Posted on 10th November 2011
People want to give but a huge amount of “latent generosity” goes to waste, according to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts’ (Nesta) chief executive, Geoff Mulgan.
Mulgan said reciprocity should be embedded in our society, when speaking at CSV’s 21st Edith Kahn Memorial Lecture at the House of Commons earlier this month. He said: “It’s part of human nature - that if you receive you want to give. But very few institutions act on this.” Mulgan said elite universities and schools were good at asking for donations from former students but hospitals and state schools were very bad at asking for this kind of reciprocal support.
“Now I’m not saying you should have a collecting tin rattled at you as you leave the surgery,” he added, acknowledging that many people think paying taxes should entitle them to public services. However, he argues that if asked, people would like to give and that it would make them happier: “A huge amount of latent generosity just goes to waste, and, paradoxically, people feel worse as a result, because if there is one strong finding from research on happiness it is that giving something, thanking, makes us feel better.”
He also believes that there should be more peer pressure to encourage potential philanthropists to give. He told Philanthropy UK that Legacy 10, a campaign to encourage individuals across the UK to pledge 10% of their estate to charity was a good example of peer pressure.
He said that giving needed to be more visible among the wealthy to encourage others, stating that there was less of a culture of giving among the rich. “Much charitable giving in poor communities is visible to peers – whether it’s collecting door to door, or in a pub. There are strong social pressures to give. The higher up the income spectrum you go the less these seem to work.”
Full copy of Geoff Mulgan’s speech
