The DeRosas also appreciate the flexibility and additional giving potential their Giving Fund provides.  It allows them to make contributions whenever they wish during the year and receive current year tax deductions for the full market value of the gifts.  Because a Giving Fund does not incur capital gains tax liabilities when it sells appreciated securities, more money is available for charitable giving.  While awaiting grant recommendations from Joe and Pam, the Giving Fund's assets are invested for additional appreciation.

"A few years ago we wanted to dispose of a piece of real estate and use the proceeds for the Lord's work," says Joe.  "Without the Giving Fund, I don't know how we could have handled that complex transaction.  I suppose we could have gifted the land to a single charity.  Or we could have started our own private foundation, but that would have been expensive and administratively burdensome.   Our Giving Fund allowed us to take a current-year deduction for the value of the land contribution.  After the Fund sold the land, we could take our time making grant recommendations to distribute the proceeds."

As the DeRosas increasingly realized that God had given them gifts so they could give to others, they became increasingly generous stewards of their material possessions.  Then God began to challenge them in other areas of stewardship.

"Giving money is the easy part," observes Pam. "Giving time is much more difficult, because we're all so caught up in our busyness."

"I'm embarrassed to admit it," continues Joe, "but when someone approached us in 1995 about supporting an inner-city ministry in Milwaukee, I said, ‘I'll write checks, but don't call on me to give time.'  Thankfully, God is patient and persistent with us.  When Pam and I saw how that inner-city ministry was meeting needs, we became very involved."

Very involved might be an understatement.  Between 1997 and 2000, Joe devoted about 70 percent of his working hours to the ministry.  He was instrumental in helping it raise $3 million dollars to build a 26,000-square-foot family resource center.

"I'm the world's worst salesman," admits Joe, "and I don't feel comfortable asking people for money.  But God showed me that it's not about me.  He convinced me to just tell the story of the wonderful work this ministry is doing, and leave the results to Him.  He faithfully provided all we needed, often just in the nick of time."

Today both Pam and Joe are personally involved in a number of other local ministries, including a hospital and a Christian school. Pam speaks nationally to women and youth about eating disorders, self-inflicted violence, and the media's influence on our self-image.

"God truly does have a sense of humor," says Pam.  "Joe loves to travel, and when he became a Christian, he fantasized that God would call him to Africa and other exotic places all over the world.  But it turns out that our mission field is within ten minutes of our house!"

In the future, the DeRosas plan to contribute closely held C Corporation and S Corporation stock to their Giving Fund.  "I'm really impressed with the people at CSF and NCF," testifies Joe.  "I have complete confidence that they will expertly handle these innovative gifts.  In fact, it's kind of fun to see how challenging and complex I can make the gifts for the staff at the foundation.  But that's just me; I like to keep things exciting!"