Infectious Generosity is a timely, inspiring read about philanthropy in the digital age

Infectious Generosity review

As the curator of TED for more than 20 years, Chris Anderson has turned what was once a small, exclusive conference into a global platform that brings interesting and revolutionary ideas to millions of people for free. TED Talks is now a household name, thanks in large part to Chris’ leadership and vision.

I have a lot of admiration for Chris. I admire him not only for his achievements, but we also share a deep passion for how innovation can address the world’s most pressing challenges and make a lasting impact. I was really excited to dive into his new book, Infectious Generosity, which explores how the internet can amplify the impact of generosity.

Chris’s main point is that communication technology gives us both an opportunity and a responsibility to do more. When we can see the struggles of others, no matter how far away, it stirs our desire to help. The Internet makes it easier than ever to act on that impulse. Chris’ passion is palpable in his writing and the book is very readable. What I appreciate about this inspiring and timely book is how it explores ways to bring out the best in people, instead of focusing on the worst. This is, I believe, a much-needed approach in today’s world, and like Chris, I believe there’s a way to make the Internet healthier again, with generosity and kindness playing a big part in that change.

Infectious generosity is filled with powerful examples of this dynamic in action, including viral fundraising campaigns like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised over $200 million to fight the disease, and online platforms like DonorsChoose, which allows anyone to support a classroom project with just a few clicks. Anderson also recounts stories of people acting generously on social media—the hairdresser who started to give free cuts to homeless people or video records of these incidents and many similar ones were circulated online; in numerous cases, people who watched them were inspired to become generous themselves, volunteering at or making a donation to a worthy organization. Generosity is contagious, and each story shows the power of people joining up to do extraordinary things.

Anderson sees this pattern as proof that social media can be a positive force—and that many people want to be generous. He cites research showing that those who perform real-world generous acts are happier than self-centered people who live online.

But Chris doesn’t gloss over the challenges of the digital age. Like other observers, he notes that social media platforms have turned the internet into an ‘outrage-generating machine’ that drives us apart instead of bringing us together. The author examines how social media has become a maze of algorithms designed to glue people to screens in a fog of simmering resentment, unwilling to even talk to strangers, let alone help them.

On top of that, as we saw with the spread of Covid-19 misinformation, online spaces can easily promote polarization and falsehoods instead of facts. Rather than bringing people together, we often see the negative side in the form of cyberbullying. What’s more—even as the ease of digital giving has increased, overall giving levels have not. In fact, a 2022 report from Giving USA found that individual giving as a percentage of disposable income has remained relatively flat over the past four decades.

While people are more connected than ever—that connection hasn’t always fostered the generosity we’d want and expect. That will only happen at scale, Chris argues, if individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and policymakers all make a concerted effort. Fortunately, the book offers a roadmap we can follow: Tell more uplifting stories of everyday generosity as it is contagious, redesign social media to promote prosocial behaviour, and expand our definition of generosity itself—to include bridging divides, sharing knowledge, enabling connections, extending hospitality, and others.

I was especially intrigued by Chris’s proposal of a ‘universal giving pledge,’ where everyone commits to donating 10 percent of their income or 2.5 percent of their wealth annually. It’s similar to what many religions already encourage of their followers, if only by another name. And it’s reminiscent of the Giving Pledge, which Melinda, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates launched in 2010 to encourage billionaires to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy, either in their lifetime or wills.

Just as the Giving Pledge aims to make giving the norm among the wealthy, a universal pledge has the potential to inspire millions of people at all income levels to give more. If universally adopted, Chris calculates, such a pledge would generate over $10 trillion every year and unlock immense new resources to address health, poverty, education, and more.

Reading this book, I was reminded of my own mindset when I first thought about the digital revolution—about how it could bring the world closer together, make people feel less lonely, and help us tackle our biggest challenges. It’s great to see that someone still passionately believes in that promise and has ideas for how we can make good on it.

It’s true that a few of Chris’s boldest, most ambitious proposals, like the universal giving pledge, will be challenging to implement. Still, I find his idealism infectious and inspiring—especially because advances in artificial intelligence will likely amplify technology’s potential as a generosity engine. At a minimum, AI will give us more potent tools to understand causes, mobilize donors, and target giving for maximum impact in the coming years. The key is to design these systems so they identify inequities, catch our biases, tap into the best of human nature, and nudge us toward our most generous selves.

If you want to help create a more generous world but don’t know where to start, Infectious Generosity is the book for you. It’s an invitation to rethink and reinvent philanthropy for the digital age—and I believe that if enough of us embraced its message, the world really would be a much more humane and generous place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find Infectious Generosity on My Bookshelf, or purchase through Waterstones, Bol, or Amazon. For more books that I read, head over to the full list of book recommendations. Leave a book review yourself, or check out what others have said about this book.

 

 

 

 

This book recommendation was featured on my reading list including books about social change.