Walking with you through your generosity journey

You don’t have to figure this out alone. NCF’s North Texas walks with you through your generosity journey.

Ecosystem spotlight

There’s a particular kind of friendship that has shaped some of history’s most enduring movements. The Clapham Sect – a circle of 19th-century friends including William Wilberforce – didn’t end the slave trade through strategy alone. They did it shoulder-to-shoulder: living in each other’s homes, praying together, challenging each other, and staying the course through decades of resistance.

History is full of these “little knots of friends,” as C.S. Lewis called them – people bound by a common vision and a genuine commitment to one another who accomplished things none of them could have done alone.

We think about that a lot at NCF North Texas.

Because one of the things we hear most often from givers – even experienced, generous, faith-driven givers – is that they feel isolated in the process. They know they want to give well. They sense God’s call. But the questions pile up: Where do I start? What’s the most effective approach? How do I involve my family? Who can I trust to walk with me through the complexity?

The answer, we believe, is never just a tool or a tax strategy. It’s a community. It’s the right people, around you, at every stage of the journey. That’s what NCF’s generosity ecosystem was built to be.

What is the generosity ecosystem?

The National Christian Foundation has spent decades building something that goes far beyond a donor-advised fund. The NCF generosity ecosystem is a network of people, partners, tools, and resources – all organized around one goal: helping you give with clarity, purpose, and lasting Kingdom impact. It’s organized around three stages that every giver moves through, in their own time and in their own way: discern, design, and deploy.

Discern

Before you can give well, you have to know why you give. The discern stage is about slowing down, asking the right questions, and listening for God’s direction. This is where your local NCF North Texas team walks alongside you one-on-one. It’s also where tools like the NCF Giving Strategy™ experience come in – a guided, reflective process designed to help you uncover your giving purpose, identify your passions, and align your resources with your values. It’s not a financial plan. It’s something more personal.

The Discern stage also connects you to a broader community of givers who share your values – through community events, Generous Giving gatherings, peer groups for business owners, and resources like NCF’s Generosity Library.

Design

Once you have clarity on your giving purpose, the design stage helps you build a plan that’s specific to you. No two givers look alike – different assets, different family dynamics, different passions, different complexity. This is where NCF’s charitable planning expertise becomes especially valuable. For many of our givers, the most significant assets aren’t cash – they’re privately held business interests, real estate, appreciated stock, or private equity.

The design stage helps you think creatively about how to give from what you’ve built, not just what you’ve set aside. It’s also where legacy and succession planning come into the conversation — ensuring that what you’ve built for the Kingdom outlasts you.

Deploy

Deploy is where the plan becomes action. Your NCF Giving Fund (donor-advised fund) is the primary vehicle here – giving you the flexibility to contribute assets, recommend grants to the causes you love, and track your impact over time.

But the deploy stage is bigger than a Giving Fund. It includes access to international giving through TrustBridge Global, collaborative giving opportunities like local giving circles, and connection to cause experts who can help you understand the needs in the communities you care about most.

What it looks like in practice

The ecosystem isn’t abstract. It shows up in real stories, with real people, finding their way forward:

Don and Sueanne Campionopens in a new tab

When a family connection to a hospital in Nigeria prompted the Campions to give internationally, the path forward was complex. NCF connected them with TrustBridge Global Foundation, which gave them the structure and support to give safely and effectively. Today, that hospital serves thousands of patients each year.

StrikeForce Givingopens in a new tab

After learning about giving circles through NCF ministry partner Women Doing Well, a group of women in South Florida launched StrikeForce Giving – the first Christian women’s giving circle in their region. To date, they’ve given away more than $2 million together.

Karrie and Robert Bloomquistopens in a new tab

When the Bloomquists wanted to make larger, tax-deductible gifts in support of The Chosen, NCF’s ecosystem – in partnership with Impact Foundation – made it possible. “Through NCF’s ecosystem of like-minded ministry partners, we were able to easily invest charitable funds in this venture,” Robert says.

Three very different situations. Three very different needs. One ecosystem that had the right connection for each.

How NCF North Texas walks with you locally

The national ecosystem is powerful. But what makes it personally useful is having a local team who knows you, knows your community, and can translate all of it into something specific to your situation.

That’s what we do at NCF North Texas through our Giving Community. When you engage with us, here’s how the journey typically unfolds:

We start by understanding where you are. An initial conversation helps us set up your giving profile, walk through a spiritual discernment exercise, and review your giving history together. There’s no pressure and no sales pitch. It’s simply a conversation about where God has you and where He might be calling you to go.

From there, we work alongside you to discern the path forward and build a giving plan that reflects your values, your passions, and your unique situation. You’ll have regular check-ins, access to expert support, and connection to the broader generosity community.

Together, we execute the plan – watching as God uses your generosity for Kingdom purposes. This is the part our team finds most meaningful: seeing the good work take root.

A closing word

C.S. Lewis believed that the most significant creative and redemptive work in history didn’t happen through lone individuals. It happened through small groups of faithful friends, bound together by a common vision and a genuine commitment to one another.

We believe the same is true of generosity.

Your giving journey was never meant to be a solo effort. It was designed to be walked in community — with people who share your values, ask the hard questions alongside you, and help you stay the course when it gets complicated. That’s what the NCF generosity ecosystem makes possible. And it’s what we get to do every day at NCF North Texas.

If you’re curious about where you are in your giving journey – or if you’ve been sitting on a question you haven’t quite known who to ask – we’d love to have that conversation. Reach out to the NCF North Texas team. There’s no obligation, no agenda, and no complexity too great. Just a team of people who care deeply about helping you walk faithfully with what God has entrusted to you.

References & further reading

• Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves. Harvest Books, 1971.
• Tomkins, Stephen. The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce’s Circle Transformed Britain. Lion Hudson, 2010.
• Gathro, Richard. “William Wilberforce and His Circle of Friends.” C.S. Lewis Institute. 2001.
• Cate, Wesley. “Circle of Instigators: On Intentional Community.” Praxis. April 17, 2026.
• Dolinger, Sheila. “How a Generosity Ecosystem Can Support Your Giving.” NCF. May 4, 2026. ncfgiving.com
• NCF. “A Generosity Ecosystem to Help You Discern, Design, and Deploy Your Gifts.” March 18, 2025. ncfgiving.com
• NCF. Campion, Bloomquist, and StrikeForce Giving stories. ncfgiving.com/stories

Connect with us today to learn more!