Photo courtesy of Yuer Zhang '21
Ami Campbell graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1992 and went on to do work with her church in Chicago.
BY DEANNA KALIAN ’20
Ami Campbell greeted each guest as they ambled into the Odyssey Bookshop to hear her talk about her book, “Love Let Go: Radical Generosity for the Real World.” Campbell, whose daughter is a first-year, attended Mount Holyoke and wrote for Mount Holyoke News as a student. She graduated as an economics and English double major in 1992. Her time at Mount Holyoke, Campbell said, prepared her for the unique task that lay ahead of her.
Laughing, Campbell explained that she found herself as the treasurer of LaSalle Street Church in Chicago after less than a year of attendance. When the church received a surprise donation of $1.6 million, leaders puzzled over how best to use the money. After much deliberation, they decided to give $160,000, or 10 percent, to the congregation, amounting to $500 per person. Ten percent is the portion of income that one gives to the church weekly, otherwise known as a tithe. Campbell emphasized the importance of tithing the money back to the congregation, as it represents generosity and financial discipline. Campbell revealed that teaching these principles to the church body inspired her to write a devotional, a book which gives short spiritual lessons for each calendar day, by cataloguing each of the ways church members used their checks. Campbell and her colleagues gave the congregation one simple instruction: use the money to do good in the world.
Campbell, along with LaSalle Street Church Senior Pastor and friend Laura Truax, knew from the start that their decision was utterly unique and agreed that they needed to document the experiment and its results. Truax convinced Campbell to scrap the idea of a devotional, because the changes occurring at LaSalle Street Church merited a larger exploration of generosity. Truax co-authored the book, enriching the spiritual arguments with her theology experience. Campbell had an English degree, so she possessed the skills to write a cohesive account of the experiment. Her MBA from Harvard Business School enabled her to delve into the financial aspect of generosity.
Throughout the book, Campbell and Truax reference various sociological studies supporting the argument that everyone is created to give back. “The God of the universe created everything and gave it all to us. This first act was an act of radical generosity,” said Campbell. However, the two discovered a paradox while writing.
According to Campbell, since God created everything, gave it all to the human race and yet never runs out of anything, one must characterize the world as a place of abundance, not scarcity. Campbell pointed out that “If it’s true that we’re wired to give and live in a world of abundance, not scarcity, why do we not see that?” The answer to this riddle, she explained, is the fact that people focus on obstacles that get in the way of giving. She said that humanity has bought into the concept that life is a zero-sum game, so people cling to their possessions fiercely. People don’t want to relinquish their wealth because they want to have more than everyone else.
The second principle that Campbell and Truax wrote about is that giving begets giving. Campbell revealed the concept of the “more monster”: people always feel like they need more, even if they have an abundance. Campbell described this phenomenon as a hedonistic adaptation, which is the human tendency to maintain a stable level of happiness despite good or bad circumstances. Campbell ended her talk with an encouraging message that pushed back against the “more monster.” She described generosity as a social contagion; since giving begets giving, if one person gives to another person, that person will give to someone else, and so on. Campbell also asserted that there is something for the giver to gain as well. “Giving changes us as givers,” Campbell pointed out. Mentally and emotionally, the act of giving positively alters the giver’s life, especially if they interact face-to-face with the receiver. So one should see generosity as a luxury, not a burden.
During the Q&A, the audience expressed their approval of Campbell’s assessment of generosity and the church’s decision to tithe the money to its congregation. Campbell shared anecdotes of how far the “Love Let Go” movement has gone, much of which she covered in her book. Emily Carle ’21 said “I think one of my favorite parts of the talk was how she said that we’re all wired to give. Because we often feel like, ‘I’m not the one who should give, I don’t have money. Someone else who has more money or resources should give.’ But rather it’s all of us, we can all give something. And I totally agree that giving generates giving. It feels good to give, more so than to receive, honestly.”
Ami Campbell left the audience with the same challenge she gave to LaSalle Street Church: “Be the one to set the generosity chain in motion.”