How Can You Be Great (er) At Giving?
With #GivingTuesday just passed, which unofficially kicks off the unofficial giving season, I wanted to give some unofficial tips to help you be great at giving this giving and Holiday season.
10 TIPS TO BE GREAT AT GIVING
- Give more often
- Give in smaller amounts
- Give to tangible things
- Give in public
- Give when you will be matched
- Give at the end of a campaign
- Give at the start of a campaign
- Give when the ‘overhead’ is covered
- Give to cover the overhead
- Give with no strings attached
Some of the research behind these tips are found in some posts listed below as well as in this post Want to be Happier? Give More. Give Better., but the guiding principle here is this: make yourself happy when you give.
Why? Well because…
- Giving is good for you and makes you happy
- Giving is (generally) good for society and helps people
- If you can maximize your happiness when giving you’ll want to do it more
- The more you give, the more people you’ll help
- And the more people you help, and the more you give, the happier you’ll be
Being selfish when you give isn’t about, and shouldn’t be about, what you actually or tangibly get back (see tip #10: Give with no strings attached) but it should be more about giving the way you want to support what you want and to make yourself happy when doing so.
The happier you are when you give the more likely you are to do it again. And by giving more you can get better and better at it. You’ll learn which causes you support make you the happiest. Which organizations to the best job of thanking you. Of reporting back to you. Of respecting you, your time, and your money.
As much as you may try to read posts like these and research sites like Charity Navigator or Imagine Canada, they can’t tell you what will make you happy. And they can’t tell you how an organization will report back and respect you. You can only get that level of knowledge by giving.
So give.
There are many reasons not to but it’s an act that fundamentally will make you happy and help others. And given all that is going on in the world and the year that 2016 has been, we could all use a bit more happiness and helpfulness right about now.
Good luck and happy giving.
YOU WANT MORE YOU SAY?
Well here are some other posts, research, and infographics on giving:
- Don’t be foolish when evaluating causes
- 3 ways you can give differently (and better)
- Nonprofit overhead doesn’t matter. Except when it does.
- You don’t want charities to be efficient.
- Some science behind why people give (INFOGRAPHIC)
- 6 Reasons why people don’t give (INFOGRAPHIC)
- Why giving is good (INFOGRAPHIC)
This was originally posted on re: charity and can be found here.
