During last year's United Way campaign, I was honored to hear one of our local business executives, Carl Satterwhite (notably, Mr. Satterwhite previously served as the Chair of the Board of Directors for our local United Way) speak at one of our fundraising events. He titled his talk, "You give to get to give" ("G2G2 Give" also happens to be his personalized license plate and part of his Twitter handle). Satterwhite's concept is pretty straightforward and comes from the old adage "It's better to give than to receive." Simply put, giving to a worthy cause feels good. Giving leads to happiness and a sense of fulfillment. Happiness and a sense of fulfillment, by their very nature, often lead to greater blessings and success in both our personal and professional lives. Greater blessings and success lead to greater opportunities, both financial and non-financial, which then leads to the chance to give even more! It's really a virtuous cycle!
There's also a biblical verse (from the New Testament) that says, "He who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously will also reap generously." In other words, you reap what you sow. You get what you give. And by giving, you get to give even more!
I will admit, a lot of this sounds like I am suggesting that we should give for personal gain. Nothing can be further from the truth. We should give because it is the right thing to do. We often hear statistics (and they are all true) that the United States spends far more on health care than any other country in the world. And we also hear statistics (again, all true) that the United States lags behind many of those same countries in terms of frequently used measures of health, such as infant mortality and life expectancy. But here's the thing. A few years ago, an investigator at Yale University named Elizabeth H. Bradley (Dr. Bradley is now the President of Vassar College) conducted an incredibly interesting study that was published in the journal, Health Affairs (she also wrote a book based upon her research called The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less ). Basically, if you compare what the United States spends on social services that directly impact the so-called social determinants of health AND health care, there is not much difference. In other words, we are spending more (lots more) on health care and less (much less) on social services compared to almost every other industrialized country in the world.
In other words, perhaps the United States is spending money on the wrong thing? Maybe we should be investing our money on things that impact the social determinants of health rather than spending it all on health care delivery. Unfortunately, I can almost guarantee that the current chaos that defines the U.S. government will never be able to make the decisions or kinds of changes necessary to re-deploy health care dollars on things that improve health. The only way we will be successful in making these kinds of changes is by supporting many of the private foundations and charitable organizations that exist to do exactly what I am talking about - improve health!
So, for two reasons then, organizations such as the United Way need our leaders to step up and do what they do best - lead. Leaders need to lead the way by supporting these organizations through giving, advocating for what these organizations do in our local communities, and volunteering for these organizations so that they can better fulfill their mission. Give. Advocate. Volunteer. In other words, "give to get to give."
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