Survey - Why Do You Give?

We were reading this month's edition of Biz 941 and particularly enjoyed this column:

"Survey: Why Do You Give?" (Biz 941, December 2010)

It asked several business people in the Sarasota Manatee area about their charitable giving and we enjoyed reading their answers.  My wife told me this once and I find it amazing - more Americans GIVE than VOTE (around 80% give to charity while 60% is considered a good turnout for an election!).

We particularly John Saputo's idea of success from the article: "Success without lifting others—as the Jesuits said—is nothing but greed and narcissism. When you raise others, I have found you only go higher in the treasure called esteem and brotherhood."

Most importantly, we can all do something.  In this past year, we helped the Women's Resource Center of Manatee and look forward to doing more with them and possibly other charitable organizations in our community.  As the year-end draws closer, we reflect on everything we have to be thankful for and hope to share those blessings as much as possible in 2011.