Richard Leider teams again with Larry Spears, The Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, to explore how calling intersects with philanthropy in “The Heart of Giving:  Servant Leadership and Purposeful Philanthrophy.”  Following is an excerpt from the article.

Almost everyone who embarks on the journey of purposeful living eventually becomes both a philanthropist and a servant-leader. One person may give millions, another a few dollars, while others give time, but the principle they follow is the same: the more you give the more you get back.

This is not to say that philanthropists give with the sole intention of getting back — it only means that a basic principle of life is that you get back from the universe what you put into it. If you open your heart and your pockets to the world, you are likely to be fulfilled in return. The task for us every day is to choose how to serve.

Purposeful philanthropy also has deep meaning for the millions of people who work as paid employees or as volunteers at one of the more than one million not-for-profit organizations here in the United States. The call to give — and to give back to others — finds contributors, volunteers, and paid staff of non-profit organizations working together as servant-leaders who are involved in purposeful philanthropy.

The spirit of servant-led philanthropy is one of authenticity. It comes from a core “call.” Calling is the “inner urge” to give our gifts away. We heed that call when we offer our gifts in service to something about which we are passionate.

Download the entire article, The Heart of Giving.