The Finish Line Podcast Michele Dudley, Founder of BraveWorks, on Seeing Others Through Generosity (Ep. 152)
Michele Dudley is the founder of BraveWorks and Restoration Residences, where she has poured her heart into making a Kingdom impact among those who are often overlooked. After starting her career as a CPA, a life-changing mission trip to Burundi opened her eyes to the needs of the global church and set her on a new path of generosity and solidarity with those facing deep suffering.
Michele is an avid learner and her deep curiosity has led her into many creative opportunities for giving. Through BraveWorks and Restoration Residences, Michele has impacted the lives of many trafficked, abused, and incarcerated women, as well as helped families in need transition out of homelessness. A self-identified connector and advocate, Michele is highly integrated in the generosity community and has a passion for helping others give well and invest with a generous heart.
Major Topics Include:
- Finding creative opportunities to give
- Stories of serving and empowering women through BraveWorks
- Being a generous connector
- Committing to community in the generosity space
- Approaching investing from a heart of generosity
- Stewarding investment and philanthropy dollars
- Practical advice to get started in impact investing
- Navigating various levels of engagement and responsibility in generosity
- Encouragement for women to engage in the generosity community
- Trusting God in the messiness of generosity
- Hearing from God in stewardship decision-making
- “I felt like I had basically lived my life ignoring the plight of the suffering.”
- “It’s so important for us to become proximate to people who have different lived experiences than we do.”
- “Whether it’s somewhere across the world or across town, we can have really transformative experiences, even in our own community, but we have to be willing to be uncomfortable and humble and put on a willingness to learn from others.”
- “A lot of times, I had no intentions of starting anything. I just took the next step that the Lord showed me.”
- “There’s something that’s healing when you recognize the struggle people have been through.”
- “It’s really inspiring to be in these spaces where people do have resources but they’re taking the humble perspective of ‘I’ve been entrusted with this, I really want to honor God.’”
- “If I wasn’t in this space where I was continually being challenged, I think it would be easy to just fall into the culture and the ways of the world.”
- “Too often, we only focus on our philanthropy and we don’t think about what we’re doing with our investment dollars, and oftentimes, the investment dollars are undoing the very things that we’re trying to do with our philanthropy. God calls us to steward all of what He’s entrusted to us in a way that honors Him.”
- BraveWorks (formerly Fashion and Compassion)
- Restoration Residences
- Cru
- Compassion International
- ALARM – African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries
- Julie Wilson, President of Women Doing Well (see our past interview here)
- Generous Giving (see our interviews with cofounders Todd Harper and David Wills and CEO, April Chapman)
- Faith Driven Entrepreneur
- Faith Driven Investor
- Faith Driven Foundation Course
- Praxis
- Praxis Capital Fellowship
- The Gathering
- Stewards Not Owners by Dana and Bill Wichterman (see our past interview here)
- Impact Foundation (see our interview with Founder, Aimee Minnich)
- The Table (via Impact Foundation)
- National Christian Foundation (see our interview with President Emeritus, David Wills)
- Infinite Giving
- The Finish Line Community Facebook Group
- The Finish Line Community LinkedIn Group
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