There are 10 million reasons author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott recently reappeared in Peach State news headlines. The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave an equivalent 0.06% ($10 million) of her $17.3 billion in total worldwide donations to a Georgia nonprofit. For some, it begs the question: Why do philanthropists share their wealth? Psychology plays an important role.
“I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give,” she told the Giving Pledge. “No drive has more positive ripple effects than the desire to be of service. There are lots of resources each of us can pull from our safes to share with others — time, attention, knowledge, patience, creativity, talent, effort, humor, compassion.
“And sure enough, something greater rises up every time we give: the easy breathing of a friend we sit with when we had other plans, the relief on our child’s face when we share the story of our own mistake, laughter at the well-timed joke we tell to someone who is crying, the excitement of the kids in the school we send books to, the safety of the families who sleep in the shelters we fund,” she continued. “These immediate results are only the beginning. Their value keeps multiplying and spreading in ways we may never know.”
From altruism to social benefit, Scott’s message — which can be read in full at givingpledge.org — hits on several motives for giving identified by Indiana University social psychologist Sara Konrath and University of Pennsylvania professor Femida Handy. Published in the journal Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the researchers discovered six reasons people participate in charity: trust, altruism, social benefit, tax benefit, egoism and constraint.
A donor acting on trust anticipates their charity of choice will properly use their money for good. An altruistic giver is concerned for the less fortunate. Those seeking social benefits often want to manifest change on a communitywide level. Some participate in charity for tax write-offs, while social media has brought egoism into the philanthropy spotlight.
Konrath studied how egoism played a role in charitable giving for the “ice bucket challenge” social media trend that supported research for ALS — or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The results revealed that, based on voluntary surveys, participants who only posted videos of themselves completing the challenge (rather than donating money to the cause or choosing to do nothing) generally ranked higher for narcissistic traits. The participants who chose only to donate to ASL research generally scored the lowest.
“This paper addressed some gaps in the literature, but clearly, there is much to be learned about narcissism and prosociality,” the researchers said in their report. “We know a lot about the undesirable behaviors associated with narcissism, such as aggressive behavior. We know comparatively very little about how, when, and why more narcissistic people engage in prosocial behaviors. What we do know, based on the results of this paper, is that when asking more narcissistic people for a favor, it may be best to mention what is in it for them.”
While less savory traits have potentially played increasingly larger roles in charity through social media, the motivations for giving also change significantly through the generations.
“Donors give for various reasons,” Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy reported. “Each generation brings unique contexts and life experiences to charitable giving. Fundraisers might regularly survey donors to discover their motivations and tailor requests — from mass appeals to major gifts — in whatever way attracts funders across the motivational spectrum to advance charitable goals.”
So what motivates people to give? It’s an ever-changing psychology affected by social and technological influences. For Georgia’s multibillion-dollar donor, it’s about taking action.
“My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful,” Scott said in her Giving Pledge letter. “It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”
Find more stories like this one on our Pulse Facebook page.
About the Author
