Is Giving Back in Our DNA?
Since the beginning of America, we have been a very giving people. Starting with the Pilgrims in 1630, neighbors relied on each other to survive the harsh winters. The settlers raised each other’s barns, hosted quilting bees for the community, and built common areas in their towns. Benjamin Franklin, one of the most famous American Founding Fathers is also known as the Founding Father of American volunteerism in the late 1700’s. He gathered volunteers to sweep the streets of Philadelphia, organized the nation’s first volunteer fire department, established a voluntary militia, and organized a philosophical society. His philosophy was “individuals working together, uncoerced, for the common good”.
In the 1830s, two groups who felt their lack of power – women, who had no right to vote, and the clergy, whose political authority was weakened by the constitutional separation of church and state – formed benevolent societies to focus on issues they felt hurt our country. These groups addressed slavery, cruelty, drinking, illiteracy, and more.
And it continues to the modern day with the forming of the Red Cross, local libraries, community parks, defeating Polio and helping infants today with the March of Dimes, and the late Paul Newman’s Foundation donating $600 Million of profits to his Hole in the Wall camps for kids with serious diseases, or the over 2 million volunteers helping the nonprofit Feeding America providing food and meals in their local communities. Volunteers over the last few American centuries are really the change makers in our evolving society.
Many of us participate in charity in some form. It can be as simple as taking cookies to an aging neighbor or donating items you no longer use to a good cause. According to the Charities Aid Foundation, which analyzes the world giving index, which measures helping a stranger, donating money to a charity, and volunteering your time; The United States worldwide ranks #3 at 59% of our population involved in giving back. The world leader is Indonesia at 68%, followed by Kenya at 61%.
The Census Bureau reports that 51% of the US population age 16 and older, or 124.7 million Americans volunteered their time, energy, and talent to help others. This is 51% of the population giving 4 billion hours of time which has a value of $123 Billion. 59% of Baby Boomers informally volunteered, which was the highest rate of all the generations, giving this group a lifetime of experience to tap into to help those in the greatest need. Veterans also helped their neighbors at a 59% rate, which is 8% higher than nonveterans.
2023 is the year we need to pull the charity gene out of our DNA and use it to help our fellow Americans. With our government at a standstill, unable to pass just about any legislation to help our country and others around the world, it is up to the common citizen to reach out to others in their community, no matter what political view they hold, religion they belong to or status they have in our society. If you can’t make the time to volunteer to help others, at least give some financial support. Online the Network for Good and the site Just Give are a good start to help non-profits needing our backing.
More than 200 years ago, Ben Franklin felt that the average citizen must share in a commitment to the greater good of their community and their country.
Mr. Franklin believed that “one served not to save their soul, but to build a strong society”. In our modern-day society, volunteering still forms the core of the American character. It is who we are and how we pass on freedom and caring to the next generation. Maybe that is one reason that seniors volunteer at a higher rate than our children. The experience of life that seniors finally learn after all those years, is each day is so precious and we should not waste it just on ourselves. Now if we can teach the younger generations to care more about others, perhaps we can become the #1 most charitable nation, just like our forefathers…
Originally Published on https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/author/marcjoseph/
