Foreign Aid Cuts and Innovative Stewardship with Dana & Bill Wichterman

Good Faith

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How Can We Create Faith-Driven Solutions for a World in Need?

Host Curtis Chang sits down with Dana Wichterman, a former USAID and Department of Commerce development expert, and Bill Wichterman, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, to explore how faith-driven impact investing can help fill the gap left by reduced U.S. government aid to the poor and vulnerable. They unpack practical ways Jesus followers can align their financial resources with their values, support global humanitarian efforts, and drive lasting change. Discover how people of all income levels can turn generosity into powerful, faith-fueled action.

Good Faith Live "Watch Party":

Russell Moore, David French, & Curtis Chang: Trump's First 100 Days

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Timeline of USAID dismantling
An oral history of PEPFAR with Gov. Bill Frist (video)
The Europe cuts foreign aid and development
Department of State to resume PEPFAR programming
Conspiracy theories are fuelling attacks on NGOs and aid workers
The State of Church Giving: Church Trends and Statistics [2025]
I Peter 4:10 (all translations)
2 Corinthians 9:5-15 NLT
Historical Poverty Tables: People and Families:1959 to 2023
Eric Ha (for TIME): Foreign Aid Is Retreating. The Church Must Not
John Porter tells the story of Masaka Creamery (video)
Haiti: Where Has All the Money Gone?
Impact Investing Has Come of Age
Why Christians Should Never Retire by Chris Cagle

Philanthropic and Investable Organizations Mentioned:

TRUSTBRIDGE Global
International Justice Mission
The Gathering of Christians in Philanthropy
Masaka Farms
Impact Foundation
Verdant Frontiers (Scott Friesen)

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 1950, 60% of the world's population lived in extreme poverty.
0:08.0	By 2029%.
0:10.7	However, because the population has grown over that time, there are still 700 million people living in extreme poverty.
0:18.9	So our role isn't done.
0:21.5	Our work isn't done.
0:55.9	Welcome to the Good Faith podcast. I'm your host, Curtis Chang. And the Good Faith podcast is we're friends who follow Jesus, help each other make sense of the world. And one of the painful realities that we have to make sense of that's happening across the world right now is declining assistance to the most poor and vulnerable of the world. And especially the
1:02.9	U.S. portion of that under the Trump administration is getting cut drastically. So this raises
1:09.4	the question. How should Christians respond in this era of lower
1:15.4	government aid to the poor and vulnerable? And to help address this question, I am so glad to have
1:21.1	two friends of mine, Dana and Bill Witterman. Dana Witterman worked at USAID for 15 years before moving into a variety of
1:30.6	leadership roles. And Bill Witterman served as special assistant to President George W. Bush,
1:36.5	and before serving the White House, served in a number of senior staff positions on Capitol Hill.
1:42.6	So both Dana and Bill understand the importance of government
1:47.4	efforts to help the most vulnerable in the world, but they also have a strong vision for how
1:55.2	Christians themselves can step into the gap. And they've recently published a book about Christian philanthropy
2:01.9	entitled, Stewards Not Owners, the Joy of Aligning Your Money with Your Faith. Dana and Bill,
2:09.3	welcome to the Good Faith podcast. Thanks, Curtis. Thanks driving us on. Yeah. Dana, I want to start
2:15.0	with you since you worked at USAID and as Elon Musk said, he was trying to feed USAID to the wood chipper.
2:24.3	Recently, there was a court order blocking that move and then another court order. So it's unclear what's going to happen.
2:31.3	But I think it's probably fear to say if the Trump administration is deeply
2:35.6	committed to eliminating USAID, it probably one way or another is going to get its way.
2:42.1	So fill out the picture for us of what that means. As someone who worked at USAID for a long
	...

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