Inspiring Fundraising Quotes to Ignite Your Generosity

"Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving."

- Hank Rosso

"No one has ever become poor by giving."

- Anne Frank

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

- Desmond Tutu

"No one has ever become poor from giving."

- Anne Frank

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

- Mother Teresa

"It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving."

- Mother Teresa

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

"At the end of the day it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished… it’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back."

- Denzel Washington

"Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others."

- Danny Thomas

"Giving is not just about making a donation. It is about making a difference."

- Kathy Calvin

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

- Winston Churchill

"Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can."

- John Wesley

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."

- John Holmes

"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving."

- Albert Einstein

"Donors don’t give to institutions. They invest in ideas and people in whom they believe."

- G.T. Smith

"It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving."

- Mother Teresa

"The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it."

- William James

"You give little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."

- Kahil Gibran

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more."

- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one."

- Mother Teresa

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

- Edmund Burke

"When one gives, two get happy."

- Amit Kalantri

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

- Anne Frank

"If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one."

- Mother Teresa

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

- Aesop

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another."

- Charles Dickens

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

- Gandhi

"Generosity consists not of the sum given, but the manner in which it is bestowed."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"In good times and bad, we know that people give because you meet needs, not because you have needs."

- Kay Sprinkel Grace

"To move forward, you have to give back."

- Oprah Winfrey

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

- African Proverb

"The best thing about giving of ourselves is that what we get is always better than what we give. The reaction is greater than the action."

- Orison Swett Marden

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."

- Edward Everett Hale

"It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than to watch it accumulate."

- Gloria Steinem

"I have tried raising money by asking for it, and by not asking for it. I always got more by asking for it."

- Millard Fuller

"Kindness can transform someone’s dark moment with a blaze of light. You’ll never know how much your caring matters. Make a difference for another today."

- Amy Leigh Mercree

"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver."

- Maya Angelou

"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"True charity is the desire to be useful to others without thought of recompense."

- Emanuel Swedenborg

"The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation."

- Corrie Ten Boom

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."

- Muhammad Ali

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

- Mark Twain

"Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver."

- Barbara De Angelis

"It is only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live."

- Ethel Percy Andrus

"To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it."

- Mother Theresa

"Giving to those in need will bring more joy than money could ever buy."

- Dave Ramsey

"I don’t think you ever stop giving. I really don’t. I think it’s an on-going process. And it’s not just about being able to write a check. It’s being able to touch somebody’s life."

- Oprah Winfrey

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit."

- Nelson Henderson

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

- Albert Pike

"If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them."

- Jeff Brooks

"We need to value donors as much as we need value from them."

- Reinier Spruit

"For it is in giving that we receive."

- Francis of Assisi

"Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have."

- Jim Rohn

"Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away."

- Elbert Hubbard

"You cannot receive what you don’t give. Outflow determines inflow."

- Eckhart Tolle

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

- Vincent van Gogh

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

- William James

"Everyone can experience the joy and blessing of generosity; because everyone has something to give."

- Jan Grace

"Sometimes those who give the most are the ones with the least to spare."

- Mike McIntyre

"When you learn, teach. When you get, give."

- Maya Angelou

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."

- Mohammed Ali

"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."

- Pablo Picasso

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

- Leo Buscaglia

"To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own."

- Abraham Lincoln

"You don’t have to be an angel, just be someone who can give."

- Patti LaBelle

"To do more for the world than the world does for you – that is success."

- Henry Ford

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love."

- Lao Tzu

"As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"It's easier to take than to give. It's nobler to give than to take. The thrill of taking lasts a day. The thrill of giving lasts a lifetime."

- Joan Marques

"Giving does not only precede receiving; it is the reason for it. It is in giving that we receive."

- Israelmore Ayivor

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."

- Buddha

"At the end it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished. It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back."

- Denzel Washington

"The best things to do with the best things in life is to give them away."

- Dorothy Day

"Giving is not an act of depletion, it’s an act of repletion."

- Pete Kelly

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."

- Minor Myers

"Go out into the world and do good until there is too much good in the world."

- Larry H. Miller

"Find a need and fill it."

- Ruth Stafford Peale

"He who wished to secure the good of others, has already secured his own."

- Confucius

"Every good act is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows."

- Moliere

"The work of volunteers impacts all our lives, even if we are not aware of it."

- Anthony Worrall-Thompson

"Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others."

- Plato

"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

- Mitch Albom

"As one person I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person."

- Paul Shane Spear

"I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people."

- Maya Angelou

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that."

- Martin Luther King

"From the perspective of the gospel, fund-raising is not a response to crisis. Fund-raising is, first and foremost, a form of ministry."

- Henri Nouwen

"Much is required from those to whom much is given."

- Luke 12:48

"Few actions of consequence in the world have been accomplished without passion."

- Jerold Panas

"The real test of success is whether a life has been a happy one and a happy giving one."

- Sir Henry Newbolt

"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."

- Calvin Coolidge

"A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will be refreshed."

- Proverbs 11:25

"Never think you need to apologize for asking someone to give to a worthy objective, any more than as though you were giving him an opportunity to participate in high-grade investment. The duty of giving is as much his as the duty of asking yours. Whether or not he should give to that particular enterprise, and if so, how much, it is for him alone to decide."

- John D. Rockefeller

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul."

- Henry Ward Beecher

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it."

- William Arthur Ward

"Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy."

- Dean Koontz

"The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy."

- Meryl Streep

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

- Edith Wharton

"Real generosity to the future lies in giving all to the present."

- Albert Camus

"In the long run, we get no more than we have been willing to risk giving."

- Sheldon Kopp

"He who allows his day to pass by without practicing generosity & enjoying life’s pleasures…breathes but does not live."

- Sanskrit Proverb

"Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive."

- Acts 20:35

"There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life—happiness, freedom, and peace of mind—are always attained by giving them to someone else."

- Peyton Conway March

"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you."

- Andre Gide

"Giving opens the way for receiving."

- Florence Scovel Shinn

"Apart from the ballot box, philanthropy presents the one opportunity the individual has to express his meaningful choice over the direction in which our society will progress."

- George G. Kirstein

"Giving money effectively is almost as hard as earning it in the first place."

- Bill Gates

"Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others."

- Barbara Bush

"The heart that gives, gathers."

- Tao Te Ching

"Charity sees the need, not the cause."

- German Proverb

"Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Appreciation can make a day—even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary."

- Margaret Cousins

"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take."

- Wayne Gretzky

"If you think you are too small to be effective, try sleeping with a mosquito."

- Dalai Lama

"The manner of giving is worth more than the gift."

- Pierre Corneille

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."

- Edmund Burke

"The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith."

- Bertrand Russell V. Delong

"Happiness can be the result, not of spending more money on oneself, but rather of giving money away to others."

- Christian Smith

"Charity begins at home but should not end there."

- Thomas Fuller

"Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone."

- Gladys Browyn Stern

"The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion."

- Richard P. Feynman

"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."

- William James

"Non nobis solum nati sumus.(Not for ourselves alone are we born.)"

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Giving is an attitude. It is not dependent on the amount of money in your bank account. It’s a heart issue."

- John Di Lemme

"Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart."

- Elizabeth Andrew

"Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless."

- Sherry Anderson

"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."

- Jonathan Swift

"Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life."

- Sophia Loren

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."

- Niels Bohr

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."

- James Joyce

"While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior."

- Henry C. Link

"To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all."

- Peter McWilliams

"The meeting of two personalities is like contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."

- Carl Jung

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."

- George Bernard Shaw

"If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner."

- Tallulah Bankhead

"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love."

- Jane Austen

"There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others."

- Mandy Hale

"Help one another. There’s no time like the present, and no present like the time."

- James Durst

"Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others."

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."

"Think of giving not as a duty, but as a privilege."

"Help others without any reason and give without the expectation of receiving anything in return."

"It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it."

"We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something."

"Wealth isn’t always measured in dollar signs. We each have time, talent, and creativity, all of which can be powerful forces for positive change. Share your blessings in whatever form they come and to whatever level you have been blessed."

"While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary."

"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members."

"One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing."

"If you’re in the luckiest one percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent."

"If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody."

"The most precious thing I have to give is my time."

"When courage, genius, and generosity hold hands, all things are possible."

"Life is an echo—what you send out comes back."

"I wondered why somebody didn’t do something. Then I realized, I am somebody."

"ourselves to causes greater than ourselves, we leave a meaningful legacy that transcends our own existence."

"He who receives a good turn, should never forget it: he who does one, should never remember it."

"Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy and understanding."

"Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better."

"The price of living is giving."

"When something goes wrong in your life just yell ‘Plot twist!’ and move on."