We’re motivated to give with our hearts

The biggest factor when it comes to giving is the prospect of making someone’s life better. We want to donate to causes that create significant change, but we are very driven by the narrative we’re told. If a particular organization’s purpose is tied to a story that pulls at our heartstrings, we’re more likely to donate. Our emotions are a driving force in our lives and when it comes to helping others, it certainly is not an exception to the rule.

Community Pride

Individuals with a strong tie to their communities are driven to give back as much as they can. To them, giving is a way of lifting the community up to make it an even better place than how they already see it. Those who donate to community causes swell with pride when their donations increase the wellbeing of the community as a whole.

Influenced by those around us

Another factor behind giving is the influence others have on us. For instance, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was, in part, a huge success due to the influence of our peers. When a campaign goes viral and people show up in droves due to the fear of missing out, they are motivated to give because everyone around them is doing the same.

Driven to give due to personal stability

Finally, the most humbling motivator is your own personal and financial stability. Many people are driven to give because they look at how fortunate they are and want to use some of their security to provide others with similar comforts. This is an interesting motivator because it’s one that takes more introspection and mindfulness than the others.

All in all, no matter why we give, it comes from a place of positivity and desire to better the lives of others. The more people we can motivate and inspire, the better off the world will be.

Find ways to help out while cleaning out.

• Move your spring cleaning up a bit and go through your old belongings that you no longer use and donate them! A few weeks before Christmas, take a day or two and go through any old junk you have lying around to see what you can give to help others. Great items to donate include blankets, gently used clothing, books, toys, and so on. This practice can help your children cut back on materialism throughout the holidays by seeing their old toys and belongings go to people who need them more.

Spread your cheer through the neighborhood.

• The holidays can be a lonely time of year for people whose loved ones have passed on or whose families have other plans occupying their time. Why not teach your children the value giving their time and company rather than money by visiting the elders in your community and sharing your merriment with them. You can also get the whole family involved in baking cookies and then distributing them throughout your community.

Forego some presents.

• In 2015, the average person spent $830 on Christmas presents for their loved ones, and for parents, most of that money was likely spent on presents for the children. Let your children see how far just a little money could go for someone living in poverty, especially in developing countries, by taking a portion of the money you usually spend on gifts and donating it to an organization like Samaritan’s Purse where just $7 can provide a child with a week’s worth of hot meals. Let them pick out the gifts themselves to get them really involved and feel as though they’ve personally made a difference in the lives of others.

Around the holidays, even the smallest bit that you do can make a world of difference in the lives of people who struggle to survive each passing day. Help improve their wellbeing while also teaching your children the value of helping others and how good it can feel to be selfless by looking for ways to get your children involved in giving during the holiday season.

1. There’s a physiological response in our bodies to giving.
   • While it absolutely seems to be a paradox, when we give to others, the pleasure centers and reward areas of our brains light up, but get this — our brains light up the same way they would if we were the receiver of the gift, not the one giving it. A 2008 study from Harvard Business School found that giving money to others lifted the levels of happiness of participants more than it did if they spent the money on themselves. This is because your body produces boosts of endorphins during acts of generosity that make us feel good about ourselves and others, the same kind of feeling describes as a “runner’s high.”
2. Giving is good for your health.
   • Studies have shown that helping others has numerous positive effects on your body, most notably in the brain and the heart. Giving helps us physically by lowering our blood pressure (especially when the volunteer is elderly) and stress levels through providing a sense of appreciation and meaning in our lives. Giving is also good for your mental health, and has been linked to decreasing depression in volunteers.
3. We feel better about ourselves when we volunteer.
   • Giving to others in any form has been shown to increase not only the volunteer’s self-esteem, but also their overall satisfaction in life. People who volunteer experience a boost in mood, feel physically healthier, and feel less stressed out overall. Giving to others has been shown to promote gratitude in our own lives by helping us “count our blessings” and explore how much in our lives we truly have to be thankful for. When you feel as though you have so little, seeing how much the little you have can do in the life of someone who has even less, it puts things into perspective.
4. We help ourselves by helping others.
   • There’s an old saying that goes “you can’t help someone up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself.” In the process of giving, we gain from others as much as they gain from us, especially for causes that hit close to home. If you were victimized by something in your life and then you go on to become an advocate for those affected, you’re helping yourself through the battle as much as you’re helping others and empowering them to give themselves a different outcome.

1. The cause hits close to home.
   • This can be in both a figurative and a literal sense; people are more likely to help out a cause in an area near them, and people are going to feel drawn to causes that raise awareness and benefit particular hardships they’ve personally endured. Consider if you were raised in the foster system — as an adult, you would likely want to benefit other children who are currently sharing in that experience.
2. They’re looking to make a difference.
   • In times of crisis, it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of calamity. For this reason, people often choose to give their money because they are looking to affect positive change and make lives better for a specific group of individuals. If you are moved by the plight of an impoverished nation, you’re going to seek out ways that your donation can directly benefit them and improve their lives.
3. They want to give back to something that benefited them.
   • If a particular cause or organization made a lasting impact on your life in one way or another, you’re likely going to want to give back once you’re financially able; for example, if your house were to burn down and you receive assistance from the Salvation Army or the Red Cross, you’re going to be more likely to make a routine of donating to them in an attempt to give back and show gratitude for all the help you were given.
4. They want to preserve a legacy.
   • Many academic and athletic scholarships are given in honor of — and in the name of — a loved one as a way to preserve their memory long after their lives are over. Some people choose to start scholarships or grants to donate to people or organizations that help to carry on the vision of the loved one who has passed away. Other people, like Bill and Melinda Gates, have decided to use their incredible wealth to build one of the world’s largest nonprofits so that their money could keep helping others long after they’re gone.

There are many reasons why people choose to give to charity, but the important thing to remember is that people give with their hearts and not their heads. That’s not to say that people are going to give mindlessly; rather, people are more likely to give to causes that appeal to their emotions and their basic human instincts.

They give more.

Millennials may not have as much disposable income as those of the generations above them, but it certainly is not hindering their giving. An astounding 84 percent of millennials donated to charity in 2014 alone. That’s a lot of giving. Those donations also averaged to about $481 per person. These young adults are making a huge difference in shaping philanthropy.

They volunteer more.

Young adults are not just giving money, they are volunteering their time too. It’s estimated that over 70 percent of millennials are volunteering in some capacity. They don’t just volunteer at the first place they can find either. Most millennials look for areas that they can use their skills to maximize their time and do the most good.

Influenced by social media.

It’s probably not much of a surprise, but millennials are heavily influenced by their peers and social media. Remember the ALS ice bucket challenge? It was a viral social media campaign that caused an enormous influx of donations to the ALS Association. This was only one campaign, but social media shed light on the cause and millennials stepped up to the plate with their smartphones and their wallets.

Issue based donors.

Lastly, millennials are often issue based donors. They donate their time and money to causes they feel strongly about. Largely, these causes are social issues or things pertaining to children. Millennials also do their homework when it comes to their donations. They want to know how the money is going to be used before they are ready to give. They understand it’s not enough to simply give, you need to be giving to causes you believe in.

Millennials are the largest living generation to date. By 2020, they will make up 50 percent of the workforce and be a third of the adults living in the US. These numbers are huge and so is the impact they have. As they come into more money and settle into careers, we are going to see their efforts make even more of a wave than we already are.

Etymologically speaking, philanthropy literally means “the love of humanity.” The word itself comes from the Greek word philanthropia — meaning kindness/humanity/love/benevolence to mankind — with philo meaning ‘loving’, and anthropos meaning ‘mankind.’

Modern philanthropy — or what we think of as philanthropy today — has its roots in ancient cultures. Many old-world cultures have placed great importance on the act of benevolence; Chinese classical thought, Hindu scriptures, and the ancient Greeks all considered philanthropy and acts of giving to be an essential part of our existence as human beings and even as “fundamental to democracy.” Similar ideals on giving can be seen across many cultures all throughout history; ancient sub-Saharan civilizations held kindness and the act of reciprocity in high esteem, Native American cultures believed in the practice of giving as a way to promote balance and harmony in their lives, and classic, widespread Judeo-Christian religions all preach “doing onto others as you would have done to you” as a means of helping others.

In the 1100s, Moses Maimonides — a philosopher and rabbi — first put all of these similar ideals together in the same words under his “Golden Ladder of Charity” found in the Mishneh Torah where he details the different levels of giving, from being forced to give to willingly donating to people unknown. His hierarchy for philanthropy and giving has helped to shape our notions of giving all the way up through present times.

Sources often cite 1914 as the date when modern philanthropy began in the United States. Ohio banker Frederick Goff developed the idea for ‘community foundations,’ a new type of philanthropy that focused its attention on the problems found in the individual philanthropist’s home area, be it a town, city, or small neighborhood.

When it comes to philanthropy, it doesn’t matter how much you give, the important thing is that you are doing something to help make better the lives of those less fortunate than yourself. As Saint Mother Teresa once said, “It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing that matters.”