Rachel McDonough Financial Advising Wes Lyons Eagle Venture Fund Impact Investing Human Trafficking Finish Line Podcast

Finish Line Podcast Episode 121

Rachel McDonough and Wes Lyons on How Investors are Taking Down Human Trafficking

You want to steward God’s resources faithfully. But questions about generosity, calling, and impact are rarely simple.

In this conversation, you’ll hear from someone who has walked through these kinds of questions and learned along the way. Listen for the next step God may be inviting you to take.

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Meet your guide

Rachel McDonough, an experienced financial advisor, was raised in a missionary family in Kenya. At a young age, Rachel had a deeply impactful encounter with poverty in Africa which led her into an unexpected calling as a financial advisor. Today, Rachel has a particular interest in impact investing and strives to help others align their hearts and finances in taking risks for Kingdom impact.

Wes Lyons, General Partner at Eagle Venture Fund, was also raised in a missionary home and felt called into financial advising. While leading a military deployment, Wes saw firsthand the evils of human trafficking and the horrific treatment of children. He now leads the Eagle Freedom Fund, a venture capital fund dedicated to investing in companies that combat human trafficking and slavery through scalable business models. This groundbreaking model is shaking up the human trafficking global network by exposing the trafficking supply chain and placing heavy market pressure on the trafficking ecosystem.

What you’ll gain

Connecting financial planning with the work of the Kingdom
The purpose of stewardship
Blurring the lines between giving and investing with a head-and-heart approach
Break the engines of the human trafficking machine through economic pressure
Having both great impact and a great financial return
An achievable goal to end human trafficking
Viewing risk and return as a faithful steward

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Inspired? Learn how to partner with ministries well.

A compelling ministry story can inspire you to respond. But wise partnership often begins with better questions.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Focus

What is the ministry really seeking to restore?

Learn to look beyond visible needs toward people, context, relationships, and flourishing.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Fruitfulness

How do you recognize meaningful impact?

Consider how ministries learn, evaluate their work, and pursue lasting change.

Applied Generosity Intervention Partnership Faithfulness

What does genuine ministry partnership look like?

Explore how to foster trust, alignment, and shared mission in your giving.

In our Intervention Series on the Applied Generosity Podcast, we’ll help you become a more thoughtful, discerning, and faithful partner.

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Quotes to Remember

Rachel: “I started to realize that worship and investing could go hand-in-hand.”
Wes: “I think sometimes when we’re living in the American Church, the evil and the darkness can feel very far away, and I just got smacked in the face with it. So that started informing how we do our impact investing.”
Rachel: “I did nothing to deserve the position I was born into.”
Rachel: “There is both an opportunity and a responsibility to be a Christ follower who is stewarding resources that we know rightfully belong to the King, and to do it in a way that aligns with His values, and His heart is for the poor.”
Rachel: “Human trafficking is too big of a problem to solve without business. Business needs to be part of the solution for it.”
Rachel: “God created us as holistic beings with a head and a heart. We get better outcomes in our giving and our investing when we take a head-and-heart approach to both.”
Wes: “Our dream is that within 10 years we would have our first day in anybody’s lifetime when we didn’t lose the fight. And that would be the day when human trafficking started to go down.”
Rachel: “I’m going to choose to willingly embrace risk for the sake of love and for the sake of sons, daughters, and image bearers set free.”
Wes: “Christians should be the ones who are ready to take risks on behalf of the vulnerable.”

Links from the Show

Bible References from the Show

Joel 3:10 | I Am A Warrior

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

Galatians 6:9 | Don’t Give Up

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

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