Johan du Preez SAAD Investments Tree of Life Foundation Impact Investor Faith Driven Finish Line Podcast
Finish Line Podcast Episode 146

Johan du Preez, Impact Investor, on Blending Giving and Investments to Tackle Poverty

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

Johan du Preez is a seasoned South African entrepreneur and investor, and the Founder of SAAD Investment Holdings and the Tree of Life Foundation. Johan began his career path as a pharmacist in his early twenties and spent many years managing pharmacies that needed major turnaround. He then became the CEO of a large healthcare organization before the Spirit led him to start his investment company with a focus on impacting the Kingdom of God.  

Johan brings a unique perspective as a faith-driven leader who channels private equity investment returns into longterm, sustainable generosity through an investment firm contained within a charitable foundation. From leading major corporate turnarounds to pioneering innovative giving platforms in South Africa, Johan’s life and work exemplify the intersection of strategic investing and radical generosity.

What you’ll gain

  • Johan’s early life and faith background
  • How becoming a pharmacist laid the foundations for what he does today
  • Integrating faith into business and money management
  • Strategically operating from the spirit realm in money and business
  • Realizing that money can help build God’s kingdom
  • The story of SAAD and the Tree of Life Foundation
  • What it looks like to let God own your business
  • Transitioning from health care insurance to financial services 
  • The difference between working with God and letting God work through you
  • Taking risks in Kingdom business
  • Depending on God when you don’t know what you’re doing
  • Investments that make an impact through business
  • Weighing “return first” and “impact first” investing
  • Using charitable capital through a donor advised fund
  • The beauty of collective giving
  • Thinking through investing versus giving
  • How to leverage all that you have to be a part of what God’s doing

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.

Start the Game
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot
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

  • “There’s only one way to be strategic, that is to operate in the spiritual realm. Otherwise, you are just reactive and tactical.”
  • “The eternal perspective is ultimately the one that saves you.”
  • “For God to work through you, you have to be dead.”
  • “When you involve God in your business and make it His business and say, ‘I’m just here to work for You,’ then you actually complicate it to a large extent because you had better make sure that you know what the Shareholder wants.”
  • “God is more interested in the character of the individuals that are involved in the company than about the results at the end of the day.”
  • “We are called to take risks for the Kingdom.”
  • “The best decisions I’ve ever made were based on what I did not know.”
  • “Collaboration is everyone exchanging their personal dreams for one larger dream.”

Links from the Show

Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.

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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.
Generosity Profile Image

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