There seems to be an awe around philanthropy. An acknowledgement that it is so fragile and precious that it should never be sniffed at, questioned, challenged or told that it is failing to live up to its potential.
One of the factors hindering “judgment” about philanthropy is the sense that any act of philanthropy should make you generous. I’m not sold on that.
The act of “giving” any amount in any given moment when it is not necessary to do so may always be considered altruistic but for generosity we need to look beyond individual acts into patterns.
The person who netted themselves $10 million last year, to add to the twenty million they already had, gives $1,000 to charity. Are they generous? Not even close. They give $10,000, are they generous? I don’t think so. $50,000? Nope. $500,000? Still a no from me. They are giving away an amount that will be unnoticeable to them. They are giving without any sense of sacrifice.
Religion has often helped guide its followers not just to “give” but to be generous. Zakat in the Muslim religion commands a donation of 2.5% of wealth so this person would be expected to give 2.5% of $30 million - $750,000. The Christian tithe is 10% of income, which is the same amount as in Jewish tradition. For this individual it would have equaled 10% of $10 million, so $1 million.
In the corporate sector, we’ve made some progress. The 1% club is for businesses that give at least 1% of pre-tax profits to charity each year. That’s what we see as generous. Above 0.5% is more than half way to generous. Below 0.25% and it becomes clear that however much you talk about it, giving to charity clearly isn’t very important to you as a business. It isn’t a high bar but at least businesses can benchmark themselves to some extent.
So why don’t we think the same about people? No one should have to give to charity. It’s a choice. Generosity is a virtue. If we wanted to force people to “give,” then we should simply institute higher taxes.
Generosity as it stands remains a choice without guidelines. Many who want to be generous are lost as they don’t know how much to give. We offer them no guidance by shying away from frank conversations about money.
Most people are so insecure about their own giving that they jealously guard the idea that philanthropy and generosity should never be judged. But setting precedents, standards and expectations about generosity helps people move from an approach based around “what’s left to be generous with” to one that allows you to plan for generosity.
Those in professional jobs tend to be particularly miserly – they may bring in a six figure salary and then create lifestyles that depend on that resource. At the end of the year, those professional earners look at what they can do for charity and they don’t have so deep to dig. It would amaze most normal people to find out how much most rich people worry about money. It would amaze them too how few rich people would even identify themselves as rich.
If someone knew at the start of the year that generosity from a $100,000 household income (double the U.S. average) was a $10,000 donation, then they can make a decision – will we be generous or won’t we? Everything else comes afterwards.
The fact that people who earn half that amount are more likely to find their way to generosity than those
that earn double it, tells us what an odd world we live in and the sad relationship most people have with money.
In lots of ways generosity is an unnatural act. Many accumulate and accumulate out of fear that there may be a point at which they might one day go without. Fear overtakes the rational knowledge that those who have made money are the least likely to need it in the future as they will continue to earn and their children will go on to mimic their parents’ earnings.
Of course, the nature of generosity will change through the course of people’s lives, some will give more at certain points and others at other points. Some will be generous in death and not in life and others will never be generous. It doesn’t make them bad people. It just means that they made a decision not to be generous with their money or choose to “donate” their 10% to support a family member facing poverty directly rather than charities or community groups.
Indeed there are many types of generosity beyond cash and many of the people who make a great difference in the world, will never have given a penny to charity. I’m not calling them mean, just stating that they are not cash-generous.
If we continue to create a culture of cheap gratitude and over-celebration of individual, contextually miserly gifts rather than cumulative behavior, then philanthropy will be cheapened and there will ultimately be less money gifted, not more. Movements like the billionaires Giving Pledge and the lower profile but even more admirable Giving What We Can, show that when you put a percentage on what you expect of people, amazing things can happen.
