Why are so many college buildings named after people?
Have you ever noticed that? Go to just about any school and walk around. Look at the buildings. They are almost all named after someone. The dorms are that way too. Why is this? If you said money you pretty much hit the mark. To illustrate here is an interesting story about the University of Missouri. Their new basketball arena was finished in the year 2004. It was given the name “Paige Sports Arena,” after Paige Laurie. But Ms. Laurie never attended the university. In fact she had recently graduated from the University of Southern California. So why name a basketball arena after this woman? The answer is simple. Her parents, Bill and Nancy Laurie, had donated $25 million to the college to help pay for the building. The Lauries, who lived in Columbia, Missouri, used this donation to get the building named after their daughter.
The name stood only for about a month or so. Later that year Paige was accused of paying someone to do her classwork at USC. She surrendered her diploma when the news came out and Missouri was forced to change the name of the arena to avoid being tied to the scandal.
So, for better or for worse, buildings are named after benefactors. Imagine if we did this in our churches. It’s not an unheard of practice even there, but I would wager it isn’t near as common a thing as in a university.
Is this a good reason to give money to an organization? If not, what are good reasons to give? Why do we give money to people and churches and charities, etc. anyway?
One reason is upbringing. We form habits at an early age, and if you were raised in a family that gave money regularly you will very likely do it too. Another reason may be our own life experiences. Maybe you were helped by some organization in the past. Maybe someone got you back on your feet. Or maybe you remember a time when you got involved and helped out in a soup kitchen. These experiences can steer you to giving back and giving again. Some people might even give to get a tax break, although that is probably not as common. About 90 percent of us in the United States just take the standard deduction, and that won’t help you in terms of tax breaks. But research shows that the biggest reason people give is simply that someone asked them to give.
Andrew Shatte, a workforce resilience expert at the company meQuilibrium, has a lot to say about giving. His model shows four levels of reasons we give to others. The first level is based on individual goals. At that level you are concerned with yourself. The reason you give is to further a set of goals that you have for yourself. Maybe you want to pad your resume, or maybe you give to feel good about giving.
That’s the first level of giving. What is the second? It has to do with your family. Your reason for giving now includes them. You are motivated by doing more for your family or in setting a good example to your children or other family members. The sphere gets a lot bigger for the third level. In level 3 you are motivated by your community at large. This includes the world around you. You give because you want to improve the global community.
Lastly there is the fourth level. In this level your motivation comes from something far bigger than yourself. Your faith drives you to be charitable.
Do you see how the sphere gets bigger with each level? As you go from level 1 to level 4 you find that your reasons for giving become bigger and more important. Jesus hinted at this too I think:
Luke 9:23-26
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
We are asked to go past level 1, aren’t we? Jesus wants us to operate at the highest level here. Jesus asks us to give because of our faith. We are to give because we are driven to do so by God. There are no selfish desires here. There are no self fulfilling reasons. There is only charity, for God’s own sake.
This is the true value of doing something bigger than yourself.
God Bless