Giving Unlocks the Grip of Greed | Zach Miller, Sam Acho, Jeff Locke, Riccardo Stewart | NFL Players’ Podcast #29 (Copy)
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Money is a tool to pay for the things we want and bless the people we love. NFL players can use their wealth to bless others through giving and sharing.
Listen to today’s episode as the AWM NFL team teaches about the importance of giving.
For questions, you can reach out to Riccardo Stewart at +1 (602) 989-5022.
+ Read the Transcript
Riccardo Stewart (00:12): I'd to welcome you guys back to another episode of the AWM podcast. My name is Riccardo Stewart. I'm your host and I'm joined with my good friends. We've got Jeff Locke, Sam Acho and Zach Miller. Uh, fellas today I want to talk about giving or sharing. One, because we're in the season where we're meeting with a lot of our clients right before the season's really about to kick off and we get to hear that places and the people that they really, really want to bless. And it just got me thinking about just, know, it's always important to give. And you guys have heard me say this once, you heard me say a million times that I believe that giving in itself is great because it unlocks the grip of greed. And... I don't know very many people that are as generous as all of you guys in terms of your time as well as your talent and money. But Sam, you're definitely one of the more generous people. So I'm start with you. Why is giving in itself important to you? Sam Acho (01:04): Giving's important to me because I saw the benefits of giving from an early age. I remember seeing my parents when we would go to church on Sundays, this is back before smartphones, et cetera, and they'd pass around like the offer in deal. And I'd literally see my mom and dad get out money, a couple of dollars, whatever it was, and put it in the offering plate. And that's one way to give, okay, a visual for a little kid of, okay, why are we giving our money? But take it out of a religious context or a church context. Every summer, both mom and dad are doctors. Every summer they would go to Nigeria and they would give up their time, two weeks, three weeks at a time with other doctors, nurses, surgeons, dentists, ophthalmologists, pharmacists, and would go and do free medical mission work for, they would turn down or close their business for a while. They would go and not get paid and just serve people. And they would always come back more full. And so from a young age, I'd see my parents give and I saw what it did to them. And then all of a sudden I got a chance to get a little bit of money or even more time or more abilities and skills and wanted to give those away and saw that man when I give, actually received so much more than I gave. And so as I'm getting older, I want to model that same type of experience to my children as well. Riccardo Stewart (02:17): Good. Zach, as an NFL player, how do you go about thinking and preparing about giving? Zach Miller (02:25): Well, think, I think having clarity on your money is super important here. Cause myself as an NFL player, like I didn't have that. No one advised me or helped me to give the right way. So only money I gave as a player was to family. And so now I have a donor advised fund. So there are, and it helps because then I don't have to know exactly who I'm giving to right then and there to actually be giving or, or, or using, um, kind of my giving plan doesn't have to have like, I got to give it to this person by this date. So that helps. then, like you said, I want to be able to show my kids like how important it is to have giving as a part of the plan. their job is their homework is to go pick who they're like allotment. So six members of the family all have to pick their cause that we're going to give to. And so that's what they do because I want to establish something that I didn't do much as a kid or even in the NFL. Riccardo Stewart (03:23): Jeff, so Zach mentioned it, when most of the time what happens is somebody needs something, I give it. That's what happens with a lot of athletes. Somebody needs something, I give it. Is there a point where it's not the best decision to give money?
Jeff Locke (03:36): Yeah, the analogy I like to think of is anytime you go on a plane, right? They say in case of emergency, put your mask on first before helping others. Right. And that's what you got to think of in your financial plan. Like if you're not squared away with what we've talked about before, your O line, your protective reserve, you're not squared away with taking care of yourself in case the worst case happens, you might not be in a spot at that moment to give. Right. So like, it's got to be part of your total plan. How much you can give when you can give and how to give, which we'll talk about here coming up. Riccardo Stewart (04:11): Good. When I think about giving, I think about it in three ways. I've always taught it this way, time, talent, and treasure. You gotta be able to give your time to people. It's important, and that is giving. And as NFL players, your time is very, very important. So when you give your time to people, that's important. The talent, you're giving your talent completely to the organization that you're at. But a lot of our guys are running camps. A lot of our guys are training. A lot of guys are constantly giving their talents to others, and then their treasure. Because they have so much treasure, I... They wanna give it away, they wanna bless the people around them, and there is a plan for it. And so Zach, you mentioned a donor-advised fund. So not to get to the details of that, but what is the best way to give when it comes to my treasure? Zach Miller (04:56): Well, I mean, if you want to maximize your impact in influence, you'd be a fool not to use the tax code to your advantage. And so you can give 15 to 50 % more money to a cause, a charity, if you're going to use appreciated securities. And so an easy way, like I mentioned, was a donor advised fund. You can benefit on your taxes, which just means you get more of a deduction. So now you can give more. So you're increasing your impact and influence. And then if a donor advised fund isn't the right fit, which it might not be for your cause or who you're trying to impact. Then you go evaluate fiscal sponsorships. And then if that's not it, then then your own foundation, which Sam, you can talk about a little bit, but it's if if you have a certain mission and it doesn't exist elsewhere, then that's when you go from the donor advised fund to your own foundation possibly. But you got to have kind of the budget of giving going forward. How about now and going forward? For that to financially make sense. And the other thing, like if you're not making a ton of money to be able to give and make a huge impact, it's like you mentioned, the guys give time for the camps back into their community that they want to impact or influence. That can be some of the best way because then you get people rallying around you that then donate their money, their capital. So you're actually making an even bigger impact than just your time alone. Riccardo Stewart (06:20): Sam, how often should I give? I mean, should it be something I do once a year, weekly, does it matter? I mean, what kind of advice, wisdom would you be able to share? Sam Acho (06:30): My advice would be, it depends on who you are. And here's what I mean by that. I remember when I was coming to the NFL, I've shared this story before, from a different perspective of people said, hey Sam, you're this and you're that. When you get to the NFL, don't let the money change you. And I said, okay, well, I don't know if it's gonna change me. I've never had this kind of money before, this kind of fame. And in a mentor of mine, said, hey Sam, money and fame, it's not gonna change you. It's just a magnifier. It'll magnify who you already are and what you already do. So what I would say is if you're already a giver by nature. You don't have to wait until you sign a huge contract to say, okay, now I'm going to start giving money, man. Start giving maybe little pieces here and there. Maybe there's a charity you care about. Maybe there's a nonprofit you care about. Maybe it's your time. Start small because as you grow, your giving will grow. And I would say if you're on the other side of the pendulum, the other side of the coin, you're like, I don't really give. I don't really understand the point of it. I would just say, try to get around people who do or maybe understand a little bit more, right? Don't everybody's fun. There's so many tax advantages when it comes to giving. You can actually give more. I think about even not even money per se, but time. In Chicago, when I was with the Bears, we got a chance to build this this food mart in a place that was a liquor store, a place that was actually a food desert, two grocery stores, 17 liquor stores and a half mile radius. Took four years, but that building that was a temporary food mart, we turned it from liquor store to temporary food mart to permanent food mart. So now it's providing real hope in a community. And I got a chance to see it firsthand with my own eyes, step foot on that place that was just a dream, was just a vision. Now it's a reality and I don't know if there are words that can describe that feeling. And so for those who say, I don't really understand the point of giving. I don't want to. I would say just get around people who do show up to your teammates charity event, show up to your teammates football camp, show up to your teammate when they're going in the community. Some of the best players out the Hall of Fame guys, they did stuff on their off days in the community at homeless shelters or hospitals, et cetera. So get around those guys and watch the success that'll follow.
Riccardo Stewart (08:25): That's good. Jeff, wrap us up. When it comes to planning, how should an NFL player do his planning to give and to be generous? Because there's not a client we have that doesn't think that they should give and doesn't want to give. They all want to make an impact. Zach said it best, influence and impact. So how do you plan that?
Jeff Locke (08:47): I think the key thing to think about what you just said is it's a plan. It's not like in the moment someone hits me up and it's time to think about, got to give a bunch of money because I'm stressed and I got to do this. Plan means you've thought about it ahead of time. We spend a lot of time with our clients talking to them like, what is your giving plan for this year? What's your giving plan for next year? And then we might hold you to it when we see things going off plan that's different than what you said because in the heat of the moment, things happen, people ask for things. Doesn't mean you can't do it, right? You just got to think about the actual plan. So we think how much makes sense for you, right? We think how to give, Zach and Sam talked about, does a donor advised fund make sense? Does it actually make more sense to donate stock directly from your accounts? Does it make sense to give from your checking account? And then it's who do I give to? And you should have an idea going into a year or into a couple of years stretch like. What are the causes that I actually care about and who am I willing to give to? And the tough thing is who am I not willing to give to if they do hit me up and I'm in the heat of the moment and something's going on. So we have those conversations all the time with our clients of like, does it actually make sense to give and are we changing our plan? And if we change the plan, it's okay, but we want to have a conversation about it.
Riccardo Stewart (10:10): Be sure to forgive her. Giving is great. It's good for the heart. It's good for the soul. There's influence and there's impact. I'm hearing you say, Jeff, saying yes to be able to give is a great feeling, but also to understand that no is also a complete sentence. So appreciate you guys. If you guys have any questions, any thoughts, or something we said spurred something in your mind, like what's this donor advice fund, we would love to give you guys resources and answer your questions. So please reach out. You can text us at 602-989-5022.