Everyone wants to lend a helping hand – and how many times, as a business owner or CEO, have you personally helped (or “passed the hat” amongst your employees to help) an employee going through a rough time? The Convene podcast is proud to hear from Bryan Green, CEO of Helping Hands Ministries. Bryan will share how the Helping Hands’ family of companies can unlock your ability to help individuals and come alongside you as a CEO, founder, or business leader to set your company apart in today’s challenging talent market.
After the podcast, learn even more about Helping Hand’s CAP (Corporate Assistance Program) in 2 minutes and 9 seconds HERE. Greg and Bryan will give examples of various solutions Helping Hands Ministries offers to take care of companies that take care of people.
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Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Giving Hope With Helping Hands With Bryan Green
Bryan Green in Florida. Welcome to the show. I’m excited that we’re coast to coast, Florida to California.
Thank you for having me, Greg. It’s always good to see you and hear your voice.
You do have the coolest background there with your new office. That’s very appropriate.
Thank you. We’re really excited about the new office, and hopefully, we’ll get some video out to you at some point.
Unlocking Individual Giving: The Genesis Of Helping Hands Ministries
That’ll be good. Bryan, just diving right in, the thing is, as I talk to business leaders around the world, everybody wants to lend a helping hand. Everybody gets blocked when they think, “I cannot help my friend with this and such need because they’re an individual. I can only help an organization. I guess I cannot help that person.” Helping Hands Ministries is a way to unlock that problem. You’ve spent a career in a nonprofit. You have a degree from Nova Southeastern University. I’ve told you you’re in Florida. We’re going to talk about that. Helping Hands was formed 27 years ago. It feels like it was yesterday. Tell us about how it came about.
Quite simply, Helping Hands came about out of a need when the National Christian Foundation was formed by Terry Parker, Ron Blue, and Larry Burkett. Always had a heart for helping individuals. When you look back at the Bible, you’ll see the church was there. Unfortunately, the church no longer provides the type of benevolence that it used to provide.
Terry Parker was being asked over and over by new clients, givers of the National Christian Foundation, “We really like to help this single mom or this young lady going through cancer right now, or a widow.” Terry, being the creator that he is, the creative guy, looked at the codes and said, “You can gift individuals. It’s very specific. There’s a lot of due diligence involved.” The reality is, it’s a very viable option. It just takes rolling up your sleeves and doing a little work. You can qualify individuals as financially needy and provide taxable dollars.
A Greater Way To Give: How Helping Hands Ministries Works
One of your taglines is a greater way to give. Why don’t you tell our audience how it actually works? I’m sure some people out there are like, “Wait, you cannot do that. I got a big hospital bill. My friend cannot send their kid to college. My other friend has cancer, and they don’t have a medical plan.” Talk about how it actually works.
It actually is a greater way to give. How it actually works is someone like you, Greg. A great example would be your next-door neighbor. Bryan, we’ve been neighbors with this great family for the last 30 years. I don’t know where their walk is, but I know where my walk is, and I want to show the hand of Christ. She cannot really afford the chemotherapy or the treatments that she’s receiving right now. There’s a financial need.
I’d say, “Greg, I’ll tell you what, can you get us her contact information? You would provide us with an email or a phone number. We would actually pick up the phone.” One of my project coordinators is up in Georgia. They would reach out and say, “Miss Jane Doe, we’ve become aware of the situation that you’re going through right now. We would love to come alongside and see how we can financially assist you. Would you provide us with X, Y, and Z, some documentation that we need in order to meet IRS requirements?”
Upon receiving that documentation information, the team would do an analysis. Generally speaking, they are approved because whether you have a really incredible insurance rate or not. If you get hit with a significant major medical illness, you really are teetering on the board of financial ruin or bankruptcy, unfortunately. I saw someone sent me an email the other day, and it said, “The government should forgive people who’ve had cancer bills they couldn’t cover, not educational costs because cancer is not a choice.”
“The government should forgive people who've had cancer bills they couldn't cover, not educational costs because cancer is not a choice.” Share on XThat’s profound.
They said, “Bryan, thank God you’re here.” I would say 75% to 80% of the dollars that are distributed from Helping Hands Ministries go directly to pay medical bills, offset medical expenses, healthcare providers, or pharmacy bills.
Got it. Does it have to be cash, or could it be appreciated stock?
That’s where the Helping Hands family of organizations comes into play with a greater way to give. I always share because of the founding fathers of Helping Hands. Helping Hands has been very responsive to the needs of the National Christian Foundation and its givers. National Christian Foundation is as large and successful as they are. They are very focused on doing what it is that they do, and they do that very well, taking in business interests and other things.
However, when some of those opportunities fall outside of their wheelhouse or their sweet spot, as I would say, or they’re prohibited because of their donor-advised sponsorship, Helping Hands has jumped in that space and either created a standalone 501(c)(3) organization purpose for the activities that the giver desires to have that are charitable and we’d like to do have it confined or creating a separate organization to take in a non-caste where business interests. Again, is just outside their wheelhouse, or for one reason or another it’s they’re just not lining up. Again, we just want to compliment and assist them in serving their givers.
Got it. Somebody has a friend in need. What’s the line? A friend in need is a friend indeed, something like that. If somebody has a friend in need, they can do cash or stock or assets, or whatever the case may be. It’s a family of organizations is one of the things you said to me one day, talk about what that means. What is the family company structure?
The structure is that we started with a provision bridge. Provision Bridge Foundation is a donor-advised fund sponsor. It is, I call it a secular philanthropic foundation because we have a Christian foundation with the National Christian Foundation. Provision Bridge is actually the DBA for the foundation. The founding name or legal name is NEMA Foundation. If everyone writes down NEMA and holds it up to a mirror, they’ll see that it’s spelled a man backward.
That’s like the secret menu.
It was one of those situations where I said, “I’m not really creative.” I know we’re not going to call it a Christian foundation, but make no mistake, it’s a Christian foundation run by Christians. We just did not include the religious affiliation in our 1023 filing. It all starts with the donor-advised fund sponsor. It’s very important because end-use organizations like Helping Hands Ministries, which gives individuals, like Helping Hands Charitable, which gives individuals in the philanthropic secular environment, like Helping Hands Support, Inc., that takes in non-cash assets, like Charity Asset Trust that takes in closely held or S Corp stock through our Delaware Trust.
It’s a family of organizations that basically grew, again, from desires, wants, and needs, not only the National Christian Foundation, but community foundations throughout the country. One of my favorites, Greg, is actually the one OC Foundation out in Orange County. They’re a really super philanthropic people-focused foundation. We’ve had the privilege of working with them a little bit as well.
Corporate Compassion: Helping Hands’ Business Assistance Program
There is a corporate assistance program, which the people listening who own businesses, I’m sure, would love to hear about. Can you share?
I’d love to share it. We talk about our God being a creator and always creating, and he doesn’t add. He’s not into addition. He’s into multiplication. Sitting out in Orange County back in 2001, 2002 with a good friend over at the, I cannot think of the foundation’s name over there in Irvine, but we were sitting and talking and just really amazed by the growth of Helping Hands in three years. We grew from $400,000 to a little over $4 million with no marketing, no solicitations, no advertising, just word of mouth. God just grew up in such a communal and viral way like today.
He said, “There has to be a way to help companies because I’m coming out of pocket all the time for my employees. I guess I’ll give them a plug. It was the steadfast companies at Irvine. As importantly, we were able to grow out the corporate assistance program, which is a United Way program. Basically, you create a donor-advised fund with a provision bridge. We have employee payroll deductions as well as the employer, either matching the deductions or starting with a 5 to 1 matching program.
We have bylaws and amendments, where basically we meet with the company. We ask them to assign 1 or 2 people to be the liaison to Helping Hands. Again, we show the bylaws and amendments. What would you like to help with? What are the circumstances? Medical, car repairs, dental, and fire. We try to make it as broad as the company likes, consistent with what the heart of the company is. In many cases, the business owner will say, “I don’t want my employees contributing to that. I just want to fund it.”
I said, “That’s a little bit different. We need to add some 1099, some matching gifts. All these dollars cannot be used for the direct benefit of just your W-2 employees because that would be seen as a benefit that should be taxable to both you and the employees. We have over 200 companies, more than half a million employees, dumping into donor-advised funds, making contributions from payroll. After they’ve received the documents, an application would come in, and the liaison at the company would review it. John Doe’s been here for six months, click.
John Doe has a medical need, click. John Doe needs less than $4,000, which is our annual limit for any employee. Upon meeting that criteria, they would send the application to Helping Hands. Helping Hands would again perform its due diligence, acquiring tax returns and expense reports that we provide. We would do a financial analysis with our team. It would go through an approval process.
Once approved, we would pick up the phone, call Jane Doe, and let them know we have the $4,000 available. Who can we make those checks payable to? In other words, what we also do is we do not hand individuals cash or money or send them checks. What we do is we pay the provider of services and or goods directly so that you have the accountability in place and the security knowing that your dollars were used for the specific purpose for which they were granted.
At Helping Hands Ministries, we pay the provider of goods or services directly—ensuring accountability and giving you confidence that every dollar is used exactly as intended. Share on XThat is really exciting because this happens all the time, where somebody has a need. If I can talk to it from the other side for a minute, sometimes you have an employee who is basically living paycheck to paycheck and they live in a hot state, let’s say like Arizona, it’s 110 degrees, and their air conditioning breaks down and they don’t have any money to pay for a new air conditioner, is that something that Helping Hands could help with?
That is something that helps, yeah.
What happens then is the employer has something that is obviously beneficial and loving and kind towards an employee who is probably more likely to stick around because they’ve been cared for the way Jesus would care for somebody.
Amen. Another amen to that, Greg. What we’re finding with the new, young people coming into the workforce, is they’re looking for a place where they feel a part of the belonging to. We look at the statistics, we know it’s getting a little darker out there, but we have the ability, the opportunity to shed the light of Christ in our workplace. By having the business owner and the employees have the heart of Christ and love, these folks come in and feel part of something bigger than themselves. We feel as though, and I’ve watched the growth of this Worker Assistance Program.
I have to tell you that within the last eight years, I cannot give you the metrics on the growth. What I can tell you is in 2020, Helping Hands Ministry alone was distributing over a million dollars a week to a whole of ease with an average check of $15,000. There was a lot of hurt and a lot of need out there. I think we really were a solution provider. Again, Greg, thank you for giving me the opportunity to share the ministry with your folks, who I know are probably thinking, “I cannot wait to see that 2-minute and 9-second animation.
The new generation entering the workforce is looking for a place where they truly feel a sense of belonging. Share on XReal Stories, Real Impact: Lives Transformed By Helping Hands
There you go. I’m sure you have some stories I’d love you to tell, 1 or 2, whatever God lays on your heart. Here’s a story that I think you might know of, and you might not. One of our board members will just make them anonymous for the moment for the purposes of the broadcast. A board member had a daughter and a married daughter who had a baby that was not born healthy, and the baby needed constant care, and still needs constant care. Helping Hands stepped in by people giving, and really, the giving was able to sustain the family.
Now, this is not a poor family. This is a family that makes a normal income, but when you have tens of thousands of dollars of bills and you’re relatively newly married, there’s no way you could sustain the care that’s necessary for a child who is not healthy. Helping Hands is how they made it. How about a story that you might have to share?
I’m going to share a story that’s really close to my heart, as close to my heart in my situation as yours. It was actually the founder of Helping Hands Ministries, the founder of the national Christian Foundation. Love to tell that story. Terry Parker was not a poor man, but his a single daughter with three children. As he would say, “She’s as poor as a country mouse.” She lives up in the mountains of Northeast Georgia.
She was actually one of the original founders or executive directors of Helping Hands, the year they received $400,000. She had a daughter named Katie. Little Katie was nine years old. She was my son, Connor’s best friend. They were cribmates together. They played together because my wife, Cheryl, was involved with Helping Hands Ministries three years before my introduction to Helping Hands Ministries. It’s been in the family for the last 27 years.
Anyway, Katie was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of nine. It’s that brain cancer that if you don’t receive or if you’re not afflicted by it by age 9 or 10, you’ll never have it. It’s inoperable. It’s right in the stem. I tell the story, or we tell the story, that I made sure that Wendy always had insurance. We also tell the story that, potentially, you can sign anyone’s name on any document as long as they’re aware of it legally.
Terry tells the story that Bryan signed my daughter’s name on the insurance forms to make sure there was insurance. Even though she had insurance, we had hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills for Katie. Unbeknownst to Terry, I had started a fund for Helping Hands Ministries. Basically, I said, “Terry, we’re going to remove you from the board for the next year.” Terry said, “Why?”
I said, “It’s because we cannot have any private inurement or private benefit to the family of any of our board members.” “With all due respect, sir, would you please, did you create a fund for Wendy?” I said, “I certainly did.” I said, “Terry, I hope to have as many best friends as you have. We raised quite a bit of money to make sure that the Seaman family did not have any medical bills.” Terry likes to tell people that he’s been the recipient of Helping Hands Ministries, and that’s not why he formed Helping Hands. That was a tough one.
Final Advice: How Business Leaders Can Get Involved with Helping Hands
When you give or create, it doesn’t mean that the creation you made is not available to you. Way to go. Some have said you’re the GoFundMe of the charitable world. You have had that tagline, “A greater way to give.” I don’t know about those taglines where they came from, but I like to say that it really is real people helping real people to make it through tough times. It’s very refreshing and enlightening to hear what God is doing. What final advice would you have for someone who’s a business leader? They’re saying, “I’m in, what do I do?”
I would highly recommend that you visit www.HHMIN.org. I would look at the 2-minute and 9-second Corporate Assistance Program Animation. I feel really confident that, upon looking at that 95%, roughly 100% of the folks reviewing that were, “I want that, I need that, I’ve got to have that.” We like to say we can have it set up for you within 72 hours if you have an idea of what you really want to do. There’s not a lot of administrative burden or work on your end.
We take that on. I would be remiss not to mention that there is an 8% ministry grant attached to the gifts that are made from this fund, which we like to say $0.92, and every dollar will go directly to the need. We don’t like to be prideful of or proud of anything, but we are proud that we’re able to run our ministries on less than 8% of any dollar that we’re very proud of. I would just recommend that they visit the website or give me a call at 706-499-8183. I’d love to come alongside, assist you in serving your employees.
We’re going to pray your phone rings off the hook and your website does the same thing. Speaking of websites, HHMIN.org. For those of you tuning in who have said, “I’m not sure what Convene is,” we’re a network of thousands of business leaders who are helping each other to build incredible businesses doing excellent work for the kingdom of God based on a biblical platform. You can find out more about us at ConveneNow.com, convene, like get together. I’m really glad, Bryan, that we got a chance to talk about this because I think somebody somewhere who wasn’t going to be helped will be helped because of our conversation. Thanks for coming on the broadcast.
Thank you for having me, and I cannot wait to report back to you the results of your podcast and the number of folks that have been helped. That’ll be great.
Thank you.
