The Ladder of Giving

One of the elements of my New Year’s resolution is to make a meaningful charitable donation at least once a week. By “meaningful”, I mean not just giving to an organization that has a worthy purpose and important objectives, but one that is fiscally and ethically responsible in the way that it handles our money. There are certain charities that we’ve been supporting for a number of years, such as St. Jude’s; City of Hope; Habitat for Humanity; the Southern Poverty Law Center; the Carter Center; Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation; the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; the USO and VFW. There are others that we’ve begun supporting more recently, such as UNICEF; CARE; Save Darfur; the One Campaign; International Rescue Committee; Doctors Without Borders; Heifer International; Smile Train; etc.

After deciding that I should understand more about the “responsible” element, I checked out Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org) and the American Institute of Philanthropy (http://www.charitywatch.org/), two non-profit organizations that publish charity ratings and provide excellent background data and information to help donors make more informed decisions about the organizations to which they donate (another source is GuideStar (http://www.guidestar.org). My objective this year is to focus on organizations that have an “A” or “B” rating from AIP or a 4-star or 3-star rating from Charity Navigator. Some of the organizations that we’ve supported in the past don’t appear on those lists, so added research is in order.

The 12th-century Jewish scholar, Maimonides, developed a “ladder of giving” with each rung representing a higher level of charitable virtue. His eight rungs are:

1. The Lowest: Giving begrudgingly and making the recipient feel disgraced or embarrassed.
2. Giving cheerfully but giving too little.
3. Giving cheerfully and adequately but only after being asked.
4. Giving cheerfully and adequately before being asked.
5. Giving when you don’t know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient knows your identity.
6. Giving when you know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient does not know your identity.
7. Giving when neither you nor the recipient knows the other's identity.
8. The Highest: Giving money, a loan, time or whatever else it takes to enable an individual to be self-reliant.

I’m not aware that I’ve ever stood on the lowest rung and I don’t think I’ve ever risen to the highest rung, unless helping my children become self-reliant qualifies. In my younger years I stood mostly on rungs 2 and 3, then I moved up to rungs 4 and 5 when I got more established. The challenge on rungs 6 and 7 is to give anonymously. Maimonides developed his ladder before checks, credit cards, receipts, tax deductions, Internet giving, and organization membership were part and parcel of the giving process. Complete anonymity is a bit of a challenge these days. I think it’s probably sufficient to simply donate without seeking or getting any public recognition for it.

I’ve given up some anonymity by mentioning here some of the groups my wife and I are supporting. But, no one other than my wife and our accountant (and who knows how many people at the IRS and the White House) knows the full list of whom we’ve supported and to what extent we’ve supported them.

I’m addressing the subject here in order to encourage my family and friends to: make regular donations to a variety of causes; to challenge themselves to step up a rung or two on the “ladder of giving”; to consider donating to the groups that we’ve supported; and to make more informed decisions by checking out the available charity rating services.

Most of my family and friends are in a position to help others to some extent. Obviously, that ability varies from family to family, but the point is that we can all get involved and do something, even if it’s small. Even if donating more isn’t possible right now, just becoming more informed about the human condition across our country and around the world by investigating these charitable organizations costs nothing but a little time on the computer.

Eventually, the people being helped by one or more of these charities will “speak to us” in ways that motivate action that we didn’t think was possible. They remind us that we’re all in this life together; that we’re all in need; that we’re all needed; and that we’re all able to step up the ladder and help each other in some way.