I really wanted to come back to the whole concept of generosity today.

Sowing and reaping. Law of Attraction etc…

Alex asked why people serve, but I’m wondering about what drives generosity in people.

Several months ago I started supporting Kiva.org. In fact we even ran a contest here and I ended up giving away three gift certificates. Jonathan-C Phillips got on the bandwagon as well as many others. Since that time, I’ve continued to support Kiva as you can see from the sidebar. In fact our church has been supporting Kiva for quite a while now too.

Since I gave my first loan to Kiva, the first entrepreneur has already paid back one loan. That’s exciting to me.

The last few times I’ve been at the kiva.org website, there haven’t been many entrepreneurs to lend to. The reason: Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton have featured the organization in books and on television. As a result of the exposure, lot’s of people have gotten involved.

My question is this: Why? Did they suddenly become generous because there was an opportunity? Or were people moved to generosity because someone said they should be?

Did Oprah and Bill Clinton (funny that the former president has to be identified by both first and last names) simply point out something that people were looking for? Or is it the power of personality?

My friend is headed to Sudan to provide some basic humanitarian aide. What would it take to get you to support him?

What moves you to be generous? What are the basic criteria you insist on in a charitable project? Let’s talk!