According to a new study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, differences in giving motivations can be explained by income and education. According to the press release issued last week:
- Among lower-income donors (income less than $50,000), the phrases that resonated as a motivation for giving were helping to meet basic needs or helping the poor help themselves.
- Donors with income between $50,000 and $100,000 were more likely than donors in either higher or lower income groups to say that they gave to “make the world better.”
- Among donors with income of $100,000 or more, the phrases selected as motivations for giving included “those with more should help those with less” or “making my community better.”
For me, these phrases are too short and cold to capture my feelings on why I give to charity. My motivations are more complicated.
I won the lottery of birth. Through no virtue of my own, my soul was born into a healthy body, a loving family, a democratic nation. My life has been nothing but opportunity and I recognize that others have not been so fortunate. Out of gratitude for everything I have, and a desire to help others find opportunity in their own lives, I give to charity.
Garth Brooks wrote
I hear them saying “You’ll never change things. And no matter what you do it’s still the same thing “
But it’s not the world that I am changing. I do this so this world we know never changes me.
What I do is so this world will know that it will not change me
Charity, for me, is about living up to my inner voice, about bridging the gap between the person I am today and the person I aspire to be. And that’s also why check-writing isn’t the pinnacle of charity, no matter how big the check. In fact, it’s just the first step on a journey of a million steps.
