Does Giving to Charity Make You…
Julianne Shenk
JBS Nonprofit Consulting
March 8, 2016
…those are the six words that I typed into Google. I was
happily surprised at the list of potential searches:
Does giving to charity make you…
…happier
…happy
…rich
…live longer
…healthier[1]
Rich? It is no secret that I am a “glass half empty” kind of
girl, but when I saw the word “RICH” I didn’t think money. I thought, “LIFE”.
Giving to charity makes your life rich. So, right there, my whole attitude for
the day changed from pessimistic to optimistic. Plus, giving to charity has
made my life richer. (PS…also…odd choice
of profession for someone that doesn’t feel that way, am I right?)
[Full disclosure: When I typed those six words into the
search bar, I one hundred percent
expected the first search result to be tax related. Does giving to charity help
me on my taxes? Does giving to charity give me a bigger/better tax deduction?]
[More disclosure…a lot of the messages I get through the
blog, website, Facebook and Twitter are to ask me to help start a charity to
help get a tax break. I immediately shut those requests down. That is
not what charity is or means. That is why I was cynical about the results I
would come across when I searched those six words.]
One clarification that I want to make is, giving to charity
doesn’t just mean sending money. The “giving” part encompasses so much more.
Giving can be monetary (of course), volunteering, supporting, promoting, fundraising…it
is a long list. Myself, I think volunteering is the most rewarding, but
everyone feels the satisfaction of “giving” different. No one’s method is
better or worse than another’s.
Giving makes you happy. Another search of the Internet will
provide you with a plethora of studies relating good health and happiness to
charitable giving. A study done in 2009 by members of the Harvard Business
School and The University of British Columbia confirmed their hypothesis
regarding charitable giving and happiness. [2] Participants were asked to recall an earlier
time (s) when they spent money on others. Researchers were able to observe that
the recollections led to an increase in happiness.[3]
Remember when I said that giving money isn’t the only way to
give to a charity? Volunteering is giving, too. Again, my personal favorite way
of giving. And, by chance, volunteering is also linked to beneficial results.
There is extensive literature that links giving and
generosity to better health results, specifically that giving to others reduces
the stress and strengthens the immune system, which results in better health as
well as a longer life expectancy.[4] In
this study, Bariş Yörük goes into great detail about tax subsidies and the effect on good
health…but the conclusion is more basic. Giving is good for you and good for
your health.
To put into perspective how much research there is on the topic, I
have included a sampling of snippets from articles I came across while
researching for this blog.
“People who donate money to charity are happier in poor and rich countries
alike. You don’t have to have a lot to experience the emotional benefits of
giving.”- Elizabeth Dunn[5]
“When you are kind to another person, your brain’s pleasure and reward
centers light up, as if you were the recipient of the good deed-not the
giver, according to research from Emory University.” [6]
Jason Marsh and Jill Suttie composed a list of some of the ways that
giving is good for you:
1.
Giving makes us happy
2.
Giving is good for our health.
3.
Giving promotes cooperation and social
connection.
4.
Giving evokes gratitude.
5.
Giving is contagious.[7]
I encourage you to take a look at this article. It is a great read!
Each of the five categories is broken down for you. (See link in footnotes).
My conclusion? Give. Give money, give time, give support. Give. If
that isn’t enough to convince you…I will shamelessly list several of my
favorite quotes about giving and happiness.
·
It’s not how much we give, but how much we have
put into giving. (Mother Teresa)
·
Happiness…consists in giving and in serving
others. (Henry Drummond)
·
We make a living by what we get.
We make a life by what we give.
(Winston Churchill)
·
Remember that happiest people are not those
getting more, but those giving more. (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)
· For it is in giving that we receive. (St. Francis of Assisi)
· Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself
by giving it away to others. (Brian Tracy)
· Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less
than you need. (Khalil Gibran)
· No one has ever become poor by giving. (Anne Frank)
[1]
Google search of the phrase, “Does giving to charity make you…” March 1, 2016.
[2]
Akin, Lara B., Anik, L., Dunn, Elizabeth W., Norton, Michael I. (2009). Feeling
Good About Giving: The Benefitd (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable
Behavior. (Working Paper 10-012). Harvard Business School. Retrieved from http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/10-012.pdf
[3]
Ibid, 12.
[4] Yörük, Bariş
K. (2013). Does Giving to Charity Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Tax
Subsidies for Charitable Giving. (Working Paper/
Abstract). University of Albany, SUNY. Retrieved from www.albany.edu/economics/research/workingp/2013/yoruk.pdf
[5]
D’urso, Joseph. (2015). Giving to Charity Makes you Happy. www.reuters.com
[6]
Cassity, Jessica. The Science of Giving:Why One Act of Kindness is Usually
Followed by Another. www.happify.com
[7]
Marsh, Jason. and Suttie, Jill. (2010). 5 Ways Giving is Good for You. http://greatergood.berkeley.edy/article/item/5_ways_giving_is_good_for_you
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