Ever wonder what IKEA manuals and solving world problems have in common? One thing: they both start with a single step. Meet Suzanne Daniel, whose journey from wanting to be a vet to transforming lives in Haiti began with a single conversation over lunch. Join us for our final episode to learn why taking that first step might be easier than you think. The world's greatest problems are waiting. Are you ready?
In this episode, we explore how solving major global challenges doesn't always require grand gestures or massive resources—it starts with taking the first step. Through Suzanne Daniel's remarkable journey, we learn how small beginnings can lead to significant impact.
"The spirit is working while we're sleeping." - Suzanne Daniel
"These founders didn't start companies because they love business. They started their companies because they loved helping people and employing people and growing opportunity for people." - Suzanne Daniel
Justin Forman [00:00:06] Act one. Every story starts with the step. The longest instruction manual for a single piece of Ikea furniture is 38 pages. I tell you, that's a bed frame at eight different pieces, 27 different kinds of fasteners. And as always, on page one of the Ikea instruction manuals, two smiling cartoon builders seem to have no trouble at all.
Yet, to many of us, building a piece of furniture is daunting, but in no way compares to the formidable tasks and topics we've covered on this podcast so far. Tech addiction, sexual brokenness, joblessness, gospel, poverty. We are, after all, solving the world's greatest problems, not the easiest ones. And yet these problems do have something in common with every other problem, even something in common with furniture instruction manuals. They have a first step, a place to start, an opening into the process, the journey that allows us to move forward towards an end goal.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Solving the World's Greatest Problems. My name is Justin Form, a co-founder and president. Faith Driven Movements. Over the past 20 years, serving entrepreneurs and investors, I've seen how you are uniquely wired to solve problems through building, investing, and giving.
As entrepreneurs and investors were often drawn to successes big stories of people who've made it. Elon Musk catching rocket ships or Mark Zuckerberg buying Instagram for $1 billion or drawn to the faith leaders that the largest impact, whether it's William Wilberforce fighting to abolish slavery or other Christians, have started the first large scale hospitals. These are huge ideas, huge movement, big and results. And while they can feel really far away, the truth is they all start in the exact same place in the moment before someone decided to take a step. And even the leap, just a first step. And that's where we're starting today by telling you the story of someone who just took one step and then another after that. Solving the world's greatest problems has to start somewhere. Honestly, it's right here.
Justin Forman [00:02:28] Act two. Suzanne Daniel.
Suzanne Daniel [00:02:31] We grew up in New Jersey. My dad worked for a Bank of Philadelphia National Bank and had a very, very normal middle class upbringing. My parents were from Oklahoma, so they were the first generation living on the East Coast. I had a brother who's about two and a half years younger than me, and we just grew up normal ride our bikes, the swim team practice and walking to the bus stop and really quite unremarkable as far as a childhood goes.
Justin Forman [00:03:00] That's Suzanne Daniel and her upbringing, as she said, was pretty normal today. Suzanne is the president of the Pilgrim Foundation, which partners with over 50 organizations across Africa in places like Haiti, China and in the U.S., supporting the most marginalized people, groups with education, health and economic empowerment. She's investing with the impact top of mind. But if you hear that and think, I couldn't be me. Well, so did Suzanne.
Suzanne Daniel [00:03:28] I wanted to be a veterinarian. That was my first career. So I started working at a young age with animals and working in vet hospitals. And I would often come upon cases that were really at the edge of treatment because they would run out of money or the client couldn't afford to do the surgery and animals would be put to sleep. And I would come home crying to my parents and just lament that people had to make such horrible decisions based on finances. So I was always asking, you know, could we just give them $100? Could we do this? Could we do that? Or a friend going through hard times. I was always looking for a way for finances to fix a problem for somebody. So much so that he put me on a giving budget as a middle school kid.
Justin Forman [00:04:11] Over the course of her young life and into adulthood, Suzanne developed a pattern of generosity. It wasn't a one time thing for her. It was a habit, an impulse. And it's just that that led to what may otherwise be considered an unusual professional journey.
Suzanne Daniel [00:04:28] I had just graduated at Ohio State with a master's in physiology, so it wasn't like I was being trained in business or philanthropy or nonprofit management or anything. I was I had been on a track to go to vet school. So when I didn't do that, I got married. We had a baby. We moved back to the area in Pennsylvania that my parents lived, and I was just raising a baby and I was able to stay home and my husband was working as a vet. Decided to marry one instead of becoming one.
And my dad, I think we were out to lunch and he said, Would you want to help me give money away? And I was I couldn't say yes fast enough. I was like, What are you talking about? And he said, Well, I've been advised by our lawyers to start a foundation. I didn't even know what a foundation was. So the way I understood it and I think it's still true today, he started that as a tax shelter. But he was a very generous person, so it made sense to have a vehicle like that to make sure that you had control over your wealth and it wasn't all going to be sucked out in tax payments when you're gone.
So he started it with really no intention other than to give it away. He was very strategic about it. He never wanted me to go over the 5% rule. I had to bargain for 5.5 because he really taught me he was an investor all the way through and through. He taught me about returns. And if you want to keep this going, you can't spend more than you're making. And so he held me to it. I would negotiate. He held me to it. He was really firm about that. I would say over 15 years we built that together and there was never really a strategy or an outcome we were looking for.
Justin Forman [00:06:05] Think about that for a second. There was never really a strategy or an outcome. We were looking for. To some, that sounds like a recipe for disaster without a destination of the mind. Is is it really worth starting the journey? But that's not all there is to it sometimes. Maybe you have. Most of the time. Faithfulness starts with doing one thing today and trusting God to handle the countless things that will come after. Sure the final solution to world's greatest problems may be really big and really far away. That first step towards the solution is somewhere right here, right where we are acknowledging and acting on the first steps God puts in front of us is exactly our call today. And as Suzanne found out, when God starts you down a path you follow, there's always going to be something unexpected.
Suzanne Daniel [00:06:54] And so we started a scholarship fund and started supporting some of the kids that we had met in an orphanage to go to college and that grew into the bridge scholarship. And we put 20 kids a year through college in Haiti. So because of that program I was visiting there often, I had friends there, I had relationships.
And there was one day I was sitting at lunch and a friend invited me to go visit a factory, which I was like, Sure, time to kill. It's 150 degrees. Where else would I rather be than in a Haitian factory? So we walked into a place and I was blown away. It was a sunny solar powered, female led manufacturing facility, the farthest thing from a sweatshop you could have imagined. There was joy, there was music. There's people singing. They were making shoes. And I had tracked with this company when they were a nonprofit and they were making shoes in a little stand on the side of the road and employing Haitians. So they had work to do and could feed their families. And they were expanding. They were keeping the nonprofit, but they were growing also a for profit enterprise. So I went to that grand opening. It was blown away, and that was the first time I ever asked, How can I invest in this?
Justin Forman [00:08:09] It's actually a simple question How can I invest that openness, that willingness to get involved? That's in all of us. It's God's way of using us as his hands and feet in the world. Despite any inadequacies we may feel.
Suzanne Daniel [00:08:25] Growing up, I wanted no part of the investment dialog. My dad was so generous he would invite me to investment meetings. He would set me at the table with the men in suits, and I had no jargon, no lingo, no understanding. But he really wanted to be in a grow my education because he knew that I would be managing wealth at some point. But I was talk to the hand, unfortunately.
So I realized I had no language to even have this conversation. So it was rattling around in my brain. The next morning I go out for my coffee and the founder of the company comes out of her hotel room, bleary eyed, pre coffee. And I grabbed her and said, Can I talk to you about your company? And she said, Let me get coffee. And came back. And we sat and I said, This is amazing what you're doing. Do you need money? And she said, Yes. And I said, I run a foundation. How do I do that? And we both just stared at each other and she said, I have no idea.
Justin Forman [00:09:20] Don't worry, her story doesn't end there. But again, at this moment, this is where I hope you see some of yourself in Suzanne. She was afraid of not knowing, not feeling uncertain, and maybe even a little insecure. We all feel that way. She didn't let any of it stop her.
Suzanne Daniel [00:09:37] So it took about a year. Connections that I had made at the gathering connected me with Impact Foundation. And I had that first conversation with Amy Minnick about how you get charitable assets from a foundation to a for profit business. She worked with Jimmy, the Haitian company, which means two hands in French. Worked with them to figure out the strategy and the documentation that they needed to make that happen. And after about a year and a half, we became the first investor in the. We brought in two more people to invest and for the last six years have been navigating the challenge of Haiti. They have kept over 30 employees employed. Their kids are able to go to school as a result.
So that was the first experience I had. And when I saw the impact, I realized this is something I got to keep doing. But I also realized the amount of time it took out of grantmaking to do that. I couldn't keep doing individual relationships like that. They were like wild cats that you just had to chase around the room and try and figure out what they needed. And these founders didn't start companies because they love business. They started their companies because they loved helping people and employing people and growing opportunity for people. But nobody has an MBA when they step into something like this in a developing country.
So when I realized I wanted to do this, I had to get educated. I had to figure out how to hold these conversations, how to understand structure and jargon around business investment. So that's when I plugged in the Faith Driven Investor and just started attending every single thing I could. In one breakout room, Henry popped in and he said, Suzanne, you're here every single time. And I was like, Henry, I'm going to school. I got to learn how to do this. There's too many vulnerable companies out there that need the investment dollars that I have, and I'm the only thing in the way. I just don't know how to do it.
And so we grew relationships and partnerships that were able to help with that. I did a few more of those, and then I realized I needed to start looking at a fund because it was too much to manage. The first one I found was talent ten, 15 minutes from my house, ironically. So that gave me the ability to just make the investment and then walk away and know that it was being stewarded well. And they were investing in the types of early stage businesses that I wanted to be a part of. And then the bigger question was, well, what's the rest of the foundation invested in? What's the 95% invested in? And that's when I felt like it got serious.
Justin Forman [00:12:11] The funny thing about Suzanne's story is that even when it got serious, it didn't look like you might expect she did stop everything and move to the other side of the world. She didn't sell her home to have more money to give away. Those are wonderful things, Big things. But the reality is, with all the people who are involved in solving the world's greatest problems, it's the combined steady faithfulness of many that God is pulling together to create more of an impact. And the reality is those people look a whole lot like this.
Suzanne Daniel [00:12:43] I love to say that the spirit is working while we're sleeping. And I say that often to younger moms. I've been on this foundation journey and philanthropy journey while raising four children, and he let me do it. There was a lot of messages sent at red lights and stop signs. And while I'm throwing Cheerios in the back of the car and somehow out of that, a college program and Haiti sprung up like, that's that wasn't me. That was the Holy Spirit.
So I just I have to often take off that burden of that charge that the Lord has given me. It feels like a lot sometimes. But when I look back and reflect, I realize that he has been working a lot, been sleeping. So he's accomplished great things with minimal talent time from me. And I just believe that he's going to keep doing that. And especially in the investment scenarios, he's going to keep bringing me opportunities to do his calling. We don't have to. And I fought myself all the time. You don't have to strive. He will bring it to you and just believes that he will.
We haven't ever had a team. It's always been me and a board and occasional employee. A little bit of support here and there. If I didn't want to learn graphic design, I hired a graphic designer. Just these little pieces. But the Holy Spirit has been so faithful. Jesus has led through and through. And I realized the other day, we have three grown children and one still in middle school. And I looked up suddenly and realized that I've raised three incredibly generous children. I want to try and get this sentence out. What's the trick? My hope for our kids has always been that they would follow the Lord and that they would be generous. And I'm watching that walk out in their lives, and I couldn't be more grateful to the Lord and the way he's led our family.
Justin Forman [00:14:44] The next question is a simple and very difficult one for all of us to answer. Where is the Lord leading? What is the problem he's calling you to solve? What's happening in your family, your neighborhood, your community, your city, your country that God has prepared you uniquely for? He has a role for you to play, a problem for you to solve, a wrong to make wrong. But it's up to you to take the first step.
Justin Forman [00:15:18] Act three Build, Invest, Give.
Justin Forman [00:15:24] From the beginning of this podcast series, we've been honest. The team at solving the World's greatest problems has a ridiculously audacious thesis. We believe that Christians have the power to influence the entire world in unique ways, by the way that we might be called to build, invest and give. This is the big idea. When you see a podcast series with the title Solving the World's Greatest Problems, it's normal to think we're naive, maybe even a little crazy.
But here's what we've discovered through the stories like Sebastian and countless others, the size of the problem shouldn't scare us. Think about it. Suzanne didn't start with a master plan to transform Haiti's economy. She started by saying yes to her father's simple question about helping give money away. She didn't even know what a foundation was at the time. That's how God often works. He doesn't usually reveal the entire staircase, just the next step. When Christians step up in faith, whether through building, investing or giving, God shows up in extraordinary ways. Not because we're extraordinary ourselves, but because he is.
Suzanne is one of many individuals who thought the same thing and acted upon a desire to see their world change for God's glory. The key is she acted. We go to our website. You can see hundreds of examples of people who are solving the world's greatest problem in a global and global scale. Some people are participating in this work at building faith driven businesses, and others are using their capital to invest and give. The point here isn't about one of those three above the others or create some spiritual caste system. The point is to see how each of these can work together. Like three unique legs of the same store. Each of them are needed in the church's fight against darkness, and they each play a very distinct role.
If you're still not sure where to get involved or where to start, we encourage you to visit the Solving the World's Greatest problems.org website. Check out the stories of faithful men and women who took their first step and their second and their third, and be encouraged by the journey that God put in front of them. You can also explore a curated list of effective organizations that we've put together where you might be able to take some of those first steps. Listen to the Stirring the Holy Spirit as you digest those stories. Pay attention to a word from him or guidance toward a specific problem or organization. We firmly believe that if you're listening to this, God has planted something in you. The Seed of a Solution.
There are so many resources we want to push you toward, but the truth is that we can't take the first step for you. You get to listen to the end of this episode, start your next podcast, or maybe you'll switch to music, or maybe you'll continue your drive in silence. Whatever. Follow. This is ultimately out of our hands. But know that the moment you're experiencing the inkling of a desire to do something more than just listen to a podcast, that's a moment that this team has collectively been praying for.
We've been asking God to see through the hearts of his faithful stewards to do the work He has prepared for them. There are hundreds and thousands of people running this race. Don't run it alone. Come with us. Join us as we destroy and overthrow the darkness while building and planting redemptive we not on our own power, but on God.
It's tempting to be overwhelmed by all the problems that need to be solved. Trust us. We know. We stare them in the face, the depth, the detail, the villains, the darkness that is staring back at us. But all you need to do is pick one. Then ask God what's next? What's the first step? All he's asking you do is start somewhere. And that somewhere might be right here.