Heartache Spawns A New Venture Capital Company
Erik Fast’s work with impact investing, which places a strong emphasis on companies that have a high Kingdom impact, is not surprising when you learn about his background and heavenly mindset.
A Longing for Heaven
On a Wednesday evening in the spring of 2004, Erik was driving from his work as a fundraiser at the University of Portland to Athey Creek Middle School in West Linn, Oregon, the location his churched used as a meeting place for its Sunday services and Wednesday night Bible study. On this particular afternoon when it seemed like everyone was either out mowing their lawns or running in the warm sunshine, the desire to run hit Erik deep in his core. The only problem was that Erik hadn’t run – he hadn’t walked or even stood up on his own – in nine years. Erik had been paralyzed in an ATV accident on his family farm in 1995 when he was just 16 years old.
“I had greatly enjoyed track and cross country before that accident,” Erik says. “Afterward, I had always been grateful that the Lord had mercifully taken away the desire to run. Not that I didn’t get out and push my wheelchair or workout in the gym. But that day – and that desire – was different. I intensely felt the need to run, but I knew that I could not.”
Erik arrived early to set up for the Bible study, which would be attended by several hundred people that Wednesday night. He was a deacon in the church, and all of the deacons helped setting up chairs, the sound system, and turning middle school classrooms into nursery rooms through grade school classes. Before the deacons huddled and prayed to begin their work, Erik wiped away his tears. He didn’t want to be seen crying, and then after their prayer he went to work setting up a nursery room by himself.
“In that room, I cried out to the Lord and asked Him to either fulfill my desire to run, or to take it away,” Erik says. “I just didn’t think I could live with such a burning unfulfilled desire. I didn’t see a third option.”
At that moment, a woman Erik recognized as the mother of several children he taught in preschool Sunday school classes walked up to him and asked if she could share with him. She said she had never shared a vision with anyone else and told Erik she didn’t know how long he had been in a wheelchair, or if what she had to share would even mean anything to him. She said she had been fasting and praying all day and she felt like she would be disobedient if she didn’t share with me at that moment.
“I didn’t know this woman’s name, and she was crying as she told me this,” Erik says. “I had just been crying harder than I had in ages. I felt awkward but listened. She told me that she had a vision of me running in Heaven, and that my desire to run would be completely fulfilled in Heaven. I was so shocked that I couldn’t say anything. In that moment, in a mere instant, the Lord shifted my desire to run into a lifetime of longing for Heaven.”
Treasures in Heaven
In September of 2009, a beautiful young single mom came to the church homegroup that met at Erik’s house, and she and Erik were instantly attracted to each other, especially their shared Heavenly mindset. Erik married Krista in the spring of 2010 and became a stepdad to Kaylee and Gavin. Their family life was full and enjoyable, but Erik and Krista both felt that they heard from the Lord that they would raise two other children. Because of Erik’s paralysis, however, they struggled to get pregnant.
After investigating medical infertility interventions, Erik and Krista discounted in vitro fertilization (IVF) because of the high number of embryos – little children in their smallest form - regularly created, then unused and subsequently frozen, during the IVF procedure. After disappointingly researching other fertility options, they started looking into adoption.
“We were praying and fasting – and spending time online researching adoption options – when we stumbled across embryo adoption,” they share. “We instantly knew that the Lord had opened this door to us.”
Embryo adoption is basically adopting babies that have been previously conceived and subsequently frozen during the IVF process. Krista and Erik were excited that with embryo adoption Krista would be able to carry and give birth to an adopted baby, even though the baby would not be genetically related to them. After more prayer and lots of phone calls, they located a fertility clinic in Portland that would help them with embryo adoption. In 2013, Ashley Elizabeth was born. She had been conceived before Erik and Krista had ever even met. In 2016, Krista and Erik adopted Kristin Rose as an embryo and she was born in 2017, and the calling that Erik and Krista felt to raise two more children was in motion.
Embryo adoption is not that simple, and Erik and Krista had learned the hard way. Staring in 2012, each time they tried embryo adoption they received embryos in sets of two or three. Over the course of four years, they adopted and received twenty-two other babies that were between three and five days of development that did not implant into Krista’s womb, or that did implant and later were miscarried.
“The IVF doctor we were working with to do these embryo adoptions was surprised that we kept coming back and trying again and again – especially after so many painful miscarriages,” they explain. “We had faith that the Lord was leading us down this road, and we were also aware that we were giving these little children a chance at life and that the Lord was safely depositing them in Heaven without them having to endure the trials of this life. Each time we miscarried, or the babies failed to implant, we felt that we had additional treasures in Heaven. The process increased our faith and our focus on Heaven.”
Using Talents for the Greatest Return
Since 2002, Erik has raised approximately $50 million in charitable gifts and grants from foundations, government agencies, and individuals for several different colleges and universities he has worked for. For over ten years through his volunteer and paid work speaking at conferences for fundraisers, Erik also coached hundreds of other college and university development officers about the intricacies of securing grant dollars, measuring impact, developing plans to sustain grant funded projects, and maintaining relationships with donors. As he had for most of his career, he was also helping other ministries and organizations raise funds in his spare time.
Erik was first exposed to business as mission when he met the founder of a company that was hiring formerly trafficked women in an Asian country to produce fly fishing products. These women were being paid well, the company had interest in its product from big box retailers, and most of all, the company was able to share the Gospel with their employees in the country they were working in – a country closed to the Gospel. Erik provided pro bono fundraising counsel to this company, and after doing so, he met several other business as mission companies who also requested such help.
After contemplating the opportunities with these companies, he realized that a financial investment into a portfolio of such companies could provide a strong financial return, and these investments could have a spectacular Kingdom impact, perhaps even greater than the impact of donations to some charitable organizations with similar goals.
Erik soon realized that raising funds for a portfolio of Kingdom-minded business as mission companies could be the greatest use of his talents and expertise. He began researching to see if there were any such impact investment funds that were investing venture capital into portfolios of companies that had Kingdom-minded missions – but he didn’t find much like what he saw the potential for.
After a great deal of prayer and an alignment of advice from trusted advisors, Erik quit his job to build such an investment fund. The team Erik has put together to assist him with this endeavor is a dream team of individuals advisors and partner organizations with a great deal of expertise in impact investing (including outsourcing fund administration to the same fund administrator that Sovereign’s Capital uses, sourcing due diligence support from a top business consulting service, building a network of potential co-investors that includes the Maclellan Foundation, and partnering with the Impact Foundation).
“What I’m most excited about is the companies I’ve been able to work with,” Erik says. “I’m now connected with companies that are doing things like using their businesses as platforms for intentionally sharing the Gospel in countries hostile to Christianity, or hiring hundreds of formerly sex-trafficked women and caring for them well in the name of Jesus, or having massive impacts through sharing Biblical truth through media.”
“My desire is to use my talents I have for the greatest return – both here on earth and in Heaven – and help others do the same. I want to seek first the Kingdom of God. And I know that when I do that, He blesses me abundantly above all that I could ask or imagine. I’ve seen it be true in my life many times over.”
