Opinion: Why Fundraising Is a Joy, Not a Chore

The leader of a nonprofit research institute explains in a New York Times column why he has embraced spending most of his work time in the task of raising money.

American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks notes research indicating that people who donate money and volunteer their time enjoy greater psychological and material benefit than those who do not. When he entered the nonprofit world, he says, he found that equation applied to those who solicit support as well as those who give it.

“Donors possess two disconnected commodities: material wealth and sincere convictions. Alone, these commodities are difficult to combine,” Mr. Brooks writes. “But fundraisers facilitate an alchemy of virtue: They empower those with financial resources to convert the dross of their money into the gold of a better society.”