I recommend The High Price of Materialism by Tim Kasser because in my opinion, if you want to understand philanthropy, you need to understand about materialism. Why? Because typically, a nonprofit’s competitor for the charitable dollar isn’t with another nonprofit down the street, it’s with the potential donor’s interest in material possessions. The question on their minds is “give $50 to save the planet, or order that nice looking shirt online?”
The High Price of Materialism also points out a philanthropic conundrum: people who are materialistic tend to have more wealth, and they’re the same people who are less “pro-social.” This doesn’t mean they won’t give, but their motivations are different. You’ll need to appeal to their “what’s in it for me” instinct, that telling why your cause helps others, or is “the right thing to do.”
Special thanks to New Dream and Doug Goldstein and his podcast Goldstein on Gelt for making the following videos available free on YouTube.
