Theresa Barbale
My journey into finance started in an unexpected way. I was a church youth minister, and my husband and I fundraised constantly for underprivileged kids in our area who wanted to go to summer camp and activities. We made sure all the underprivileged kids were served at our church and beyond. Then I started working with an education nonprofit that gave books to schools to help teachers with what they needed. Through consulting, I was helping organizations and constantly saw the need for growing donations - everybody who's a nonprofit and does really good work needed funding. That's when I started working with the team on the idea of charitable gift financing, financing giant gifts to organizations so they could get maximized gifts over a period of time through long-term planning. It was just a natural outgrowth of that work. Now, six years into this field, my husband and I run our consulting firm B&G, which we've been running for six years. We've helped so many nonprofits go from barely existing to financially sound, helping them understand how to develop into organizations that can have a revenue stream and programming that's self-sustaining. We're the only charitable gift financing firm in the country and received a patent for that. I manage an office downtown in Naples on Fifth Avenue, and I balance this with raising six children at home. I get to work with charities who want to receive large gifts, pairing them with donors who want to maximize their tax savings and finance that gift. The charity gets a beautiful financed gift and the donor gets a huge tax deduction - everybody wins. I've done multiple interviews in lots of magazines this year because there are very few women in finance. I think there's only about 20 of us internationally who manage over $50 million in assets under management, and this year we'll probably do $250 million in charitable gift financing. I live in an area with a vibrant social culture of nonprofits and galas, so I get to go out and learn about all their causes, then connect people who want to give more than they can afford right now with financing options. I told someone one day that I'm Santa Claus - I get to give away money all the time.
• Undergrad degree in Sacred Theology from Aubrey University
• Master's Certificate in Youth Outreach from Barrie University
• Double Master's in Catechatolics and Evangelization from Franciscan University
• Legatus
• Goddess Women's Forum
• Napa Guild
• Young Business Professionals
• YCP Young Catholic Professionals
• Chamber of Commerce Naples
• Grace Center (community pregnancy center)
• Eden House (shelter for trafficked women)
What do you attribute your success to?
I would say God first, and follow His plan for yourself and for your family. Don't be scared to have kids and do what you want to do - do you. People have told me that I've made my career while having a family, and I say yes, I've given them everything. It's not one or the other, it is definitely both. I hate when women are told that they can't do both - like, oh, you can't do that to do this. No, no, no, you can. You will have the strength if you're strong enough and you're good enough. Having the right mentors has always been key for me too. I've had some really great ones who just told me I could do anything and showed me that you can be strong and do everything while still having a balance of family life.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
God first, and follow His plan for yourself, for your family. Don't be scared to have kids and do what you want to do - do you. People have told me that I've made my career while having a family, and I said yes, and I've given them everything. It's not one or the other, it is definitely both. I hate when women are told that they can't do both - like, oh, you can't do that to do this. It's like, no, no, no, you can. You will have the strength if you're strong enough and you're good enough.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just try it, see if you're good at it, try it, talk to people, get the right mentors. Mentors have always been key for me and I've had some really great ones. Don't listen to people say you can't do it. Just because it's not done by the average person doesn't mean it shouldn't or couldn't be done, and doesn't mean there's any barrier to entry. There is no barrier to entry, it's just that it's not frequently done. I think the same with women in STEM for a very long time - women were not in STEM. It wasn't because they couldn't, it was because there wasn't the right encouragement. Like, my daughter is going to school and talking to them, and there is no barrier to entry, it's just no one's fostered that. When my daughter went to her school for finance, they said there are zero women in the program and she'd get a scholarship, full ride. So I've been encouraging my daughter to consider finance because of these opportunities.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
As a partner of a charitable finance firm, it is a challenge to decide who we're giving money to and who we're not - qualifying charities. That's always hard. Telling someone we have funds for you or we don't, because at the end of the day, we don't have unlimited money. From our consulting firm side, telling a nonprofit that they need to make drastic cuts or they need to fire someone who may be a family member or something because they're an inadequate fit for their business and holding them back - that's always hard too.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
First is just to do good. Our organization was started to help nonprofits, to help people in need, and to help people save money on taxes. So help charities first, help people cut back on taxes, and give more. We want to see people donate more. There's nothing worse than starting a cause and seeing well-meaning people who really deserve money not be able to be sustainable, and it does take a village to do that. I also believe in putting God first and following His plan for yourself and your family. Family is incredibly important to me - I have six children and I've made my career while having a family and giving them everything. It's not one or the other, it is definitely both.
Locations
Donum
Fifth Avenue, Naples, Naples, FL