What place does “giving” have as we see economies stumbling all over the globe?
When you see your investments declining by 10% in value over a few days how do you feel? Do you want to hunker down and protect your investments and your family and neglect others?
If you feel that way, and if you feel frightened about what seems to be a global recession, that's a fairly normal reaction. As a person of modest means, who hopes to retire someday, hopefully by the time I reach 85, I too feel nervous.
But then I think of what Stephen Covey wrote in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – we have a choice of how we spend our time and energy, and essentially it is in one of two circles.
There is the circle of concern and the circle of influence.
The circle of concern includes everything that we focus time and energy on. We have very little influence over most of what this circle includes. (In the case of the economic crisis, there is little we can do other than voting out of office the people who brought these uncertain times to us. And while every vote is important, we still are a small part of changing governments.)
On the other hand, each of us also has a circle of influence. This circle includes those areas where our energy and time, our money and attention, can make a difference.
It's more important than ever in times of crisis to focus on our circle of influence. And as Stephen Covey says, when we focus our energy on our circle of influence, we gain more influence, and can have a greater impact.
Plus, we know that giving is a core part of our circle of influence. Whether a person gives time, money, kindness, forgiveness or, as we detail in The Power of Giving, one of many, many other ways to give, that person can make important changes within their circle of influence.
You may think that you will be alright, given your financial status or personal situation. But, because we live in a world that is so interdependent, I know that when others suffer, we can suffer too.
So, I encourage you to keep focusing in your circle of influence. And keep giving, because the benefits of giving will always outweigh any cost.
The very process of giving to others will help you to better cope with our economic crisis.
Comments
An opportunity to make giving more relevant to everyone
The disconnect between what we do for ourselves and what we do for others is unfortunately growing. But new communication technologies and new economic realities are double-edged swords that give us an opening to rethink our approach toward giving. It's time to stop seeing helping others as a tithe-like obligation, or at best a warm-and-fuzzy reassurance of our Christian generosity. Those cliches may be luxuries we should be learning to live without.
And after all, it's not hard to find examples of programs that have enlightened self-interest designed in: I've developed a couple of them myself over the years, and there are many more I'm sure.
Unfortunately, the out-of-date model of do-gooders sharing from excess assets is still seen as our primary motivating factor. We are entering a newly lean-and-mean economic future, even as we blithely click onto (and then away from) Cause pages on Facebook and similar sites. We can use this opportunity to turn Giving into an activity as sophisticated, appealing and personally beneficial as building a new web presence or moving up to a better position.
Agreement
It would be very easy to hunker down, secure the hatches and prepare for the worst. But in truth, the money we may have lost over the events of the past several weeks and months likely leave us still ahead of the intitial investments we made many moons ago. We all know investments are a long-range game that yield an average rate of 12% return in the long haul. Ebb and Flow is the name of the game..we dislike the ebbs very much and we l.o.v.e. the flow. The nonprofit business is counter-cycle; when economic times are challenging, nonprofits (social profits) need MORE help to support the neediest of the needy...to bring art to people for enrichment and joy; whatever the cause. The wisest investment we fundraisers can make is in time with our donors...cultivating..telling the stories...discussing the needs..and letting donors choose. Give now. Give later. Just Give when you feel it!! Step into the flow of abundance in the world!
Giving
In an idealistic world, the present economic crisis should add impetus to giving. We see the impact of greed, so why not discipline our greed with regular, percentage giving.
Make The Most From The Least
Yes, in a "tough" ecconomy, more giving is needed, and the recipients of giving are more grateful.
The challenge is to maximize the impact of our giving. So what I'd advise is to give where your donation will make the most difference for the least amount of giving.
Actually, that last sentence sounds bad, doesn't it?
It's a bit misleading, so let me redeem myself.
What I mean is this: give toward a cause--or a part of a cause--that will have more positive impact than if you gave that same donation elsewhere.
Try to make the most from your giving.
For example, you may be able to give to a charity in more than one way:
If you do it through an affiliate site, the affiliate may keep a small portion of your donation as a referal fee. This is understandable.
But if you want to maximize the impact your giving will have, you'll want to see to it that as close to 100% of your donation as possible makes it to the charity...and eventually, the REAL recipient (some charities that have the same end cause have varying percentages that go toward administration costs).
This is good to keep in mind, because if you find a charity that has the same end goal as another one, but has lower overhead costs, then a higher percentate of your donation makes it to the REAL recipient.
Even a 3% difference can make a difference.
And in times like these, every bit counts.
Give To Receive
Hi Harvey, I whole heartedly agree in order to prosper, you first must be willing to give first. Giving can be in the form of your time, knowledge and/or financial resources. It's this very concept of giving first in order to prosper that led me to my involevment in cash gifting. The whole premise of cash gifting activities is that you give a cash gift or pledge and by encouraging others to do the same. In time, by simply sharing and inviting, a small cash gift can result in a return of thousands of dollars per month, month after month, year after year. The cash gifting activity I am involved in is the G1G4, Give 1 Get 4 Cash Gifting Activity. What attracted me to G1G4 is that you can get started for as little as $60 with additional out of pocket expenses and by sharing, inviting and enrolling others, you receive four times what you gifted or pledged and you can continue to receive over and over again. Other benefits of the G1G4 Cash Gifting Activity is that there are no products to buy, sell, ship or stock, no meetings to attend and no home parties to host. You can learn more about this exciting, dynamic and very profitable activity by going to https://www.g1g4lite.net/guest/en/system.php# and playing the short video and audio presentation and viewing the pdf file. If after checking out the G1G4 Cash Gifting Activity you want to enroll, just click on the “REGISTER” tab at the top of the page and fill out the form including guest code 87950.
You have a great blog and I look forward to reading future postings.
Give To Receive
Hi Harvey, I whole heartedly agree in order to prosper, you first must be willing to give first. Giving can be in the form of your time, knowledge and/or financial resources. It's this very concept of giving first in order to prosper that led me to my involevment in cash gifting. The whole premise of cash gifting activities is that you give a cash gift or pledge and by encouraging others to do the same. In time, by simply sharing and inviting, a small cash gift can result in a return of thousands of dollars per month, month after month, year after year. The cash gifting activity I am involved in is the G1G4, Give 1 Get 4 Cash Gifting Activity. What attracted me to G1G4 is that you can get started for as little as $60 with additional out of pocket expenses and by sharing, inviting and enrolling others, you receive four times what you gifted or pledged and you can continue to receive over and over again. Other benefits of the G1G4 Cash Gifting Activity is that there are no products to buy, sell, ship or stock, no meetings to attend and no home parties to host. You can learn more about this exciting, dynamic and very profitable activity by going to https://www.g1g4lite.net/guest/en/system.php# and playing the short video and audio presentation and viewing the pdf file. If after checking out the G1G4 Cash Gifting Activity you want to enroll, just click on the “REGISTER” tab at the top of the page and fill out the form including guest code 87950.
You have a great blog and I look forward to reading future postings.