Friday, June 27, 2014

Currencies of Generosity

We tend to think that generosity is all about money. We hear "giving"
and we think about a cash gift or perhaps some other material transfer, such as in-kind donations. We think about tithing, about foundation grants, about microlending, about child sponsorship checks, about pallets of relief supplies paid for by $10 texts to the Red Cross. And generosity does include all of that.

But the truth is, generosity is deeper than money and wider than philanthropy. It is more than just writing a check or dropping your loose change in a can called Help. It isn't best measured in
transactions completed or numbers reached.

Just as there are many economic currencies around the world - dollars
and dinars, pounds and pesos, yens and yauns - so there are many 'currencies' of generosity. What are they? Well, there is the currency of giving one's time. The currency of physical energy. The currency of wisdom sharing. And that's not all. How about the currency of listening? The currency of empathy for those in pain? The currency of willingness to share one's connection and network with another? - Stephen Graves

Love this. Core to the idea of thinking about different missions support paradigms.

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