Earlier this week, Monday to be specific, the world observed the International Day of Happiness. The United Nations releases an official list of the happiest countries of the world on this day every year. This time, the report also contained a chapter on the components of happiness, with an entire section on social factors. Among them was generosity.

There are six components of social happiness in all, according to the World Happiness Report 2017. These are:

Income Life expectancy Social support system Social freedom Freedom of choice Generosity

While describing the importance of generosity, the report said, “Generosity, which we have found an important source of happiness, also turn out to benefit physical health, with a variety of studies showing that health benefits greater for the givers than for the receivers of peer-to-peer and other forms of support.”

It also quoted the conclusions of the Gallup World Poll in which people from various countries were asked if they had donated to charity in the last thirty days. Study of the survey data showed that people are happier when they act pro-socially.

The report also said that people tend to be happier when they have a supportive social ecosystem. This includes personal factors like having family and friends to rely on during bad times. It also consists of social factors like a trustworthy community, freedom to take their own decisions and presence or absence of corruption in public life.

There’s a lot that all of us, as individuals, can do to contribute to the social happiness and generosity. You could even rally social support for the needy people and organizations in your area. Crowdfunding is just one of the many ways to do this. And, if you do decide to take it up, Crowdera will be happy to help. After all, the platform is fee-free to help make the world a better, happier place.