Generosity is always a hot topic within political debates. One would think that this would mean Americans are some of the most generous people in the world. According to the World Giving Index, we are ranked second in the world. Which country do you think tops the list? China? Nope. England? Try again. How about Myanmar? Correct. Myanmar takes the number one spot. This is incredibly impressive given the fact that they receive no help from their government. The citizens band together and take care of each other. Wow, talk about putting your destiny into your own hands and working together to make a change. This type of thinking is worthy of a blog post of its own. Now let's turn our attention back to America.
It would be easy to think that since we came in second then we must be very generous. The truth is we really are not that generous. Their entire economy equates to only 0.36% of our economy. That is a very tiny number especially when you factor in that their population would equal 16.75% of the United States population. The average American makes $55,230 per year. Want to guess how much the average citizen from Myanmar makes per year? It is equivalent to $1,270 per year in U.S currency. To dig this in a little deeper, I will share what our average contributions, per person, to charities are. It equals a whopping $810.63 ($258.51 billion given/ 318.9 pop of USA) per year and is only 1.46% of the average annual income ($810.63 given per person/ $55,230 average income). Please remember that we are dealing with averages here. Some people gave a sizable amount of money while others gave none.
Now for some good news. We did come in second place. Often times we are actually in first place. Another study conducted by NPR shows that generosity is also a product of your environment. In other words, it directly correlates to what you are exposed to in your daily interactions. There is no doubt in my mind that we are products of our environments. While their study of the geography of charitable giving did seem to indicate as our income rises we become less likely to give. It also showed how wealthy individuals living in a poverty stricken environment gave significantly more. This is good news for us because it shows that we are generous when we see a need. The next question one should ask is "Ok, so how do I gain more exposure"?
There are many ways to gain more exposure that open our eyes to what is around us. Here are some examples: Volunteer, join groups, drive through different parts of the city, etc. Giving to others has a great power to break the chains that have been holding your heart ransom. What better way to start this process than by giving something, like money, that is held so closely to our hearts whether we realize it or not. One of my favorite books with this topic is Enemies of the Heart by Andy Stanley. In the book, Andy talks about four emotions that can control us and one of them is greed. One of his quotes is "greed is easy to hide— from ourselves". This hit home to me because I am often times accused of being cheap and I always shrugged it off as saying "no, I am frugal". However, as I self-reflected, it became apparent that greed did control me to some degree. It was often times found in lies that I would tell myself that went something like "I will give next month" or "once I pay these bills then there will be enough for me to give". The truth is I was just lying to myself. Years would go by without me ever giving one dollar. At the end of 2014, I decided something had to change. So I wrote a check, 10% of my income, and gave it to charity. I won't lie, it hurt to write a check that big but the rewards have been much greater than I could have ever imagined.
Use these closing statements to help you start your journey. Do not confuse spontaneous giving with generosity. Generosity is planned and that check I wrote kick-started the journey for me. Spontaneous giving is usually driven by guilt or a great sales pitch. Make an impact in the world, don't just consume it.
