So here’s our conundrum: to be financially healthy as a whole, we must individually act in ways that are possibly unhealthy financially, but definitely grim when it comes to our moral and spiritual well-being.
Entries from July 30th, 2010
Avoiding Harmful Gifts
July 22nd, 2010 · 2 Comments · Harmful Giving
The plethora of Harmful Gifts all pretty much subscribe to this process: The Giver, who is outside the world of the Recipient, comes up with an idea of what the Recipient would like without engaging the Recipient. The Giver descends upon the Recipient, bestows said Gift, and zooms off, feeling altruistically content. Meanwhile, the Recipient [...]
Tags:harmful giving
Compilation: When Giving is Harmful
July 22nd, 2010 · 2 Comments · Compilation, Harmful Giving
Doctors have a mantra that guides every medical action they take. It’s as vitally important as it is simple: First Do No Harm. Donors and philanthropists need to do the same. So so so often the assumption is: all gifts have positive impact. That is the essence of giving. But of course we also know [...]
Tags:harmful giving
What IS a Gift?
July 20th, 2010 · Comments Off · What is a Gift?
So, crazily, I’ve been blathering on about giving for months and haven’t even defined the durn thing. Duh. Because our conversation can move in so many directions based on what we think a Gift is. Is a donation to my church a gift? Is my attention to someone a gift? Is my discarded bra a [...]
Tags:Definitions are not def or finite or ions. Discuss.·warm fuzzies of giving
The Stories and Facts of Giving
July 19th, 2010 · Comments Off · Why do we give?
Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke, has some things to say about what makes people give that everyone in philanthropy, both the givers and the fundraisers, should here. (So grateful to have seen this video on A Bombastic Element, with hat tip to Saunda Schimmelpfennig). Professional philanthropists and advisors are pushing [...]
Tags:Behavioral economics·Behavioral giving·Dan Ariely·purty video
Marketing Is Not the Solution.
July 16th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Philosophy of Giving
Dan Elitzer has written a post that suggests nonprofits to market their social goods or services to the people that they serve. He writes that doing so will solve the common occurrence of a recipient not using the good the nonprofit is offering to them. But let’s be careful here. By addressing this disconnect with [...]
Tags:I gotta learn how to write without italics and CAPITALIZATION
Spectrum of Givers: Saints
July 12th, 2010 · Comments Off · Philanthropists & Donors, Why do we give?
We’ve reached the rare creature that each of us may encounter only once or twice in a lifetime. A person without ego, without attachment, without baggage: a Saint. Because there’s no Ego, there’s no need for the Saint to identify herself according to her Stuff. The clothes in the closet, the diplomas on the wall, [...]
Tags:Consciousness·Saintliness·Stuff-I'll-Never-Really-Understand-ness
