Giving not only benefits the
people being helped, but also has significant benefits to the giver,
aside from any obvious tax incentives. Helping others can not only
make us feel good about ourselves; it can also increase our physical
well-being. The mind and body are connected so anything we do to
elevate our spirits will also have a beneficial effect on our health.
While we don’t quite understand all the reasons why giving
creates good health, many studies have documented generosity’s
positive effects.
Recent studies from Johns Hopkins, Cornell University, Michigan, Harvard
University and other reputable institutions have documented the positive
effects of giving. Studies have shown that qualities like gratitude,
celebration, forgiveness and compassion are not only good for the recipients
of your generosity-but they can lead to a better health and longer
life for the person doing the giving. Johns Hopkins researchers found
giving to be a “win-win” for everyone. Giving has been
shown to slow the aging process, increase one’s overall sense
of well-being, alleviate chronic pain, and even reduce depression.
A study by Cornell University found that volunteering increases a person’s
energy, sense of mastery over life, and self-esteem. Other studies
have demonstrated that such positive feelings can actually strengthen
and enhance the immune system. Harvard researchers also conducted a
study that showed how giving is such a powerful immune booster that
it can be experienced just by watching someone else in the act of giving!
Positive emotions increase the body’s number of T-cells, cells
in the immune system that help the body resist disease and recover
quickly from illness. Positive emotions also release endorphins into
the bloodstream. Endorphins are the body’s natural tranquilizers
and painkillers; they stimulate dilation of the blood vessels, which
leads to a relaxed heart. In their book, Healthy Pleasures, Psychologist
Robert Ornstein and physician David Sobel describe a “helper’s
high,” a kind of euphoria volunteers get when helping others—a
warm glow in the chest and a sense of vitality that comes from being
simultaneously energized and calm. They compare it to a runner’s
high and claim it is caused by the body’s release of endorphins.
Because of all these health benefits, as Stella Reznick says in The
Pleasure Zone, “the one who ends up getting the most from a good
deed may, ultimately, be the good Samaritan.”
In addition to the health benefits, giving can alleviate a sense of
fear around money and create a sense of abundance. Often, when a person
has a great deal of fear around money, the thought of giving away money
is precisely the opposite of the natural instinct. It’s a paradox.
If we are afraid of not having enough, we think we need to hold on
tightly to what we have and work hard to get more. Yet this perspective
only makes us more afraid, because we get caught in a cycle of clinging
and hoarding. If we turn around and give instead of hoarding everything,
we suddenly experience the abundance we do have. Most of us, particularly
those of us living in Western societies, have a great deal, and when
we share what we have, we feel our abundance. It becomes real to us,
and that diminishes our fears. Like the two wolves one representing
fear and the other abundance the one you feed the most will win out.
Hording and holding onto something will leave someone without in the
future, although through giving and feeding the abundance that we have
in our lives the wealth wolf will win out.
History of Giving
While giving has been a tradition through the ages, some have argued
that the concept of philanthropy and giving originated in the United
States. History dates giving all the way back to 1643 before the U.S.
was a nation. Giving in the U.S. developed in response to the hardships
of the early settlers and the fundamental American belief in limiting
government, as well as being rooted in the traditions of civic engagement,
religious beliefs, and a history of mutual assistance.
Early philanthropists laid the ground work for a culture of giving
in the U.S. Harvard University conducted what many consider the first
recorded fund drive in 1693, raising 500 pounds for the school. Benjamin
Franklin, an early giver, gave to his community through various institutions
including a volunteer fire company, the Pennsylvania Hospital, the
University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Public Library.
Modern philanthropy stems from the ideas of Andrew Carnegie that the
wealthy should not leave their wealth to their families, but rather
should leave their wealth to the community to provide "ladders
upon which the aspiring can rise." Rockefeller chartered the Rockefeller
Foundation in 1913. This new form of philanthropic giving used a structure
similar to the business corporation for its activities. In 1921, legislation
provided tax relief for personal giving and in 1935 corporations began
receiving tax relief.
Over time, philanthropic giving has become more widespread as individuals,
foundations, and corporations have taken to giving in many forms. Giving
takes the form of giving money; volunteering; giving other services,
time or resources and ranges from individual giving to charitable giving
to strategic giving to corporate social responsibility. Giving has
also become more sophisticated as leaders like Muhammad Yunus have
innovated new models of giving, through the use of microcredit, which
has transformed giving into a more sustainable model. As the quote
goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a
man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” more and more philanthropists
are becoming more strategic in their giving. More strategic giving
produces more effective outcomes and a sustainable model of changing
policy and the underlying root causes of the problem to sustain giving
and create more lasting impacts that create a cycle of giving that
gets passed on into perpetuity.
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