Samantha: Intergenerational Philanthrophy
After graduating with a degree in psychology from the University of Arizona, I went into the nonprofit development field. I find myself using the beliefs and tenets of social psychology every single day on my job. When out building relationships to garner support for nonprofits, what I learned about human behavior, the importance of social interaction, and how social behaviors are modeled in real-life situations is invaluable. This has been particularly helpful when doing events and networking donors and philanthropists with an institution.
Making potential donors aware of the behavior of past donors promotes social learning of charitable giving. This also explains the prevalence of intergenerational philanthropy. We learn from our caregivers and those before us the importance of giving back to others. When this is modeled in our families, the next generation is more inclined to be philanthropic. In fundraising, those who are philanthropic have traditionally learned the importance of giving back from their parents or other influential individuals in their lives. I have worked with many nonprofits throughout my career that are focused on the generation of philanthropy, and those individuals who came from a background where philanthropy was a part of their lives are more inclined to be involved in the mission and give back. This is a learned behavior and can be explained from social learning theory.
I am currently making a career change into clinical counseling psychology and once again find myself drawing upon the foundations of social psychology as I perform initial psychology intakes and assessments. I believe social psychology is a class that all majors in college could benefit from as the skills and theories you learn will be instrumental throughout your career with people.