Giving Tuesday Showed Who We Really Are

Giving Tuesday was on December 1, 2020, during one of the United States' and the world’s most dire times. In the face of unbearable loss, we cling to hope, to possibility and potential, and to the community we create amongst each other. One giving website[1] reported a 63 percent increase for online donations from 2019, distributing $13.25 million dollars to more than 4,000 non-profits. And that’s just one site.

I have been hearing one broadcast after another reporting that giving was up 25 percent from last year. In 2019, Giving Tuesday raised $1.97 billion. Our national community gave almost $2.5 billion to charity less than a year into one of the worst economic crises in our national history.

That is who we are.

This is how a community acts when threatened with an unimaginable challenge.

We come together.

We band together.

We find a way to work together to relieve each other’s stress and remind each other of our value. Respect leads to value, and value leads to trust.

I believe this represents a shift from our primitive limbic system to our modern pre-frontal cortex (PFC). Quick brain review: Living deep in our brain is an ancient part called the limbic system, reacting to the world with emotions like fear and anger and sadness. Our limbic system is responsible for storing memories. And our limbic system can make us impulsive, acting without always thinking in response to those emotions and memories. It is our reptilian brain, primitive, designed for reflexive survival responses to our world. Without it, we probably would not have survived as a species.

Our PFC lives right behind our forehead, part of our neocortex or "new brain." Our PFC is responsible for recognizing problems, solving those problems, executing a plan, and anticipating what will happen next. This powerful combination of our limbic brain and our PFC has given humans a significant survival edge.

Being able to anticipate the future can help us design a response to the world. We can be reflective instead of reflexive. We can wonder instead of worry.

I think the 25 percent increase in charitable giving during this time of need is the shift from our limbic reflexive impulse to the reflective influence of our PFC. This is an evolutionary leap. It is the leap I have been waiting for. Shifting from our world of fear and anger, of sadness and loss, to the world where adaptation is innovation, where we recognize the needs of others and do what we can to help.

Each of those donations reminded those charities of their value. And each person that donated increased their own value. It felt good to give, a limbic reinforcement of a pre-frontal action. On a deep level, our country anticipated the future and what could happen next, what would happen next, and decided what should happen next.

To come together in the spirit of giving. To feel the remarkable joy of being a benefactor and helping those in their time of need.

That’s what makes a group stronger. Instead of continuing to think survival is about competing and taking from others, Giving Tuesday demonstrated how the new way to survive is to cooperate and contribute. This prosocial behavior is truly part of who we are.[2]

The I-M Approach

Source: Joseph Shrand, M.D.

Charity begins at home, but my home is more than just the house on my street. It is more than just my town or my state or my country. My home is part of the planet. Which means we are all neighbors, just a little farther away. Every friend was once a stranger.

We have the capacity to reflect: What will happen next if we remain reflexive? If we continue this anger and division in our country and our world? Rather than band together in groups divided by race or politics or economics or geographies, let’s remember that at least last Tuesday, millions of citizens came together to help each other. Let’s keep thinking ahead. Let’s keep using our PFC.