Share the joy - ASK

“I can’t ask people for money. I HATE begging! Don’t you? How can you stand it?”

If you’re in Development, you’ve heard these words – from board members, administrators, staff and volunteers. But in Development, we just see asking differently. For us, we invite people, who share our interests, to join us in making a difference. Doing good feels good.

Well, it turns out science agrees. Giving actually does make us happy. It all started long ago. Dacher Keltner, co-director of UC Berkley’s Greater Good Science Center, points out that because our young are fragile, the human race wouldn’t have lasted if we hadn’t developed altruism. He says, “Human Beings have survived as a species because we evolved the capacity to care for those in need and to cooperate.”

Helping others is who we are. It’s part of our biology. It’s part of our chemistry. Literally. Jorge Moll of the National Institute of Health shared the biology of happiness. He and his colleagues found that giving to charities activates the regions of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection and trust. (Which may help us understand why trust is so important in our relationships with donors.)

Eva Ritva, MD, a psychiatrist, explains the chemistry. She says that giving releases Happiness Trifecta of brain chemicals. Kindness triggers the release of oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine. You get the same high as running several miles – without even having to breathe hard. Not only is your mood boosted, but these chemicals counteract the effects of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Michael Norton and his colleagues at Harvard Business School found giving to others increased happiness even more than spending on ourselves. Happiness, better health, who wouldn’t want to share that, but wait. There’s more.

Giving may even lengthen your life span. Steve Cole of UCLA and Barbara Fredrickson of UNC-CH found a life of meaning and purpose (or eudaimonic happiness) lowers the inflammatory response, because it is so pleasurable. It also strengthens our connections to others and that strengthens our immune system.

So just think, when you give a person, who cares about your mission, an opportunity to help, an opportunity to be part of doing good, you are sharing happiness. You are sharing purpose and social connection. You are sharing better health and longer life.

So do your friends, your donors a favor. Give them the opportunity to give.