02 Nov 3 Ways Giving Makes You and Your Community Healthier

Posted on Nov 02 by

Hear Gerontologist and founder of Zing Sally Duplantier’s insights on how giving makes you healthier. 

Have you ever wondered why giving to others makes you feel good?

“There is a lot of research that shows the connection between giving and physical and mental health,” stated Gerontologist Sally Duplantier Sally founded Zing, a wellness education and coaching company that helps build healthier nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress habits. “When you give to someone, when you’re kind to someone, when you do something out of the goodness of your heart to help people, it feels good,” Sally added.

Here are three ways giving is good for your health, from healthy aging expert and philanthropist Sally Duplantier.

3 Ways Giving Makes You and Your Community Healthier

1. Giving Physiologically Makes You Happier

Sally shares that giving “increases hormone levels of serotonin and oxytocin, which are our feel-good hormones. It also increases levels of dopamine, which is tied to the reward center.” In addition, these hormone increases can improve your self-esteem.

The increase in serotonin and oxytocin is the physiological reason why giving feels good. When you donate to RMHC Bay Area to support sick children, you also help your own health through increased feel-good hormones and self-esteem. You can be there for families with sick children when and where they need it most.

2. “True Giving from the Heart” Decreases Stress Levels

The physical benefits of giving are plentiful. Giving can decrease cortisol levels, which are tied to stress. According to the American Psychological Association (APS), stress has adverse effects on the body, such as muscle tension, chronic headaches, hypertension, increased cholesterol levels, and more. Therefore, the decreased cortisol levels that thoughtful giving provides can reduce your chances of experiencing the adverse physical effects of stress on the body.

Your gift can help families find the respite they need—and lessen your stress.

3. Giving Has a Multiplier Health Effect

When you give, you reap the health benefits at the individual level for all the reasons mentioned above. However, it’s more than that, Sally explains, “Through giving, we help the staff give to the families accessing Ronald McDonald House services. We help parents give to their children. So, it’s this multiplier health effect, which I think is really powerful”. The impact of your gift reaches far beyond the individual; it can impact hundreds of families seeking services through Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area, which makes for a healthier community.

You can be the multiplier effect for the RMHC Bay Area community.

More about Sally and why she gives to RMHC Bay Area

At a Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area donor event over the summer, Sally joined a panel of philanthropists to share how she sees giving as connected to individual and community health. As an expert in gerontology, nutrition science, education, and wellness, Sally’s perspective on giving is holistic and grounded in her work to inspire people to live a healthy, meaningful life.

Sally has been an RMHC Bay Area donor for over a decade. It started with a legacy gift, naming RMHC Bay Area as a beneficiary in her estate plans. After focusing more on health and longevity, she founded Zing, a wellness education, and coaching company. She began to reflect on her legacy gift to Ronald McDonald House and decided she also wanted to make an immediate difference during her lifetime. That inspired her to become a Beyond 10 donor, where she’s part of a special group of leadership donors who give $10,000 or more to house, feed, and support families through the most challenging moments of their lives.

“The Ronald McDonald House is one of our philanthropy recipients because there is an opportunity to directly see the impact that we can make on lives. And it’s an extraordinarily well-run organization.” – Sally Duplantier, Gerontologist, RMHC Bay Area Beyond 10 Donor

Make a Beyond10 gift today, or get in touch with our Vice President of Philanthropy Jay McCullough at jay.mccullough@rmhcbayarea.org to learn more about the benefits and impact of Beyond10 giving.

Donors Like You Make an Impact

23,832 overnight stays

nearby and inside the hospital

$11,081,880 worth of supportive housing services

for families with sick children

2,000 hours

of psychosocial support

3,175 snack packs

delivered to families at the hospital

95,897 free meals

offsetting $1.4 million in meal expenses

92,626 pounds of food

distributed thanks to our Second Harvest food bank partnership

4,000 toys and care items

donated for Comfort & Joy with an estimated value of $88,000

90 students enrolled

in hybrid Ronald McDonald House School (Carter Family Classroom)

Families We Serve