I am presenting an idea for a new product to a Fortune 50 company in March that could have some really positive implications for charitable giving. I've been working on this for some time now and it's the culmination of many months labors. I need to know the psychology behind giving. Links to interesting articles/videos would be helpful but more than anything, I want to know what motivates YOU to give. I want to dig DEEP though and know what truly is the reason, deep below the obvious.
Do you give out of penance, to make up for wrongs? Do you give while people are watching to receive accolades? Or is it all altruistic?
Maybe the question should be, what do you think motivates your partner, your roommate or your parents to give?
Any help is appreciated. I'm sorry that I cannot share more detail about the presentation. I promise that someday I will.
Thanks in advance.
this all sounds petty, so heres the point: i have stuff, and its more stuff than i will ever use. dont have stuff? have some of mine, im not using it anyway. no, im fine; i have plenty already. actually, this angle might no go over well with your fortune 50 audience...
By the way, I don't have a mandolin... hint, hint :)
I'm not really on Reddit much but I know that is working on a way for Hubskier's to PM each other. Till then!
When you give, would you be more likely to give to help a specific person or to an organization? Will that difference influence how much you give?
There was this one time, too. I was walking through the college campus with some friends, and this guy, a young guy, with a backpack and an accent, clearly distressed, was looking for the college administration. He came from another state for a student gathering, somehow lost all his money and didn't have any way to go back. For some reason, I had some money with me that I wasn't going to spend, so I figured, what the hell, he seems to need it more. I don't remember the exact amount (30~60 dollars). He seemed very grateful and - like Yorn's lady - thanked me again and again. He wanted to pay me back and asked me for my bank account information. I gave him a false one. This whole thing was fishy from the start. I just wanted to get out of there feeling good and not fearing for my financial privacy. Later one of my friends asked, "How do you know he really needed the money?" I answered, "I don't. If he didn't, then I just got mugged. Wasn't that much money, no big deal. But if he did, then I helped him get home." So, this time, I think it was convenience and the thought that maybe I could actually help someone.
You were smart not to give your account information, that wasn't cynical of you it was practical. Even if that person was "scamming" you, they were likely doing so because they needed the money. Not many well to do people stand around compiling elaborate means by which to scam you out of your money. -Oh wait, I take that back: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoff_investment_scandal
I'm interested. Do you call this organization saying you've got some clothes in a box in fornt of the house or is it a periodical service they provide?
Also, I increasingly see large drop off bins at gas stations where you can deposit your old, unwanted clothes. One thing that I know we will do is give all of our babies clothes to charity. We'll do this once we are sure we aren't having any more. Also her toys.
Seriously though, the places I give the most to are public radio and the DIA. They have an immediacy and direct benefit to the community, a tangible sense of "I helped create this" when you tune in, or walk in the door, respectively. Even if my small donation is pretty meaningless to their bottom line, I think I like the pride of ownership and community enrichment aspects.
The proposal I am making deals with the fact that people tend to give more to individuals than institutions. Lets say you give $100 to the DIA, would you be likely to give more if you knew that it was going towards a particular 10 year old, underprivileged aspiring artist so that they could take art classes at the DIA? What if at $200 you would ensure that the kid got art lessons and that once a month for a year he/she would send you an example of their progress? Would you give more?
1. Donate $100 to the DIA and $100 to NPR -both awesome. 2. Donate $200 to a little kid so they can have school books in Ecuador. By the way, you know the kids name and he/she will write you letters of their progress quarterly.
I once paid for a woman's $120 grocery bill because she was taking too long finding her checkbook at the grocer and I only had three items worth under $10. I told the cashier to scan my stuff and then swiped my card. Of course, this caused even more confusion, then satisfaction, then gratitude that took up even more time, but I figured if she was in such a state that she couldn't even keep track of her money or finances she was already at her wit's end about something else. And she was, she had three kids, one of which was a teen that had left home recently and was not at "her father's" which made the woman distressed. I do require/request that all my charity be done anonymously. This is mostly because I don't want to ever be contacted for charity again, I don't want family and friends to know, and I don't want someone defending me like people do Buffet and Gates because of their donations. I sometimes wonder if Jobs actually gave to charity, but just kept it a secret from his friends and family like I do.
It's weird because I think I'm a charity addict sometimes. I probably have given away 15-20% of my net pay this year, but it's always trying to do more and more bizarre things, like when I gave 1 ounce of silver to each of a dozen campaign staff workers over Christmas or when I donated the full amount to some random kid's [Charity | Water](http://www.charitywater.org/) event where he was trying to "raise $250", then linked to it on Reddit and he ended up raising about $2,500 in total. I'm constantly trying to figure out how to top the last one. And I think that's the whole point. I feel like I'm compelled to do the [Improv Anywhere](http://improveverywhere.com/) for charity. Hope this info helps!
There are worse things to be addicted to. 15-20% is exceptional. Hell, that's more than Romney paid in taxes. Hope this info helps! -It does, all the responses here have given me some insight in to the psychological motivation behind "giving". There seem to be a number of differences but the common them is that each person feels compelled to do so in the first place.
I probably most often give to people on the street. I do it because they are obviously in a worse state, and I can help them out. I don't care if they want booze or food, or whatever. I don't like to see people suffer, and even if my $1 won't save them, it tells them that I do see them, and that their plight is real to me. There might be guilt at play, but I don't see that necessarily as a bad thing. However, I usually don't like to give to people on the street with a story of why I should give. It's hard to trust those stories, and I don't like to be lied to. I guess I give to people on the street as an easy act of kindness and acknowledgement. I also give to public radio because I listen to it a lot. I want them to have resources. Oh, and I give to some organisations when kids come to my door. When do I give? I give when it is easy to do so. If I were to give a lot, I would probably be willing to put more time and effort into it. But, when giving a little, it really really helps if it is easy. We eat McDonalds about once a year, but I always drop my change in the McDonald House box. It's so easy, and I've only heard good things about them. I don't care if no one notices me when I give small amounts. It's more of an internal decision.
Would you say that you would be more likely to give to help a person than you would an organization? If so, why? If not, why?
Helping others gives me the following feelings, in different amounts, depending on the circumstance: Happiness, accomplishment, nostalgia, fulfillment of duty. I'm not religious, and I'm pretty much a moral relativist, so concepts like 'right', 'wrong', and 'karma' really don't figure into my mental equation, though I do believe in 'secular karma' if you will, which is basically the concept that if you're a shitty person, generally, nice people won't want to hang around you as much and the only people you'll be able to easily attract are other shitty people. Conversely, if you are good and kind, generally you'll find that other people of similar caliber won't be turned off by you and you're more likely to enjoy that company. Just common sense really, nothing mystical about it. Also, I've always been pretty in tune with the emotional state of others. When I sense need or pain, I immediately associate and feel empathy and I think I kind of instinctively tend to that as if the pain were my own. This has less to do with charitable gift giving, and more with giving in an emotional interpersonal sense.
I give to those who give to me. I listen to a lot of Soma FM and I know that if someone doesn't give them something, they would cease to be. On The Edge, a 6-hour Industrial radio program on high-school run KNHC (worth looking into on its own: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KNHC http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=200...) was a vital part of my "scene" in my 20s so I had no problem chipping them $100 a year... until I realized I was more useful as on-air talent during the pledge drives. So for 24 hours a year I made that station an additional $5k or so for about six years. I give to those whose voices need to be heard. I paid Bartcop (www.bartcop.com) $20 a month from 2003 until 2009. There are political organizations that would much rather have that money, but Tammany Hall was brought down by satire, not protests. Finally, I give where I cannot help, and do not give where I feel I've done my part. I paid to put a social worker through grad school. It was one of the most miserable times of my life. As a consequence, I feel no need whatsoever to give the Salvation Army a dime. I "gave at the office" ... $40k worth.
And in that sense, I do think that there is something to the penance angle -- we in the first world feel some guilt for all of the senseless, wasteful indulgences we take while billions of people still live in poverty, especially when the products of our modern lifestyle are so reliant on the labor of those same people and the resources of the land they inhabit. For me, the most fulfilling form of charity is that which requires my time and energy.
For me, the most fulfilling form of charity is that which requires my time and energy. -That is extremely fulfilling, I agree. That said, so many people are very busy and don't have the time to put in the sweat. They still have the innate desire to give, but not the time. What if there were a way to not augment behavior or take increased $ out of the givers pockets? It would be a no-brainer right? And the giver would receive the benefit of easing this innate intrinsically human desire to give. Question: Would you be more likely to give to a specific person in need or an organization?
1. If you knew that you were helping someone in need by doing something you already do every day, would you be more likely to do it more enthusiastically? Let's say every time you open a door a poor child receives 5 cents. But it has to be a door with a door knob, not an electric sliding door. There are two dry cleaners near your house, one has a door knob door and the other the electric sliding door. Otherwise, all things are equal (cost, convenience, customer service). Wouldn't you naturally go for the one that allows you to give to the child? Sorry for the muddy analogy, hopefully this will be brought to market sometime and it will all make sense.