Charlotte and Henry Rosenberger reflect at 黑料正能量’s annual donor appreciation banquet on Oct. 10, 2014
These are slightly edited excerpts from reflections offered by leading donors Charlotte and Henry Rosenberger to about 375 people at 黑料正能量鈥檚 annual donor appreciation banquet on Oct. 10, 2014.聽
Parental models of giving
Charlotte: My Graber family participated in building the community of faith and justice for the common good in the rural Mennonite farming community in Wayland, Iowa, where I grew up. As a young child, I remember my mother handing me a coin tied carefully in the corner of a handkerchief for me to put in the offering; she had experienced very hard times growing up during the Great Depression of 1930 in the dustbowl of Nebraska before there was any public assistance for anyone.
Henry: I learned early to save my money in dividend earning investments. My Pop would say, 鈥淚鈥檒l buy you 100 shares of PP&L and you can pay me back as you earn it!鈥� I never had any money to spend because I was always paying back my Pop for all the stock he bought me! A friend in my adult years called that 鈥渃ontrived poverty.鈥�
Charlotte: When Henry and I married and we began to live in his community in Pennsylvania, I discovered that his family lived in a closely observed 鈥渇ish bowl.鈥� The Rosenberger family was considered to be wealthy 鈥� no matter the generation 鈥� in contrast to the community where I had grown up where everyone was more or less in the same class.
Henry: Actually, I inherited a lot from my Pop, but it wasn鈥檛 money. In the first years of our marriage a development officer from EMC suggested we might give 10K to the annual fund. That is probably what my Pop gave. At the time our combined yearly salaries were less than 20K.聽 Clearly EMC had high hopes for us!
Lessons along the way
Charlotte: Henry and I always agreed we should give in priority to our church, but in addition, Henry thought we should give to all the Mennonite endeavors and community organizations that solicited us. We gave what we could. We were often stretched.
Henry: When the company I founded, Rosenberger Cold Storage & Transport, reached a point, we started a foundation with a tithe of the company鈥檚 gross income: Henry & Charlotte Rosenberger Family Foundation. Our children were involved. We received grant requests from many organizations and we tried to please them all. Our giving was broad and mostly unfocused. We experienced the joy of giving as well as being overwhelmed and weary of more requests than we could honor. We learned later that this is called 鈥渃heckbook philanthropy.鈥� We still do some of this because we live in community, but our major gifts follow the mission we have chosen for our philanthropy.
When the company was sold in 1998, the advisor for our foundation suggested we get involved with The Rockefeller Philanthropy Workshop. We learned how to develop a mission statement for our giving and ways to focus our giving for the greatest impact and multiplier effect. We learned it was important to care about the health of the organization we were giving to. We learned that if we focus our giving on places where our convictions and passions are and if we get deeply involved, energy and joy replaces the weariness. This approach has brought us together in our philanthropy; we each have different skills that broaden our discerning process.
The mission that we developed has three legs: (1) Anabaptist education; (2) land stewardship and local food production; (3) peace and justice.
Charlotte: We need to underscore that we have never in our entire lives reached a point at which giving is easy. And, making a commitment is often easier than writing the check. In response to the question 鈥淗ow much is enough?鈥� even John D. Rockefeller replied, 鈥淎 little more.鈥�
On giving even when it hurts
Henry: While Charlotte was on 黑料正能量鈥檚 board from 1991 to 2002, we made two major commitments to the University Commons building fund. We sold a soft pretzel company in 1996 and decided to give the total profit from that sale to 黑料正能量, because they said they really needed that new building. Several years later, after we sold Rosenberger Cold Storage in 1998, we made a second major commitment.
We kept this money invested until 黑料正能量鈥檚 construction would begin. We didn鈥檛 agree on this strategy. This was our dialogue:
Char: 鈥淗enry, we鈥檝e sold the company now. Let鈥檚 pay off our pledges.鈥�
Henry: 鈥淏ut why now?聽 It鈥檚 all invested: Cisco, Enron, Microsoft, World Com, Global Crossing 鈥� our advisor projects we could be worth $60 million in a few years. It will be easier to give it then.鈥�
Char: 鈥淭he investments have already increased amazingly! I think we should give it now! Let鈥檚 pay it and get it finished.鈥�
Henry: 鈥淲e鈥檒l be giving this fixed sum out of a growing portfolio; it鈥檒l be a smaller percentage in two years compared to 20% of our capital now.
Henry: Charlotte was right. The tech bubble crashed and our genius investment advisors looked stunned 鈥� as we all were in 2000 and 2008. We have worked for the past 12 years to fulfill those two major pledges out of a much smaller pot, and we are happy to report that we are almost there. We have never regretted what we have given or pledged to 黑料正能量. We often wish we had given it sooner, when we had more to give.
Why we strongly support 黑料正能量
Charlotte: 黑料正能量 combines so strongly all of our philanthropic passions: peace and justice, Anabaptist education, and land stewardship. Our largest, longest, and earliest gifts have gone to 黑料正能量. And this will continue. 黑料正能量 was, after all, where we met, at a 1965 square dance, held off campus at Oakwood cabin. We received our education here and we still do: In May 2013 we were part of Dorothy Jean Weaver鈥檚 study tour to Israel/Palestine and it changed us profoundly, just as cross-cultural study changes 黑料正能量 students.
Henry: Giving to 黑料正能量 offers the greatest leverage, promise and impact, where the investment has a multiplier effect. We experienced that leverage helping Ted Swartz earn his Arts and Seminary education from 黑料正能量 and seeing him launch his career in drama ministry to the Mennonite church and beyond.
We cannot take along our money, or need any, in the life to come. My Pop used to say to his friends, 鈥淒o some good while you鈥檙e living!鈥� We support 黑料正能量鈥檚 vision for the next century, believing we must teach and share the love and mercy of the Jesus way 鈥� and no longer partition the church and ourselves into safe zones.
Charlotte: We believe that generous giving to 黑料正能量 represents investing into cutting edge world change, developing moral conscience in the world, training 鈥渕overs and shakers鈥� who live as disciples of Jesus Christ incarnate.
We anticipate each issue of Crossroads, witnessing to the impact of our 黑料正能量 alumni careers 鈥� outcomes of the long historic vision of 黑料正能量 leadership. We are very proud of our 黑料正能量 alumni throughout the world, as beacons of faith and hope, as living examples of God鈥檚 love and mercy.
At this age in our lives, we believe that our giving needs to include reducing our net worth, downsizing, investing for future generations, like others did before us. At the end of life, the only wealth we have is what we have given forward to what we believe in.