Charitable giving: What you get back is much more than you give

There are many ways you can give back to your community. You can volunteer your energy, time, money, or even emotional support. Volunteer work clearly benefits the community, but many people don’t realize how much  charitable giving benefits the giver as well. When you volunteer or donate to a charity, not only help ensure that those who need help receive it, but you are able to reap the rewards of helping another. Giving your time or funds to a cause you care about can improve your mental and physical health, relationships, and even provide financial wins.  

Here are some of my favorite ways that charitable giving can improve your life:

Donating and volunteering improve self-worth and self-esteem.

The act of volunteering or donating has major positive effects on the psyche. The most significant way giving back can benefit you is simple: it makes you feel good. When you sacrifice your time or money, it can help you feel a greater sense of purpose and result in satisfaction and growth.

A recent study using brain imaging found that the brain's pleasure centers are activated when people decide to donate money to charity. Dr. William T. Harbaugh, professor of economics says, “On top of that, people experience even more brain activation when they give voluntarily.” The study showed a higher brain response to voluntary giving. They claim that this may correspond to the “warm glow” reported by people after donating to a good cause. 

*Tip: A donation to a good cause in the place of a birthday or holiday gift can mean bonus mental health benefits. Both the giver and the receiver of the gift will feel positive effects...while helping others!

Giving back has financial benefits.

Giving back to the community can also benefit you financially. Charitable giving can be a valuable piece of your financial strategy. When you give to charity, you often will receive an overall tax deduction. If you give more than the standard, you can often get a deduction for the market value of your donation.  Another option is donating appreciated assets to a charity. When you do this, you don’t incur capital gains tax.

Charitable giving can improve your relationships.

Volunteering can be a great opportunity to strengthen relationships within your community and also with family and friends. Consider spending time giving back alongside your co-workers, a partner, or with your kids. When people work together to benefit a cause they care about as a group, it creates a sense of shared purpose.  Having launched company charitable initiatives before, I have seen this first hand.  At a former company over 90% of employees participated and it was consistently at the top of the list of things they appreciated about where they worked.  Charitable giving can give you and the people around you a passion to have in common. When everyone gives back, everyone wins! - Eyal Gutentag