Doing good deeds just as important as feeling good
Forum
By Frank Hanna
Story updated at 8:44 PM on Sunday, December 23, 2007
Millions of Americans will make year-end charitable contributions in the next few days.
Last year alone, Americans donated $295 billion to charity, according to the Giving USA
Foundation. Individual donations accounted for about 76 percent of the total. This is
serious business and should be treated as such.
While the 2006 total included several high-profile "mega-gifts," such as financier Warren
E. Buffett's donation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, wealthy Americans are not
the only ones who support charity. Most Americans do. Indeed, as George C. Ruotolo Jr.,
chairman of the Giving Institute, notes, "About 65 percent of households with incomes
lower than $100,000 give to charity."
Dollar amounts are important, of course. But there is more to charitable giving than
writing out checks.
When we donate money to someone else, we are giving something of ourselves. We are
making a statement about what is most important to us. This is not something to be taken
lightly.
In the end, sacrificial giving is one of the primary means by which we become who we
are - as a spouse, a parent, a child, a co-worker, and as someone who gives time or money
to someone else. And so, charitable giving is not a casual, feel-good activity, but a
profoundly serious undertaking - an investment that should be carefully planned, targeted
and evaluated. Giving effectively requires love, but authentic love also requires
deliberation.
Every year, in mid-November, America's nonprofit community observes National
Philanthropy Day. The theme this year was: "Change the World with a Giving Heart."
But a giving heart is not enough. We also need to use our heads when we give, seeking to
maximize the effectiveness of the gifts we make.
While there's no concrete formula for effective philanthropy, you can't go wrong if you
do the following:
Give away as much as you can possibly afford. Take care of your family needs first, of
course. Then identify those causes that touch you deeply. In doing so, you will see your
own life deepen.
Start giving sooner, rather than later. If you can afford to give, but don't, you're denying
help to somebody in need.
Conduct your philanthropic activities with intelligence and rigor, starting with a clear
vision of the goal you hope to achieve and careful consideration of the best means to
achieve it.
Support indispensable causes to which your support is indispensable. You should
provide financial support to causes you consider truly essential, and then consider
whether your support for this particular cause also is in some way indispensable. In other
words, give to those who truly need it from you.
One also should take special care to support organizations with effective leadership.
Know who's in control. Extraordinary results come from great leadership.
Seek accountability. Good leaders welcome evaluation and are not threatened by it. So
look for results.
Having the ability and capacity to give to others is in itself a gift - and a privilege. As
with any privilege, however, it is accompanied by a responsibility to use the privilege
wisely.
Writing a check may make us feel good, but that is not enough. We also are obliged to
think things through, so that we not only feel good, but we do good.
• Frank Hanna is the founder and chief executive officer of Hanna Capital in Atlanta. He
received the 2007 William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership, recognizing
America's most effective philanthropists.