In the last three steps you’ve explored yourself: your heart and history, your Generosity Gaps, and your strengths. Step 4 is about turning outward and looking at the world. How do you want your generous impulses to manifest? On what will you spend your currencies?

Strategic thinking around where you want to be effective is important for a deeper, more connected generosity. It helps you sort through the many requests for urgent support and offer yourself with intentionality to the causes that you are passionate about.

I like to distinguish between giving with charitable intent and giving from an abundant heart. Charitable giving is certainly a good thing, but it is different from a more connected generosity in these ways:

• It often starts from a defensive position: protect what you have and share what you have left over.
• It responds to requests rather than being donor-driven.
• In the end, we feel like we have less than we had before.

Here are some examples of charitable giving:

• Squeezing volunteering into our schedule
• Giving away old possessions
• Writing checks using our excess financial capacity

When people begin to feel dissatisfied with their giving and want to make a more significant impact, I encourage them to find the issues that make them want to make a difference.

Step 4 of the Generosity Gameplan is to react to the headlines. What stories in the news make you want to dig deeper, discover more? These are the issues that strike a chord with you. Maybe it’s because they resonate with your own life experience or because they awaken your sense of justice.

What issues get your blood pumping? Ask yourself, “What makes my heart stir?”

Exercise: Find your story

1. Find a story. Pick up a magazine or scroll through a news website that you read regularly. Find a story that you’re inspired to investigate or share and have a conversation about.
2. Find the theme. What is it in particular that draws you to this story? Is it the actual event? Or is it the people affected by the event? For example, perhaps you are drawn to a story about increasing rates of learning disabilities in children. Maybe the fact that learning disabilities are on the rise makes you stop and take note. Or maybe the fact that the story is about children causes your heart to stir. Note what it is about the story that touches you.

With this step, you’ve successfully shifted your thoughts from the personal to the public realm and have started the process of driving your own generosity.

John Stanley

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