The great challenges of our time — poverty, the environment, war — should inspire humility, but also creativity and bold action. They cry out for large-minded generosity — that is, the magnanimity that springs from wholesome self-esteem. Without humility, we elbow others aside. But without magnanimity, we bury our talent in a napkin.
- Dean Brackley

Here comes the rainy season! Governments and organizations from all over the world have sent people, equipment and supplies, and funds into the country.  These organizations are there for the long haul and hope to better Haitians lives well beyond pre-earthquake levels. Many individuals from all over the globe have contributed as well with generous donations. What do we know about how that giving has continued beyond the initial response, when the Haiti earthquake was the lead story and horrifying pictures were in the media every day?

Data about giving by individuals beyond the first few days is hard to come by. Historically, individual giving has dropped off as soon as the initial crisis is over. It is possible to imagine many people sending an initial donation, one that is as generous as the person can afford at the moment. This may give the feeling that an appropriate response has been given and nothing more needs to be done.

Network for Good reported on January 22nd of this year:

After the Haiti earthquake, donations peaked within two days of the event and then steadily declined. New media coverage of aftershocks and on-the-ground response complications slowed the decline of giving one week out. The House of Representatives bill to include Haiti donations on 2009 tax returns may encourage more charitable contributions in the weeks ahead, further slowing the donation drop-off that usually occurs post-disaster.

Here is a chart from Network for Good, showing the donation amounts per day following the disaster:

Now the United Nations and the Red Cross are warning that on top of their other troubles, the rainy season is coming to Haiti and, if they cannot improve sanitation, water, facilities, etc – falling water and standing water will just add to people’s illness and suffering.

What have you decided about your contributions to Haiti earthquake relief?

• Make a single donation, as large as I can make
• Work with an organization to help gather donations, supplies, etc.
• Make regular donations until the Haitians are out of danger
• Leave it up to governments and the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to support disaster relief

The donor does not go without reward.
-The Buddha

Bill & Melinda Gates, photo © 2009 Kjetil Ree, some rights reserved

For the second year in a row, Bill Gates has published a rather sprawling annual letter. It is about what the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is seeing in all of the worldwide data they have access to, and the foundation’s activities. Gates is frank, appreciative and optimistic about what we can achieve together with our generosity. In light of the tough problems the foundation is directly confronting, this is inspiring.

Despite the tough economy, I am still very optimistic about the progress we can make in the years ahead. A combination of scientific innovations and great leaders who are working on behalf of the world’s poorest people will continue to improve the human condition.
- Bill Gates

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation takes a more global view than countries or even groups of countries (the European Union or United Nations for instance), so the letter is pretty broad in perspective. The 2010 Annual Letter from Bill Gates covers 12 “chapters”, including of the foundation priority areas. This makes it easy to read the parts that are of most interest to you on the web.

One thing that particularly concerns Gates is the amount of foreign aid given by individual countries. He measures this “generosity” by taking foreign aid as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). By this measure, the United States, although the largest giver in total dollar amounts, falls far below other industrialized countries.

The United States is the biggest giver in absolute terms, but in percentage terms gives only 0.19 percent. In recent years, a significant portion of this assistance went to reconstruction in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. If Congress passes President Obama’s proposal to double giving, however, the United States will get up into a very respectable range.
- Bill Gates

Here is the chart showing the 2008 figures:

As part of their efforts, Bill and Melinda Gates are working to spread the word about how highly successful aid effort have been. Gates says,

The public may not prioritize keeping foreign aid at high levels because so many of them have not heard how effective it is. Some formed their image of foreign aid during the Cold War, when money was sent to buy the allegiance of a dictator with very little control to make sure it was well spent. We need to get the successes to be far more visible than they are today.

To that end, they created the presentation, Why We are Impatient Optimists. This is available in its entirety on the web, in parts according to topic and there is a highlights video if you want get an idea of what type of information is covered. I have embedded the entire video below but if you click through on the hotlink above, you can select just a potion to watch if you wish. Enjoy!

UN Photo/Logan Abass

The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.
- Walt Whitman

The recent tragedy of the Haiti earthquake has resulted in an amazing outpouring of generosity on the part of Americans. This has included charitable responses by aid organizations, medical and emergency rescue assistance and supplies, the US military lending its resources, and the contributions of countless private citizens. This is a bright spot in a bleak catastrophe, one that provides the potential for people’s generosity to keep growing.

The most recent total of financial giving for Haiti is $560,000,000. This is an astounding amount of generosity, especially when you consider that these donations are over and above people’s existing responsibilities and charitable gifts. This is $560 million dollars donated by Americans, most of which would not have been donated before the tragedy – which still continues. Hopefully the giving will also continue to sustain the effort until Haiti gains some rebuilding.

What does this mean for the average person (who may or may not be experiencing financial difficulty herself during this time)? What might she learn through responding to the Haiti earthquake disaster?

• She may understand in a new way that her money can be a blessing to someone else.
• She may feel as if, in the face of this unspeakable horror, that she can contribute to making the survivor’s lives better – even in a small way.
• She may use this as an opportunity to teach young people (her children or others’) about being generous.
• She may realize that, no matter how much or little she has, she has something to give to people in need.
• She may learn something about doing basic research to ensure her donations are made skillfully.
• She may understand that she has more resources than she thought.

Cynics may decry that human tragedy is needed to free up people’s generosity, that we are reactive givers instead of responsive givers. There may also be doubts about how well these donations can be managed to make the most difference. Concerns over the sovereignty of the Haitian people and government may arise as they are surrounded by aid efforts. Eventually there may be stories of mismanagement, and scam artists are already trying to take advantage of people’s desire to contribute.

Still, a door has opened in people’s hearts. Something is moving that was not moving before, and new levels of charity mean that some of those donors will discover something in this process. Neuroscience teaches us that as we do new things, our brain can develop new neural-pathways, new links, to accommodate those actions. Each new action is an opportunity. In this case, hundreds of thousands of opportunities to grow in our generosity have occurred.

Nothing, no amount of money or aid or support, will undo the terrible devastation, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, the actual collapse of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The good things that may grow out of the Haiti Earthquake are incidental and will be shadowed into darkness by the suffering the Haitians are enduring. Still it is worthwhile to keep our spirits up, and theirs as much as we can by noticing any bright spots in the grief. To me, the generosity of thousands of Americans like you is a bright spot which bodes well for our future.

The practice of generosity is about creating space.
We see our limits and we extend them continuously,
which creates an expansiveness and spaciousness of mind that’s deeply composed.
- Sharon Salzburg