Jesse Casler Krista COO Hope International Generosity Microfinance Jubilee Finish Line Podcast
Finish Line Podcast Episode 140

Jesse and Krista Casler on Catalytic Giving Out of Net Worth

Saving and investing wisely can grow your capacity to give over time, while giving generously now can meet needs and loosen your grip on what you own.

How do you faithfully hold both, preparing for the future without missing what God may be inviting you to do today?


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Meet your guide

Jesse Casler is Chief Operating Officer of HOPE International, where he has served for more than 20 years helping advance Christ-centered microfinance and savings programs in underserved communities around the world. Together with his wife, Krista Casler, he has spent decades exploring what faithful stewardship can look like across marriage, career, family, and finances.

Jesse and Krista share practices that have helped generosity become a joyful part of their life together, including financial accountability with trusted friends, foster care, disciplined saving and investing, donor-advised funds, and conversations about giving from net worth rather than income alone. They also explore how HOPE International approaches poverty holistically and why effective generosity should consider personal, spiritual, social, and material needs.

Their planned “Jubilee” gift of 10 percent of their net worth offers a particularly concrete picture of intentional generosity that requires years of preparation. By the end, you may find yourself thinking more creatively about how every part of your financial life can become an opportunity to steward God’s provision with joy and purpose.

What you’ll gain

  • How to make financial accountability a practical part of stewardship
  • Why generosity can extend beyond giving from your annual income
  • How to prepare intentionally for larger, catalytic gifts
  • What holistic generosity recognizes beyond someone’s material needs
  • How saving and investing can create greater capacity for giving
  • Why creative generosity can become a joyful challenge with God

Inspired? Take your next step

Try the Game of Life Simulator

Step into a four-minute interactive experience and see what unfolds as you decide how to manage your resources.

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Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot

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.

Start the Series

Quotes to Remember

  • Jesse: “Sometimes when we think about poverty, we think about material things like not having enough money. But for some people, poverty is also aloneness.”
  • Jesse: “How can I save as much money as possible and put it to good use to create even more so that I can be generous with the world?”
  • Krista: “Being raised in a pastor’s household, we were very conscious of how our money was spent, but at the same time, living in generous ways.”
  • Krista: “If a group of individuals living in great poverty, all of whom are blind or visually impaired, can talk about their capacity for saving and giving, how can I not also have some capacity for saving and giving?”
  • Jesse: “There’s a role for regular giving that keeps an organization moving, but it can be really impactful when a larger gift can be given to start something new or catalyze something in a much bigger direction.”
  • Jesse: “No matter what your salary is, you can create distance between income and expense. And decisions you make about your expenses become your engine for saving, investing, and giving.”
  • Jesse: “When we turn 50, what if we gave away 10% of our net worth, just our income in that year?”
  • Krista: “There’s joy and fun when you’re being creative in giving. Even in a season when you don’t have much money, you can ask God to help you use what you’ve got.”
  • Krista: “There’s joy in looking at a giving opportunity as a creative challenge to scheme with God.”

Links from the Show

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Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.
Generosity Profile Image
Enter your information below and we’ll send you our free PDF guide to explore the specific adventure you were called into.
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