But just as we are called to love God not just with our whole hearts but also with our minds, so giving should be done mindfully. Be “innocent as doves,” Jesus tells us, but “as shrewd as serpents” (Matt. 10:16). With that in mind, here are six principles of giving that we (Beyond Borders) have learned— and continue to work on.

Give freedom:

Some ways of giving make the recipient more dependent and encourage feelings of helplessness. Other ways of giving can help free the recipients by empowering them to help themselves. Give in a way that ultimately frees the recipients from needing handouts. Beyond Borders supports education because of its tremendous power to free people from poverty.

Give others a voice and choice:

The saying goes that beggars can’t be choosers, but people in need should have a voice and should be given choices about how money is used to help them. Too often, development projects are designed by people who live far from the reality of the people the project is supposed to help. People can often end up feeling more like victims of aid than real beneficiaries. The best projects actively engage the intended beneficiaries of a program in everything from the project’s design and implementation to its evaluation. The best projects almost always belong in some real way to the people they are supposed to help.

Give with an awareness of one’s own need:

While we give in response to the needs of others, we also give out of our own need—our need for meaning, our need to feel our lives count for something, our need to feel connected to others. Because of these needs, givers can be vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation.

Give with an awareness of one’s own power:

Giving also has a dark side. Givers are powerful because they control resources. Giving can be an expression of power over those who depend upon our gifts. Givers can use this power to dictate their wishes in ways that are not entirely in the interest of the recipients. Self-awareness helps us curb this tendency.

Give others the chance to give:

Giving is as vital to our spiritual health as exhaling is to our physical health. One definition of poverty is having nothing to give. By this definition, rich people can be poor when they are so dominated by greed that they feel like they can’t part with even a small portion of their riches. Likewise, people who are materially poor are often very generous with the little they have and feel much richer for it.

One of the deepest humilations of poverty is feeling that you have nothing to give. Thus, participants in Beyond Borders’ Transformational Travel program, like these visitors to the Haitian community of St. Felix, give their Haitian hosts a great gift by accepting their gift of hospitality.

Of course, serious poverty makes giving very difficult. And this is one of the deepest humiliations of poverty—the sense that one has nothing to give.

One of the best ways of giving to people in need is to make ourselves open to receiving from them. This is the power of two of Beyond Borders’ programs. Both our Transformational Travel and Apprenticeship in Shared Living programs put privileged people in a place of vulnerability and need where they can receive from people we would ordinarily think of as poor.

Give to virtuous circles:

We’ve all heard of vicious circles, where one bad thing feeds into another. There are also virtuous circles, where one good thing feeds into another. By working for and supporting structural changes that promote justice and peace, we are strengthening virtuous circles. Most of the need in our world is generated by unjust structures that unfairly benefit one group over another. Supporting efforts that change these structures is a way of giving that keeps on giving as changed structures generate greater justice now and long into the future.

Just as we encourage you to be mindful in your giving, Beyond Borders strives to be mindful in how we give. Giving well across cultures and across great economic differences is very challenging. We work hard to be mindful in how we give. Our “Principles of Engagement” is a ten-point document that guides our giving in Haiti.

We also strive to give with our hearts, knowing that giving well cannot be guided simply by our intellects. We at Beyond Borders believe deeply in the power of giving to free both the giver and the receiver and to change our world. We depend on gifts for our existence, and most of our work consists in giving. It is a constant flow. We are rarely more than a month or two from being broke, but we always find enough to continue giving. We are blessed to work in this constant life-giving flow of giving and receiving. In this flow is where we seek to grow and give God glory.

(We still have lots to learn about giving well. We would love to hear about what you are learning about giving. Send your comments to us by email, and let us know if we can share your thoughts in future publications or on our Web site. Better yet, you can post your thoughts directly on our Web site’s discussion forum.)