Gizmo Cares, Inc. sets aside 10% of its gross revenue generated by all divisions to do good in the local neighborhoods and communities.
What is the Kingdom Fund?
The Owners of Gizmo Cares, Inc., Clifton Goodgame, Mark Armstrong, and Leonard Knight believe they are called by God to love everyone and provide for those who can’t care for themselves. The Owner’s believe this so much, they’ve set up Kingdom Funds for every subsidiary of Gizmo Cares, Inc. Anytime one of the companies sells its products or services, a portion of the revenue is deposited into an account that is dedicated to do God’s work here on earth. These funds do not belong to the owners, employees, or members. These funds belong to God. We are merely the custodians charged with doing some good in the world with the dollars.
One of the subsidiaries is Neighborhood Nerds. The owners designed Neighborhood Nerds and it’s Membership model with the purpose of continuously building Kingdom Funds. Each Neighborhood Nerds Member Center is designed to produce $120,000 annually for the Kingdom Fund. So, if we hit our target of 10 Member Centers in Knoxville, each serving 800-1000 Members, $1.2M will be produced annually for the Kingdom Fund. This is why we hope every Nerd decides to own a Neighborhood Nerds Member Center one day. The goal is to have thousands or even tens of thousands of Member Centers across the globe.
Background for Kingdom Fund
The Kingdom Fund is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. We do not require our employees to be Christian or any other faith. We just ask them to understand these funds are set aside for showing care, compassion, and love for everyone without judgement and to provide material needs for those who can’t care for themselves.
Matthew 22:37-40 The Message (MSG)
Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
Matthew 25:31-46 The Message (MSG)
“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’
How it works
Periodically (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually) depending on the volume and growth of the Kingdom Fund, cash distributions will be made to each employee with a few simple instructions/rules to guide their efforts. You will be reminded these funds don’t belong to the Owners, the Company, Management, Employees, or Members. The funds belong to God and you are asked to help show God’s love to someone. These are not marketing/advertising dollars. Our goal isn’t to tell the world about Gizmo Cares or any of our subsidiaries. Our goal is to show God’s love to the world.
Instructions/Rules
We want to be very clear on how the funds you receive will be used so we’ve created a few very simple rules to guide you.
- Do NOT give the Money to a non-profit, church, team, or other organization. We could do that if we wanted. That’s not why we setup the Kingdom Fund.
- Do NOT market or advertise our company. We have dollars for Branding, Marketing, Advertising, Sales. We don’t need to use Kingdom dollars for that.
- Do NOT delay. As GCI grows we will need to distribute Kingdom dollars more often. You have 7 days to use the funds.
- Do something personal, real, intimate. Do feed someone. Do provide shelter for someone. Do provide clothing for someone. Do visit someone.
- Do enjoy the opportunity. Do get excited. Do learn from the experience.
- Do bring back a story to share with everyone. We want to hear what happened.
We want this to be fun and rewarding. We don’t want you to be stressed by this opportunity. If you don’t feel you can do it on your own, feel free to team up with someone else in GCI for a joint venture. If you’re really struggling, just say a prayer (or have someone else say it if that’s not your thing) and we’re sure God will provide you an opportunity.
Remember, not just the poor are in need of God’s love. Think about someone sick who may need a visit and something to brighten their room. Think about an elderly person who is alone and doesn’t have any visitors. Think about those who are not part of the community and may feel sad or ignored right now. Maybe someone who’s new to the area and doesn’t have family here. They could be very wealthy and still need God’s love.
Examples
We want to provide some examples of how you might use the Kingdom Funds provided to you to make people feel loved and valued. We highly recommend you get more creative than this list and share some amazing stories with everyone at GCI.
- Buy some food gift cards and hand them out to anyone you see that might be hungry. Not necessarily homeless. And not necessarily in a chronic situation. Just someone that might be hungry and looks like they need some hope, love, empathy.
- Give the money directly to someone in need. This isn’t super creative but sometimes it’s exactly what’s needed in that moment of that person’s life.
- Buy a jacket, gloves, hat, scarf, etc. and hand them to someone who needs them.
- Use the money to buy some ingredients for a meal or two and take them to people who might be in need. Remember, not just poor but lonely, ignored.