Six Questions to Discover What Motivates Your Giving

If you are someone who feels the drive to give, a big step is figuring out the right organization or organizations to give to. It feels like it should be easy, right? Just look around for some cause that you believe in, find the online form, and fill in your credit card information.

But it’s not that simple. In the real world, the options are practically endless and can easily get overwhelming.  You and your family likely have some tie to one or more great causes that have touched your own story at some point in your lives. How do you pick? And at the same time, requests are coming at you from every direction on TV, in magazines, from friends, and in the mail.

The bottom line is that it’s hard to decide.

Here are 6 questions I use to help people decide where to direct their gifts of time, money, or both:

What’s your passion? It’s that thing you think about everyday and can’t get enough of.

What gets you all fired up? We all have things that we get excited about doing—what’s yours and how often are you doing it?

What problems do you really care about solving? This is often something that you’re constantly talking about with your friends and family—it comes up because you care.

What kind of giving do you think will do your community the most good? What organizations do you see making a difference in your neighborhood? Your state? Your country?

What opportunity is out there to advance your vision for a better world? When you think about where to make a gift, think about who is doing the kind of work you want to see happen.

What example(s) can you think of where an organization you love used money effectively? It’s important to see the messages and organization puts out there in the world, but it’s just as important to see the proof in action.

Over the years I’ve been introduced to literally hundreds of nonprofits and other groups who want my support. Every responsible and successful nonprofit knows that most of their money and volunteer time come from caring, passionate people.  If they recognize the value of your investment, they demonstrate the importance of your gift and treat you accordingly.

I’ve found that deciding where to give comes from understanding what motivates you to give in the first place. And motivation is about passion. Investing your gift in something you care deeply about will help you stay interested and engaged for the long-term. And you need to find those causes out there that capture your heart, not just your money.  By concentrating on those, your gift will be all the more effective, meaningful and most of all, transformative.

Like what you hear? Pick up a copy of Every Gift Matters: How Your Passion Can Change the World.