# Were we born to give? We won’t find out just yet

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/07/05/were-we-born-give-we-won039t-find-out-just-yet/
- Published: 2007-07-05T10:42:55+01:00
- Author: Ian MacQuillin

**I’d be prepared to bet a fairly large sum of money that the new giving research
centre being set up by the Economic and Social Research Council will not even have
in its remit one of the most important factors underpinning and driving our propensity
to give, to be charitable, and to be altruistic.**

, which states that the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy will ‘investigate
whether charitable activity might mitigate or reinforce social and economic inequalities,[
and] understand the role between fundraising and distribution as well as the relationships
between those giving and those receiving’, I don’t really know what its terms of
reference will be.

So how can I be so sure the CCGP (got a rather Socialist ring to it, don’t you think?)
won’t consider this motivation that I think is so important? Simple. Because hardly
anyone in this sector does.

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## ⏎ D is for…

I’m talking about the ‘D’ word – Darwinism.

For the past 20-30 years, the outside world has been accommodating itself to the
idea that our brains – and hence our minds – have been subject to the same pressures
of natural selection that have shaped the rest of our bodies. That means that our
personalities and behaviours have been shaped by evolution by natural selection –
a school of thought known as evolutionary psychology.

Two characteristically human behaviours are, of course, altruism and generosity.
Evolutionary psychology would therefore offer explanations of why human beings are
altruistic and charitable in terms of the survival advantage these behaviours afforded
our ancestors. In other words, being altruistic is part of our inherent biological
make-up.
Yet as with so many things, the voluntary sector once again lags behind
the rest of society.

Many fundraisers I’ve discussed this with do not want Darwinian thinking to have
any place in an understanding of charity. It’s almost as if they fear that something
would be lost about the human spirit – ‘surely charity has to be more than just 
an evolved behaviour’? [Of course it is more than ‘just’ an evolved behaviour. I’m
not going into the arguments here, mainly because there isn’t room. Anyone who is
interested, though, should get themselves a copy of the Origins of Virtue by Matt
Ridley, which is an excellent introduction to this subject.]

Conceptual thinking in this sector is still anchored pretty firmly in the social
science orthodoxy that formed the paradigm for most of the 20th century. This directs
us to assume that all motives to social behaviour are socially determined or the
product of social factors alone.

That’s why I am so sure a Darwinian understanding of charitable behaviour will not
even be on CCGP’s radar.

## Fundraisers should look for thoughts, not things

Fundraisers are always looking for – clamouring for, even – the next big thing. 
But they assume that this will be some specific technique such as virtual giving
or some overarching, generic technique such as integrated new media or stewardship.

Instead we should be looking not for things but for thoughts. The next big thing
won’t be what someone does; it will be what they think. It will be a paradigm shift
in the way we understand why people give to charity – and once we have the ‘why’
we can start tailoring the techniques that tap into those newly-uncovered motives.

The new ‘why’ is likely to have a Darwinian answer.

To uncover it, we need a research centre that is going take our understanding of
charitable behaviour into the 21st century. Instead I fear we will have one that
looks at giving in the language of the 1960s, with the result that fundraisers will
overlook a whole set of motivations to give to charity.

  **[Darwin £10 note enters extinction on 1 March](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/02/12/darwin-10-note-enters-extinction-1-march/)(
  12 February 2018)**
  **[How to use sex to improve your fundraising](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/18/how-use-sex-improve-your-fundraising/)(
  18 June 2009)**
  **[£50,000 in Darwinian matched giving on the Big Give Monday](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/02/20/50000-darwinian-matched-giving-big-give-monday/)(
  20 February 2009)**