杰夫·考夫曼和朱莉娅·怀斯是一对住在波士顿的年轻夫妇。杰夫是谷歌的软件工程师，朱莉娅是一名社工。过去几年，他们将税后收入的近60%捐赠给致力于在发展中国家减少贫困和拯救生命的慈善机构。尽管他们的年收入加起来超过六位数，但他们每年只花1.5万美元左右。自2008年以来，他们已累计捐赠超过25万美元。
这笔钱数额巨大，听起来像是很大的牺牲。但他们坚称并非如此。朱莉娅在她的博客中写道：“我们最爱的那些事——和家人朋友共度时光、创作音乐、跳舞、烹饪、阅读——都是我们可以在预算有限的情况下完成的。如果我们减少捐赠，就会把更多钱花在自己身上，但可能不会明显更快乐。”她说，捐赠是她生命中最重要的事情之一，她这样做是因为她相信“人们——所有人，即使是远方的人——都不应该遭受不必要的痛苦和死亡。”
我也有同感。与杰夫和朱莉娅相比，我的捐赠微不足道，但我去年还是捐出了收入的11%左右，其中大部分捐给了致力于拯救或改善发展中国家人民生活的慈善机构。而且我计划捐赠更多。
我发现，大额捐赠的意义截然不同。当你捐赠一大笔钱时，你会感到自己为一项使命贡献力量，产生了切实的影响，并且觉得自己举足轻重。其实，你不必捐赠很多就能有所作为：例如，在印度或肯尼亚，给一个孩子驱虫只需大约30美分；在马拉维或刚果民主共和国，购买和分发一顶抗疟疾蚊帐的成本大约在5到7.5美元之间。但如果你有能力通过捐赠更多来扩大这些数字，你就可以帮助改善成百上千人的生活。使用“拯救生命”慈善影响力计算器，看看你的捐款可以帮助多少人。
我最初决定加大捐赠力度时，我的理念是“捐赠到心痛为止”。但现在我的想法不同了。过去十年，我努力审视自己的所有物、习惯和生活方式，目标是剔除那些我不需要或不能给我带来快乐的东西。结果是，我拥有或做的事情，大部分都是我主动选择保留（或继续做）的。这让我感到快乐，进而减少了我购买更多东西的冲动，因为我对现在拥有的感到满足。正因为我的欲望减少了，所以我才能捐赠更多。
当你将这种方法应用到生活的方方面面时，它会让你朝着朱莉娅·怀斯（Julia Wise）上述描述的方向发展：你会发现，你并不需要花费很多钱就能获得幸福和快乐。即使收入不高，你也会发现自己还有剩余的钱可以捐赠，而不会感到自己做出了牺牲。哲学家托比·奥德（Toby Ord）就做过类似的事情。他计算出自己每年需要多少钱才能维持简单而舒适的生活方式，然后公开承诺，在他余下的职业生涯中，每年将超出这个数额的所有收入捐赠给有效的慈善机构。
并非人人都能慷慨解囊：要么收入丰厚，要么节俭度日。并非人人都能做到这些。但正如朱莉娅·怀斯所写：“慷慨并不需要富有。对那些腰缠万贯的人来说或许更容易，但我们这些连房租和伙食费都要操心的人，依然可以做很多事。我的祖母在经济独立期间，一直捐出收入的10%，即使在她靠社会保障金生活的时候也是如此。”
对我来说，归根结底就是这样：我每年捐给高效慈善机构的钱有很多其他用途。但我能想到更好的用途吗？没有。我觉得这是我能想到的最好的理财方式。比起奢靡生活，我更乐意慷慨解囊。
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No matter how low one's income is, it's always possible to give something...but it's been slipping down into what North Americans call poverty that's made me commit to giving to individuals on a give-and-take basis, rather than either taking or giving handouts from "programs." "Programs" that go beyond disaster relief seem to have an unintended consequence of training people to think, and define themselves, into a Giver Class and a Taker Class--which is very bad for both--rather than bonding through an individual or community-level give-and-take.
"Programs" also tend to have an industrial-assembly-line approach to problems. That's fine if the goal is to dispense treatment in one epidemic, like the worm treatment discussed in the article, or the surgeries discussed in the comment below. It's not so fine once people start thinking about "health care" in general, since the people in the target population are individuals with different needs, and what helps one won't necessarily help another. That's how communities end up with bizarre crises, like one that's stuck in my mind for fifteen years--Medicare/Medicaid financed therapy for paraplegics who were elderly or had major brain damage, but not for what turned out to be a good-sized community of paraplegics who could actually go back to work or school if they had therapy.
So...as a rich man's penniless widow I still give to various causes, but I give much more selectively, thinking much harder about how the project described would work for people I know, whether it would give us the help we need (to collect fair payment for what we do) or write us off as useless paupers. I have a utility bill to pay...but do I want some kind of handout to help poor old needy useless blighters pay their bills, or do I want wages for work?
[Hide Full Comment]One year I gave $250 to an organization that does surgeries on babies with cleft palate. The group's materials said this was the amount one surgery cost. I felt so, so good that I changed one person's life -- permanently!
I live very simply on a small income. My husband and I drive ancient vehicles and live in a home that resembles a chicken coop from the outside. That was the most I have ever given to one group, and at the time I felt compelled to do it, even though it was a lot of money for me.
The afterglow has lasted for years. Giving big -- whatever that means of each of us -- is so rewarding!
Here's to giving, large or small. It makes a difference. And agreed, here's to living more simply. One of the best decisions I ever made was selling my small home and most of my possessions to create/facilitate a volunteer literacy project in Belize. Through that choice I was able to serve 33,000 students and train 800 teachers. That experience opened up so many doors to other volunteering adventures collecting and sharing people's real life stories of hope, innovation and overcoming adversity. I chose to live under the poverty line for 9 years and I felt absolutely rich! Thank you to all those who choose to serve others and to share their gifts: whether time and talents or monetarily! Hugs from my heart to yours!