top of page
Search

What Prompts Us to Give? Balancing Head and Heart


Ask most people what motivates philanthropy and they’ll probably say, “generosity.” But generosity isn’t simple. People give charity for many and overlapping reasons: tax advantages, social pressure (my friend asked me), ego (I want my name on a building), enlightened self-interest (I know a society that helps the powerless will be more prosperous and stable than a purely greedy society), admiration for particular leaders or institutions, outrage at injustice, empathy for people who are suffering, passion for culture, religious conviction, gratitude and a desire to give back, or countless other reasons.

Which motivations drive us — or rather, since competing motivations sometimes drive us in opposite directions, which motivations drive us most dominantly — can make a significant impact on how much we give, what causes we choose, what grantees foundations choose to support, how we structure or limit our grants, and every other aspect of our philanthropy. So, it’s worth asking ourselves: What thoughts and emotions are really prompting me to give?

Full article published in Sh'ma Now.

Comments

Andres's Substack

Notes from a Liminal Time

This Substack is driven by a simple frustration: too many conversations today are loud, moralized, and shallow at the same time. The spaces in which ideas can be discussed with intellectual depth are increasingly rare and often inaccessible.

Here, I write about contemporary Jewish and global issues, Jewish identity, antisemitism, philanthropy, community, and, at times, philosophy and science. The scope is intentionally eclectic.

These essays are addressed to readers interested in a deeper, more nuanced engagement with our moment, one that resists moral grandstanding and reflexive outrage, favors historical perspective and conceptual rigor, and refuses to treat complexity as a moral failure.

I engage in muscular polemics and intellectual guerrilla tactics when necessary. But the premise of this page is that, at times, it is also essential to slow down and think seriously. The underlying belief is simple but unfashionable: even in an age of clickbait and epistemic chaos, the effort is still worth it.

Who is this for: While some of the posts may sound like “inside baseball” for Jewish leaders and activists, this is for anyone—Jewish or not—interested in the forces reshaping communities, societies, and the world writ large. In sum, anybody who’s intellectually curious and unafraid of complexity.

​

Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.

© 2035 by Andres Spokoiny.

bottom of page