Billionaires and professionals turn to philanthropy to get that warm glow in their lives. And there are other motivations too—from currying favours with God and getting awards to converting profits to purpose, Miranda, chairman and cofounder of Indian School of Public Policy, and Pathak, a project associate, write
Why do people give? Is it to make this a better world? Is it to give back to society in gratitude? Is it to see a name on a building? Is it a response to peer pressure? In this article, I want to focus on one reason which is not talked about much: People give because it makes them feel good.
Let’s start off with the personal journey of my wife, Fiona, and I. We have been lucky to have built up a small nest egg thanks to the ESOPs and carried interest I picked up over the years. We don’t have a huge amount of money, but enough to know that we have enough. Many years ago, I read an interview where a philanthropist commented that he doesn’t like the term ‘give back’ because it implies that he ‘took too much’. Since then, I have avoided the term ‘give back’ because I also do not believe that I took too much. When we looked at why we gave, we realised that it made us feel good to do so. Having studied at the University of Chicago, I know the importance of self-interest and incentives, and this feel-good feeling was as strong an incentive as anything else.
(This story appears in the 10 March, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)