A month or so ago, my LinkedIn feed was brimming with articles, videos, pictures and comments about various charitable events. People doing good things. Publicized. People talking about how great it made them feel. Giving back, doing good works. Reminded me of the professional athletes out there, giving money to charity for every home run they hit, every strikeout, every touchdown… or whatever their specialty. Or, having press conferences announcing large contributions to various charities orchestrated with their publicists.
Absolutely nothing wrong with this type of giving. Certainly helps a lot of people. Better to give publicly than not give at all. Perhaps it inspires others to give.
But there is another way to give. The quiet, secret way. No cameras, no social media, no publicity at all. Earnestly asking the people benefitted, or anyone else seeing it… to tell no one else. There is a certain NFL quarterback that gave large sums of money as anonymously as possible. He also visited a children’s hospital every chance he could. Swearing everyone to secrecy… just there for the kids. No one knew. For years, he was able to keep it a secret. The staff, the parents, all honored his request to keep his secret. This may be rare, but it happens in all professions. Secret giving.
When I was about eight years old, my grandmother told me the story of what happened shortly after the death of her husband. He was an executive with the Pullman Car Company (big back in the days of passenger trains). After he died, she began getting visits from seemingly random people trying to give her money and lavish gifts. She discovered that he had been helping people in need for many years. Secretly. He had not even told her, his wife. As she began to understand why all these people were coming to her, she asked them to do what he had done for them. Quietly give back to others. A precursor to the “pay it forward” movement.
Perhaps you already give in this different way. And no one will know but you. It is a powerful concept. A powerful practice. And a very, very old one.