Lisa’s Tree matches those in need with those who serve
January 16, 2025
By Jennifer Willems
Ask Jeff Schwarte to describe his late wife, Lisa, and he’ll tell you she was “wired for service.” It was a passion they shared with each other and their children, Alex, Megan, and Zachary until her death from breast cancer on Feb. 4, 2023.
Now Jeff and Alex are making it possible for parishes and organizations to help their members “connect, serve and grow” through a new app called Lisa’s Tree. It is designed to match people who want to help others with those who need help, one act of service at a time.
The inspiration for the app came from the love and support they received from their fellow parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in West Des Moines after Lisa’s cancer diagnosis in February 2020. Not only were the Schwartes longtime members of the parish, but Lisa worked as the accountant in the parish office and the children attended Sacred Heart School.
“We had people serving us in our cancer journey for years – especially toward the end,” Jeff said. “We never felt alone because we had relationships with folks that lifted us up during that difficult time.”
Jeff said most churches are going to have almost every talent that would ever be needed sitting in the pews. He added that he believes people will use their gifts if given the opportunity.
“It’s your talent, right? It’s your passion. It’s what God’s given you as a gift,” he explained. “And if somebody asks me to use my gift, I’m going to absolutely help them.”
That’s where Lisa’s Tree comes in.
Opportunities, not chores
While Jeff, who has 30 years of experience as a stock portfolio manager at Principal Financial Group, promotes the app as the public face of Lisa’s Tree, he gives the credit for designing it to Alex, 25, who studied software engineering and music performance at Iowa State University.
Alex had the “bare bones” put together in four or five months and has spent the last year testing, revising, refining and meeting with user experience designers to make the app user friendly and easy to use.
Sacred Heart will be the first installation for the app, but Alex said it should be very easy to add parishes and organizations once the paperwork is done and a licensing agreement is signed.
“On paper, someone could think about Lisa’s Tree as an app that lets you do more chores. That’s obviously not what we think of it as,” Alex said. “It’s about that connection and the opportunity to serve others. So being able to have a platform that essentially gives you a list of people that you connect with on a specific task I think is really going to be impactful to people that want to connect with others, but don’t really know how.”
The app invites people in the parish or organization to provide a photo and brief profile, as well as God-given gifts and talents they want to share. This allows people who need helpers to see who will be coming and get to know them a little bit.
Those who don’t like to mow the lawn or rake leaves won’t be matched with those particular opportunities Jeff said with a laugh, revealing his own dislike of raking leaves.
Most of the service opportunities take 60 minutes or less to complete, so no one would be asked to renovate a bathroom, for example.
Forming community
Jeff said the real “God moment” for him came when he realized how serving each other builds community.
“Now you start to develop a relationship. The more you help, the more people you’re going to get to know and build a sense of community, which is the foundation to our faith,” he said. “The sacrament of communion is community, right?”
The logo for Lisa’s Tree tells the story.
Two hands represent the trunk of the tree, with the leaves representing the members of the community that is being served. The heart in the middle symbolizes love.
“Ultimately our life is a love story. Jesus’ life was a love story. Our faith is a love story,” Jeff said. “So if we can use our God-given talents as foundational elements of that love story, that’s the trunk of the tree.”
Alex said it’s cool to have people excited about the app and know that it is likely to have a positive impact in the future. “A sort of dream outcome of this project is to have it be successful . . . and help people, as well.”
Jeff said he is humbled by the response to the app.
“For me personally, I think it’s going to leave a lasting legacy of how Lisa lived her life and how she cared about other people, “ he said. “Anytime there’s a connection, whether it’s at Sacred Heart or another app across the country that gets installed, anytime there’s a connection it’s in honor of her mindset of helping other people.”
Sacred Heart will be the first installation for the Lisa’s Tree app, but Jeff hopes to see it being used in 100 churches within three years and 300 churches in five years. Bishop William Joensen told him, “Your numbers are way too low.”
“Bishops talk, so I imagine Alex and I are going to be very busy in the next three years, across multiple parishes, multiple states across the country, working with organizations to get Lisa’s Tree up and running,” Jeff said.
To learn more about Lisa’s Tree and its launch, visit lisas-tree.com.