The joy of giving: Generosity not limited to holiday season

The joy of giving: Generosity not limited to holiday season
by Rodolpho Carrasco
Thursday, December 31, 1998 in San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group
( Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, Calif. and a columnist for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. Check out more articles by Rodolpho Carrasco here.)

Every December, service agencies, religious institutions, and nonprofits look forward to quantities of donations, of all sizes and types. Historically, Americans give more at year's end than any other time during the year. As a person who both gives to charity and co-directs a nonprofit that receives charitable donations, I know how critical it is that we give. With the goal of stimulating giving in general, I sent an e-mail message to hundreds of friends and contacts, asking for anecdotes relating to giving.

I've also done some research on the topic. I found one survey that said Americans give less than 2% of their personal income to charity. In another survey, Silicon Valley residents said they would give more if they felt nonprofits were better managed. A news clip reported that Nabors Industries Chairman Eugene Isenberg gave $2.5 million last year despite earning a whopping $209 million.

Then a fascinating item: Bill Gates, worth $60 billion, and William Simon, holder of a more modest $325 million, said the same thing, in separate stories, about giving. Gates: "It can be hard work to give away money in a really smart and effective way." Simon: "It takes hard work to make sure that where you are giving is really where it's going to go."

I was preparing thoughtful commentary on the independent yet identical perspectives of these two scions when I checked my e-mail. Peering into my Powerbook, I opened messages from:

- A Harvard physics professor who wrote about an elderly widow she knew who, upon moving into a lifecare community, gave her house to the son of her former neighbors. That man and his son had been living in a trailer park.

- A university admissions director in Portland who told of giving by the poorest of the poor. In 1993 he volunteered for a few weeks in a United Nations refugee camp in Somalia. Shortly after his return he received a letter from a friend who stayed behind in the camp. Sudanese Christians, his friend scribbled, who were ravaged by the war and starvation, took their miniscule ration of flour, sugar, salt, and cooking oil and gave 10% of it to further the work of a ramshackle church serving in the camp.

- A professional fundraiser from the Santa Ynez Valley who replied regarding a man who as a boy spent many hours in a Salvation Army program while both parents were away at war. He wasn't destitute - he lived with an aunt - but he was lonely. At the Salvation Army he found love and a place to belong. Years later, this man tearfully dropped a $100,000 check onto the director's desk at his local Salvation Army and said, "Thank you."

There were more stories. My mother-in-law reminded me of the lady in Mississippi who worked as a housecleaner all her life, socked away her money, and a few years back sprang $1 million on the University of Mississippi for scholarships for black students. Someone called from Denver and said that a six-year-old boy named Morgan, in response to this week's dreadful cold snap, was gathering blankets for the homeless.

All of these stories reminded me of a most extraordinary story. During my sophomore year in college, I visited the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, West Germany, where thousands of Jews and others were exterminated during World War II. On the bus there and back I read "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl.

In this short book, Frankl recounts his experience as a concentration camp prisoner. Victimized in every way by the Nazis, Frankl survived by keeping his will to live intact. The key, he says, was giving. His captors could take away his name, his loved ones, his past and future, even his life - but they could not take away his will to give his daily crumb of bread to the prisoner next to him. Giving kept him human, and gave him reason to live until Americans soldiers came and liberated the camp.

It's better to give than to receive. Most people have heard this saying. Most would say they subscribe to the idea. But we need to remind ourselves that it's true, again and again. A lot of times, it's hard to believe that the giver gets more more than the recipient. At other times, we give and it seems like no one is giving back to us.

Don't be fooled. It is better to give than to receive. You don't need me to review Gates, Simon and the surveys to make a fresh point on giving. Reflect instead on the widower, the Sudanese, and Frankl, who all know the profound meaning of this millenia-old saying.

Christmas has just passed, and most likely you gave to family and friends. But the holiday season is not over. Seek opportunities to give to others outside your closest circles. In doing so you will discover anew this simple truth.

The copyright for these materials are owned by Rudy Carrasco.  These materials were used with permission by TechMission