NEWBERRY — Members of the community gathered outside the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce last week to celebrate the ribbon cutting for Robert Kopp, a Thrivent financial associate now in Newberry.
Thrivent, according to Kopp, is a Fortune 500, not for profit that helps clients align their goals with their financial means.
“I’m building a practice that is rooted in three shared responsibilities, ‘mine, yours, ours.’ The first one is ‘my responsibility’ to my clients to make their goals my own and help to orient their finances to be the most effective for achieving those goals. The ‘your responsibility’ is to be good stewards of what they’ve been entrusted with, and my role is to support my clients in that mission. Then ‘our responsibility,’ we have a responsibility to each other that when we have financial clarity and stability, we have a responsibility to support local causes to help our neighbors find greater clarity as well,” Kopp said.
In regard to what he does as a financial associate, Kopp said saving is great, but “financial clarity” starts in different places for different people.
“Everyone has goals, no matter how old they are, and their goals change over time. Even the big goal that people save for, retirement, for example, that goal may change from the day they start working to when they start retirement, and beyond. Other financial goals like sending a child to college or leaving a legacy for their family or church often change similarly over time.” Kopp said.
Qualifying Thrivent benefit members have two action teams a year, Kopp said. This is when each member will organize volunteers, share live generously t-shirts with their team, and receive a $250 pre-paid card to help seed their volunteer project.
“Across South Carolina, we have over 18,000 households that have membership within Thrivent,” Kopp said.
This component of Thrivent goes back to Kopp’s idea of “our responsibility.”
“For every Thrivent member, being able to put $500 a year toward volunteer activity, that can make a really big difference in our community. That is really linked to ‘our responsibility’ I shared. Every person has a responsibility to be a steward of what they’ve been given. For Thrivent members, that includes being stewards of your action team and Choice Dollars,” he said.
Kopp has already gotten the ball rolling on his first action team, the morning of his ribbon cutting (which was held on April 21) he assembled an action team with The Living Hope Foundation.
“They are a nonprofit that is fully volunteer run and operated, and they have been distributing food every Thursday at New Enoree Baptist Church and on the third Wednesday at the Oakland Community Center. They are one cause that has been important to get food to people during the coronavirus pandemic. They are not the only one and I’m not the only Thrivent member. We need more Thrivent members to participate in every organization that is doing good community work like The Living Hope Foundation” Kopp said.
Along with volunteerism opportunities, Kopp is also doing workshop events to give people more financial tools and social events — all of which can be found on his website, connect.thrivent.com/robert-kopp.
He will in fact have a workshop on May 4, which is part of a retirement series. His next social event will spotlight Laila’s Wonderfully Made Goods and The Will Memorial Sports Complex. That social event will be held on May 31, via Zoom, and will include trivia with prizes and free macaroons (while supplies last). Kopp said folks can register online or at Laila’s Place Cafe & Bakery (1300 Main Street), once registration opens.
Kopp said people can also follow him on his professional Facebook page (facebook.com/Robert.Kopp.Thrivent), where he will post about workshops. social events and volunteer opportunities.
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