With Purpose Success, part 84

Exactly why and how people choose to give is a complex equation. But it's clear that giving can be very, very good for you-so good for you, in fact, that through time philosophers and others have wondered if giving might not just be among the most selfish of all acts! De Tocqueville, for one, described philanthropy as "self-interest, rightly understood." The Chinese 

Zen master Chuang-Tzu as far back as the fourth century bc, argued that most philanthropy is meant to further one's personal, business, or social agenda. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (who viewed charity as demeaning to the recipient) worried that people of wealth exerted too much control over society through charity that mostly furthered their own interests. Scandals erupted in England in the 1950s over the tax- exempt status of mammoth charitable foundations run by families like the Wellcomes and Nuffields. 

Philosophical questions linger today. Would the public missions that philanthropists take on be better left to government? When Bill Gates directs his foundation to buy millions of computers for public libraries in poor neighborhoods is he being generous, or furthering his own business interests? Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr cynically summed up such concerns like this: "The effort to make voluntary charity solve the prob lems of a major social crisis results only in monumental hypocrisies, and tempts selfish people to regard themselves as unselfish." 

I readily concede that there is a selfish element to giving. Yet, to me, it seems silly to attack generous acts on that level, especially in the realm of 

Everymanthropy, where what you give most of is your time and energy.

So what if you get something back for your efforts? Doesn't that just lead you down the path of more giving? Embrace the rewards. It's OK. Generally, these rewards can be lumped into eight basic categories. You may experience all of them, or just one or two. At some level, though, when you give it's because you seek to gain one or more of the following eight benefits: 

Do the Right Thing. The highest level of giving is altruism, generally defined as an unselfish act for the welfare of others without regard for oneself. 

Altruism is a core teaching in most of the religions of the world. In the Jewish Torah and Christian Gospels, for example, there are many references to loving your neighbor as you love yourself. Yet, unfortunately, true altruism is extremely rare. Even people of faith will admit that in treating their neighbors as they would treat themselves they hope to gain everlasting benefits-like, say, entry into heaven, which is no trifle. 

Dwight Burlingame, professor of philanthropy at Indiana University, has said, "It is nearly impossible for someone to act with pure altruism."