A Conversation with Allie Bradshaw and Teri Bledsoe on Women, Generosity, and Joy

Allie Bradshaw and her husband Josh have been partners with Untold for several years. This past spring, Allie co-led a Women Doing Well Weekend Pathway Experience for Untold partners alongside Teri Bledsoe — Chairman of Women Doing Well, an organization that educates, engages, and encourages women in generous living. The weekend left a mark on everyone in the room. We sat down with both women to hear how they got here, what the weekend meant to them, and why they believe every woman has something to give.

Starting Point

Allie Bradshaw (left) and Teri Bledsoe (right) during the Women Doing Well Pathway weekend with Untold.

Allie and Josh were college sweethearts. They have four kids and nearly 15 years of marriage. Where they are now, she’ll tell you, is nothing like what they planned, and they’re better for it.

In 2021, the two attended The Gathering, an event for people exploring how to engage Kingdom impact through philanthropy and investment. Before they went, Josh told Allie he wanted her to be a real partner in their philanthropic giving not just a passenger. It was a meaningful ask. “When he’d gently ask how much I wanted to give, I’d short-circuit,” she said. “It was overwhelming.” She prayed a simple prayer: Lord, I don’t know what to do, but I need your help.

The answer came early in 2022 through an invitation to participate in a virtual Women Doing Well Pathway experience where she would spend the next 18 weeks learning about generosity, finances, and faith. Teri Bledsoe led the group. “It changed me,” Allie said.

For Teri, that Pathway was the first group she had led, and Allie was in it from the start. “She was exactly Allie, even through a screen,” Teri recalled. “Magnetic, wise, present.” When the group finally met in person, no one wanted to leave. A friendship had already taken root.

Made This Way

For much of her life, Allie had treated parts of herself as liabilities. She has a big personality. She’s outspoken, strong-willed, and hard to miss in a room. “For years, I treated those things as things to manage,” she said.

Women Doing Well helped her see them differently. She started asking a new question — not why am I like this, but how is God using this? “That shift opened something up,” she said. “I began walking more closely with Him, asking: What are You doing, and how can I help?”

Teri has spent more than four decades walking alongside women. Her two-word purpose statement is “igniting joy”, and she means it. “What makes my heart beat is watching women literally transform into God’s joy through generosity,” she said. “It can be a first-time gift, a first act of service. I love meeting women wherever they are.”

She is quick to say Women Doing Well isn’t asking women to have it all together before they show up. “Joy is available right now, in the present, in the presence of Jesus.” She often quotes Tim Keller: joy is not the absence of problems — it is the presence of God.

The Weekend

This past spring, Allie and Teri co-led a Women Doing Well Weekend Pathway for twelve Untold partners. For Allie, whose purpose statement is “uplifting community”, it was one of the most direct expressions of that she’s ever experienced. “Watching women reach their own ‘that’s why’ moments — that’s why I’m made this way, that’s why this happened — is one of the greatest gifts,” she said.

Teri noticed something about the room right away. “The depth of these women’s spiritual relationships with the Lord,” she said. “It was obvious to me that Untold started with a foundation of prayer. You don’t get that caliber of spiritual maturity casually.”

The women came from different denominations, different backgrounds, different experiences, and they were speaking into each other’s lives. At one point, the group gathered around a woman who had walked through breast cancer. “It was as if the Lord was giving the whole room an opportunity to put into practice what the Spirit was already bringing,” Teri said.

“I walked away impressed by the excellence of Untold,” she added. “Not the shiny kind. The spiritual kind. Your hearts.”

Every Woman Has Something to Give

Allie thinks a lot about what it means for women to show up with everything they have. She points to a striking reality: women currently control roughly 51% of personal wealth in the U.S. By 2040, that number is projected to reach 70%. “Historically, we have not invested in equipping women to steward that well,” she said.

But her point isn’t really about money. “When women know their purpose, identify their passions, and have a plan, they give wholeheartedly,” she said. “The point is the relationship with God underneath it.” And generosity, she’s quick to say, isn’t only financial. It’s time, expertise, influence, presence. Every woman has something to give.

Allie has carried an image with her for years, from a trip to a church in Normandy, France. Floor to shoulder height, the walls were covered in mosaics — jagged, broken pieces of tile that, on their own, could cut you. But in the hands of a skilled artist, they became something beautiful. They told a story no single piece could tell alone.

“I think that’s what we’re doing,” she said. “We might each be a jagged little piece. But together — and in His hands — we’re part of something much larger and more beautiful than ourselves.”

An Invitation

For women who weren’t able to attend the spring weekend, both Allie and Teri have simple advice: taste and see. Women Doing Well can flex to meet a group where they are — a one-day format, a three- or four-week study, an online event, or even three friends gathered around the material together.

“Don’t overcomplicate it,” Teri said. “If you have three friends, that’s plenty.”

She also sees a natural next step for Untold partners who engage with Women Doing Well. “When you’re done, start praying. See if God might be leading you to East Africa or South Africa.” The work of Women Doing Well and the work of Untold point in the same direction — toward women who know their value, know their purpose, and show up with everything they have.

This Pathway weekend was extended to partners who care deeply about leading lives of generous giving. To learn more about Women Doing Well and upcoming Pathway opportunities, visit womendoingwell.org. If you are an Untold partner interested in getting more involved with our ministry, reach out to Madeline Baker at madeline@untold.org.