About Kate
Kate Gardner has a passion to spread encouragement and connection for God’s people, especially around abundance. As a “Next-Gen” inheritor, she has close-up experience of wrestling with purpose, identity, and faith in the context of opportunity and resources.
Her love of philanthropy and prayer led her to catalyze Greenhouse Group, a personal ministry that supports over 60 missions teams, a handful of organizations, and many women of God in pursuing their dreams. She seeks to mobilize a new generation of believers, no matter their experience, resource, or time limitations, to live their best lives in light of eternity.
She earned her B.A. in English from Princeton University in 2016, and is currently building a Next-Gen community focused on empowering each other in wisdom and values. She is writing a book about “Investing for Life" and dreams of casting vision around healthy financial independence, creative forms of work, and what it means to be a good steward of one’s whole life.
As an early inheritor of resources, Kate takes what she's been given seriously. Trust Fund Ventures is her latest endeavor to put for-profit resources to work for her Christian values and focus on relational partnership.
Kate's History
The Journey to Trust Fund Ventures
Inheritance
Kate's parents entrusted resources to her at 21. Because of her Dad's investing acumen, and a generational story of stewardship, she was well-provided for and given freedom for her own journey.
Tithing
Kate decided to consecrate her capital to God by giving more than a tenth of the lump-some away to various charities. This was both an act of felt obedience, as well as an unlocking of the joy she feels of sharing resources for good purposes.
Work
Kate felt called to get two traditional job contracts while living in NYC. She built a strong work ethic and treasures what she learned from this season.
Philanthropy
Kate then built her own ministry of giving by focusing on partnering with 60 missionaries and other worthy causes by setting up an informal foundation of philanthropic and spiritual support. She calls this initiative Greenhouse Group: www.greenhousegroup.org
Investing
Now with Trust Fund Ventures, Kate focuses on for-profit investment into missionally-aligned companies alongside of trusted investors. As with her philanthropy, Kate has shifted her mindset around resources from "transactional" to "relational" -- she starts with the people she wants to partner with as the bedrock of the impact she wants to make.