“Babies Go to Congress” on Capitol Hill

In Fishhoek, South Africa, "Marc and Veronica" hold their newly adopted baby girl and praise God that, after six long years of waiting, He has answered their prayers.

Cradling their daughter, "Jenna", in their arms at the site where she was left by her birth mother, the beaming parents know firsthand the value of the work Baby Safe International is doing.

For Marc and Veronica, the thought of Jenna’s probable fate without Baby Safe’s life-saving innovation is unimaginable. At just a day old, Jenna would likely have been a victim of infanticide—infant exposure—had it not been for the availability of Baby Safe’s deposit box, which empowers desperate mothers with a real choice to preserve the life of their baby.

In South Africa, “baby dumping,” as it is called, is an increasingly common occurrence in both rural and urban areas. Some babies are found in plastic bags in rubbish heaps, others in storm drains, abandoned fields, ditches, alleys, or even in rural homemade toilets.

Some of these children are found, thankfully, alive, while others are found dead—upwards of 500 in the Western Cape of South Africa in 2010 alone—and still more are never found. This sad fact tells us that baby dumping is, by its very nature, widely unreported.

Baby Safe, a nonprofit Heartbeat International affiliate, specifically targets this injustice in its region, just outside of Cape Town, by producing and distributing “baby safes,” where mothers can leave their babies anonymously as a real alternative to the horror of infanticide.

The box has a variety of safety features to insure that proper care will be given to the baby who is left by his or her mother. When a baby’s weight is detected inside the safe, a team of dedicated staff are immediately notified, while a safety backup system assures the baby will be promptly rescued by Baby Safe volunteers.

Through the production and distribution of these boxes, Baby Safe is carefully building a network that enables desperate mothers to choose life for their babies. This network is spreading throughout South Africa, and has broken through the northeastern border to Swaziland.

While its visible efforts are focused on providing an alternative to infanticide for desperate mothers, Baby Safe’s long-term vision is to connect with at-risk women before they reach the point of dumping their babies, with holistic direction that includes Bible studies, parenting classes, nutrition education, and even exercise and dance classes.

To learn more about Baby Safe, and to find out how you can help, visit TheBabySafe.org.

As one of our core financial partners, I  recommend a service that you may not have access to – and one that may be especially relevant in the next few weeks.

As you are no doubt aware, it appears inevitable that certain “tax cuts” (such as the capital gains tax) will expire at the end of this year. There may be great benefits that you and your family – and the charities you support – could experience if you make certain financial decisions BEFORE the end of this year.

If you are interested in learning even more, you need to make a phone call by December 15 (see my final paragraph) to complete your decision making by December 31.

Some of those decisions may involve charitable gifts that not only bless the charities of your choice, but also help you lower your taxes (and some may even supply you with an on-going income stream)!

Until now, Heartbeat has not had a way to help our donors with such decision making. Just this year we have developed a relationship with The Stewardship Foundation, headed by two gentlemen that I have known for several years – men who are strong Christian husbands and fathers who are 100% pro-life. (One of them formerly even worked for a state-wide pro-life organization.)

This Foundation has already helped one of Heartbeat’s donors who wanted to make a gift of a ring to a pro-life organization. Charities, like Heartbeat, are familiar with donations by cash, check, or credit card, but often do not know how to help a donor who wants to give personal property or give in a more “creative way”! Thanks to The Stewardship Foundation, I have learned about MANY ways of giving that I had no idea about!

If you work with The Stewardship Foundation, you could benefit ANY charity you love – your parish or church, your local pregnancy center, a school, a community organization, including Heartbeat! But what charities you decide to benefit is totally up to you!

  The Foundation can help with a variety of ways of giving (and can work with your present attorney or financial advisor if you want), such as:

• • Bequest — a gift of property or cash to an organization under a will
  • Donor Advised Fund — An easy-to-establish, low cost vehicle for charitable giving; you set up the fund with your gift, then advise how that money will be distributed to charities
  • Charitable Remainder Trust — an irrevocable transfer of assets to a trust that pays you income during your lifetime or pays to your beneficiaries at the time of your death
  • Gift Annuity Trust — a charitable donation that reduces taxation and provides you a lifetime income stream
  • Charitable Lead Trust — a trust set up to provide yearly payments to your designated charity
  • Endowments — your gift creates an invested fund owned by a charity, and earnings are used to support general or specific needs of the charity’s mission

Here is one amazing story, included on the Foundation’s website, of a donor who was helped by the Foundation. This donor chose to create a “charitable gift annuity” which is a simple contractual arrangement between the donor and The Stewardship Foundation. The gift annuity pays a guaranteed fixed sum each year for the life of one or more beneficiaries.

Mary Lou Fisher is an 82-year-old widow who over the years turned $150,000 into over $1.5 million in the stock market.

During the economic downturn of 2008, Mary Lou suffered along with other investors and saw her portfolio lose over 30% of its value.

Now concerned about her health, and knowing that she will soon have heavy cash outlays for health care and assisted living, she would like to sell the stock and put the proceeds in cash and debt instruments.

Her accountant told Mary Lou that if she sold the stock and paid $127,500 in capital gains, her net worth would be about $872,500 and earn only about 4% per year. She would likely pay $12,215 in incomes taxes on an income of $34,900, leaving just $22,685 for spendable income. This worries her.

If, however, Mary Lou chose to gift a charity $1,000,000, she could earn over 7%, or about $74,000 per year from a charitable gift annuity. This news brings the peace of mind she needs to counterbalance her health worries, and the opportunity to make a significant charitable gift lifts her spirits.

Mary Lou now feels that her life has taken on a new sense of purpose. She sees her wealth as more than personal security — she sees it as meaningful.

The Stewardship Foundation, a 501(c)(3) investment ministry, describes itself this way: “an ecumenical, Christian-based foundation that works with all faiths that promote respect for human life from conception to natural death, honors traditional families that encourage the full development of men, women, and children who are created in God’s image; and that safeguard religious freedom as a means to embrace our Creator God, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we understand them.”

We invite you to view their website, www.stewardshipworks.org , to learn more.

If you are interested in discussing how the Stewardship Foundation can be of benefit to your long-term planning and offer ways that you can reduce your personal taxes while benefitting Heartbeat or other charities you love, please call Jim Kebe at (614) 800-7985.

Good stewardship is what Heartbeat is about – and we know that YOU also strive to be good stewards of the gifts the Lord has provide you. THANK YOU for saving and changing lives through your gifts to Heartbeat!