Meet Stephen Kump | Co-Founder and CEO, Charityvest

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephen Kump and we’ve shared our conversation below.

What should our readers know about your business?
I’ve been working on Charityvest, which provides donor advised funds to individuals. If you haven’t heard of Donor Advised Funds, or DAFs for short, they DAFs tax-deductible financial accounts for charitable giving. They allow you to more intentionally manage your giving like you manage other aspects of your financial life. Think of them as a checking account or HSA but for your philanthropy. We like to say that we are helping people be more purposeful in their giving by giving them access to Donor Advised Funds so they can plan and research precisely how they want to donate.

I will say that running a startup like Charityvest is not easy at all. Inertia is always the status quo, but never your friend in a startup. I have a family with three small kids, and navigating keeping the family happy and all the stakeholders – investors, board members, partners, employees, and donors – aligned is a lot of juggling. But, I really believe in what we’re looking to accomplish, and the reason I can put all the demands aside is because I feel a calling to continue developing and growing Charityvest. The idea of purposeful giving and seeing that take hold with the broader community is incredibly fulfilling, and knowing that I am making a difference in how people can give to charities could not be more rewarding!

One thing I think everyone should ask as would-be founder is do you really care about solving the problem you’re working to solve? If for some reason it wasn’t solved, would you be ok with that? If you are, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t jump into this world. If you’re just getting into something for the money, you’ll likely fizzle out. You truly need to have a desire to solve a longstanding issue.

Caring deeply gives you the passion and fuel—some call it grit—to navigate the difficulties of startup life. What causes you to stay up late and answer more emails when you’re tired? That’s the big difference-maker. And it will give your organization authenticity, and efficacy in a way that will eventually become a differentiator to others in the market.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m a nature and history fan, so for a week long trip, I think we’d have to get out of Atlanta and see some of the awesome diversity the state of Georgia has to offer. We’d need to see the mountain trails and vineyards up in North GA, the historic character of my hometown in Columbus, and the Southern charm of Savannah and the Georgia coastline.


Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are many shoutouts to give, and probably too many to name, but I would say my faith, my wife, and my co-founders are where I would start. Let’s begin with faith. Although Charityvest is not a faith-based venture, my faith in Jesus Christ inspired my discovery and exploration of giving. His words, “It is more blessed to give than receive” have had a tremendous impact on the trajectory of my life.

My wife, Katie, is the most giving person I know. She’s taught me what it means to serve, care, and sacrificially give. We also, in a sense, discovered the power Charityvest could have together. We started using a separate checking account as our giving account, putting money aside for giving every month without it being pre-committed to any organization or cause in particular. Having that money set aside changed how we thought about the role of philanthropy in our lives, it made us respond differently to charitable requests from friends, and we started to have richer, more imaginative conversations about what we could do with that money. It made us more purposeful about our giving in a way that was more fun and meaningful for our lives. After that, we knew everyone needed a giving account – and the idea of creating a product to do just that was born.

As for my co-founders, Jon and Ashby. They have helped bring the Charityvest vision to life in ways that I couldn’t have articulated, much less achieved. So much of the value of our product is a credit to their determination and creativity. Working with them everyday helps keep the Charityvest dream of giving everyone a donor advised fund alive, through high points and low points.

Website: https://www.charityvest.org/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/charityvest/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/charityvest

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF_t1dfLf7nMM_nc2uKJ9wQ