08 Feb 2013

How giving makes you happier (Australia’s biggest ever donation)

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This week an amazing news story emerged from the spectre of depressing headlines flashing across our screens.

Everyday health

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This week an amazing news story emerged from the spectre of depressing headlines flashing across our screens (the assassination of a Tunisian leader, a tsunami in the Solomon Islands and the rise of alcoholism in the NT – ugh).

Here’s what happened. On the 5th of February, Australia’s biggest ever philanthropic donation was made. Multimillionaire Graham Tuckwell gave a heaving $50 million to the Australian National University to fund students for up to five year’s study.

“The donation is the largest ever by an Australian citizen to an Australian University,” reported academic news portal The Conversation.

Why he did it
Tuckwell told the ABC’s Mark Colvin

“My wife and I have always been very thankful for our education, because really, that's all we started with, and it transformed our life, and obviously, we've been very lucky to have been successful in business, and for us, it was a question as to what do we do with the money.

“We didn't feel that's it's right to spend excess amounts on ourselves, and we didn't feel that it's going to be good for the kids to just give it to them, because that would just kill their enthusiasm to pursue their own dreams and achieve in their own right.

So we felt the logical thing to do was to put it into education to give other kids the sort of chances that we've had, and hopefully transform their lives.”

The good news is -this sort of gargantuan donation is becoming more commonplace in Australia.

In 2012, a kind soul donated $20 million to Sydney University, and the University of Wollongong received a $7 million donation.

But it turns out Tuckwell and donors like him are doing their mental health a favour too.

Why giving is good for you
New findings from Canada to Uganda, from South Africa to India, reported by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in the US, say that people derive more happiness from spending money on others than they do on themselves.

As the Society writes, charitable giving makes people feel wealthier. It reports that it’s clear from recent work published in Psychological Science that:

“Giving time to others – from helping with homework to shovelling a neighbours’ driveway – actually makes people feel that they have more time.”

Graham Tuckwell, thank you for the inspiration.

His scholarships will fund the living expenses of over 500 students.

Now that’s ‘giving back’.

References available on request

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