There’s a variety of old adages that tout the value of giving.
The more you give, the more you receive…
What goes around comes around…
Nobody has ever become poor by giving…
It’s this time of year, perhaps coinciding with the thankfulness of Thanksgiving (or balancing the indulgence of Black Friday), that many of us start thinking about giving. At the most basic level, we’ll be pulling our hair out finding those perfect gifts for the important people in our lives. But it is also about giving back, to our communities or otherwise, by volunteering or being charitable in other ways.
Being generous, particularly with your time and energy, has an incredibly positive impact on others. At the same time, it has a tremendous impact on you as the giver.
Given the lens through which we see the world (on this blog at least), we thought we’d explore how giving back benefits us, particularly how it makes us more creative, more productive, and better to collaborate with.
Giving Back Makes Us More Productive
People who feel more inclined to help others (known as “prosocial motivation”) display higher levels of well-being at work, enabling them to be more productive overall. What drives this?
One idea is that giving is a major boost to motivation. Studies have found that being generous and helping others increases feel-good hormones (such as serotonin and dopamine), an effect that’s been named “the helpers high”.
In turn, positivity and productivity are closely linked. That mood boost and sense of accomplishment you get from doing something for someone else (or perhaps even giving the perfect gift) don’t just feel nice, it could spur you on to achieve more.
On top of this, volunteering has been shown to lower cortisol, the stress hormone. This means your good deeds could help to protect against the negative impacts of stress on cognition and well-being and make you more resilient in the process. Stress, of course, is terrible for productivity.
It’s kind of like going to the gym for your “soul” (or whatever you believe in).
Giving Back Boosts Creativity
When we give – and especially when we volunteer – we are usually working to overcome challenges that are outside of our regular context. The act requires empathy and imagination: How can you make an impact that will be appreciated?
Solving problems in a different context also creates psychological distance from your own projects. This encourages a broader, more abstract way of thinking, which could boost your creativity across the board. Your synapses fire in novel ways, building connections in ways your brain has never done before.
Spending time as a community volunteer means encountering different experiences and diverse perspectives. This positively impacts creativity by providing inspiration, encouraging curiosity, and highlighting different ways of approaching problems.
Giving Back Makes Us Better Collaborators
Volunteering is a well-recognized way to build the soft skills that underpin effective collaboration, such as communication and empathy. It gives us a chance to interact and work with new people in whole new ways, which can challenge us to become more socially adaptable.
For charity work, volunteers tend to share a similar value or interest set. The charity’s cause tends to be a common thread amongst volunteers. But that can often be where the similarity ends. Education levels, socioeconomic status, age, professional achievement and so much more tend to be much more diverse than the typical workplace. This pushes volunteer groups to actively focus on being collaborative, open-minded, and especially considerate.
That said, it can also be highly valuable for existing teams (whether work colleagues or other) to join forces for group volunteering. Pulling together for a good cause can build comradery and help improve team alignment. It can also help colleagues get to know each other in a different context, highlighting traits, skills, or life experiences they have that might have not come up otherwise.
All of these advantages help us to become better team players and on a larger scale, to create kinder, more cohesive workplaces.
Choosing How and Where to Volunteer
There are many ways you could choose to donate your time and energy, but some will work better for you than others. It’s well worth thinking beyond the obvious and spending time finding an opportunity where you can really thrive.
Use Your Skills
Writing for UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, philanthropic adviser Jenny Santi says: “If you have a special skill that could further a cause, that’s the one to apply to your philanthropic giving. You’ll be much happier and more effective that way.”
There are lots of ways you could use your skillset to benefit a cause on a pro bono basis. Charities often advertise specific needs through job boards or national volunteering platforms like Volunteer.gov (or Volunteer Canada) but it never hurts to reach out directly to organizations you are passionate about to see if they need any help.
Think About Personal Development
You could take the opposite approach. Volunteering can be a great way to work on personal development. Instead of applying your existing skills, think about skills you’d like to build or where you’d like to push outside your comfort zone.
Many organizations provide training for their volunteers and great opportunities to learn through getting hands-on.
You might also benefit from doing something as far away from your day-to-day as possible. Get away from the computer screen and work at the local soup kitchen. Go on a local neighborhood cleanup. See how far you can get from your daily routine.
Go with What Brings You Joy
Another tip from Jenny Santi is to be guided by what matters to you and not to feel guilty about it. “It is not how much we give,” she explains, “but how much love we put into giving that makes it fulfilling. It’s only natural that we will care about one cause and not so much about another, and that’s okay.”
Think about what matters most to you and use that to guide your search. You could also think of things you enjoy (like a sport or hobby) and ways you could enable other people to experience that pleasure too. Great memories playing soccer or scouting? Getting involved in the next generation of these activities could be a fulfilling and beneficial experience.
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to rank causes by “importance”. You don’t have to be saving the world for your given time to matter.
Explore Employer Supported Volunteering
Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) is where companies enable their staff to volunteer during paid hours – it’s one of the benefits we offer as part of a culture of kindness and generosity.
ESV could take the form of PTO to work on a cause of your choice or an opportunity facilitated by your organization.
Even if your company doesn’t already have an ESV option, engaging with a cause alongside your colleagues can be a first step to getting your wider company to adopt a giving perspective. Sometimes, you just need to lead by example.
Make it Part of Your Long-term Plan
Charities are often overwhelmed by the volume of Christmas volunteers and then struggle for staff at other times. Though the holidays usually spark that motivation to give back, spreading your efforts throughout the year will maximize their impact.
Some volunteering opportunities, like taking part in projects abroad or acting as a charity trustee, take a bit more organizing and commitment.
When you’re making your new year plans, try to make it a habit to think of ways you can give back throughout the year. You might want to make volunteering part of your 5- or 10-year plan. As well as ensuring you can enjoy the benefits all year round, it also means you can think strategically about the opportunities you’d most like to take part in and register your interest in advance.
Give Back To Your Community and Thrive Together
As well as having a profound impact on others and providing a huge sense of fulfilment, giving back broadens perspectives, increases motivation, and challenges us to keep adapting.
Besides making us happier, volunteering helps us to perform better at work and make us better at our jobs and more effective collaborators.
You can say with certainty that giving back is the gift that keeps on giving.
