July is shaping up to be the hottest month ever recorded for the planet. In the U.S., cities are showing a greater awareness, ramping up to deal with heat, especially in marginalized communities. 

In democracy, the ideal is that the military stays out of politics, and vice versa. But with many Israelis seeing their democracy as wobbling, it’s a refined sense of duty that is compelling veteran pilots and other military reservists to act.

Putting a human face on some cold poverty data started our writer on a nearly two-decade quest to understand how help, given thoughtfully, can be transformative and lasting. It starts with humility: knowing what you don’t know.

At a time when letter writing has gone the way of the quill pen, a self-appointed bicycle delivery messenger and his team are helping to build the social bridges the digital world threatens to tear down.

Anime lovers at a convention in San Antonio, Texas, have realized that as much as they enjoy the genre, it’s the community they create that keeps them coming back.

It’s tough to measure the infinite. No, not the infinity of outer space. Rather, the inner space of people’s generosity. In a few months, a U.S. national panel known as The Generosity Commission plans to issue a report that’s expected to rip up old notions of giving – whether in treasure, time, or talent – and reveal how everyday Americans are re-imagining generosity and expanding its seeming boundaries.

Set up two years ago in the face of declines in current measures of volunteering and financial gift-giving, the 17-member commission has already made one discovery. In a poll of 2,569 adults last year, most people not only identified as generous but also described generosity as “boundless,” not confined to traditional charities, organized religion, or philanthropy.

“Generosity ranged from taking in a stray dog to helping a loved one with housework to buying water for teachers on strike to giving to a [registered charity],” researchers found. “People understand generosity as the multitude of thoughtful and helpful ways we interact with each other and the world around us.”

Giving to others first “comes from the heart,” the survey found, with 61% of people saying that generosity is “how they express their values.” With values being infinite by nature, new expressions of giving are always popping up.

For example, people now round up at the grocery store check-out to give. They form mutual aid societies to meet health needs. Platforms like GoFundMe and DonorsChoose have raised billions for people in need. The list even includes ethical shopping, advocating for civic causes, and parents’ providing a bedroom for a low-income adult child.

In a 2020 survey by Stanford University, less than 20% of Americans saw giving as a matter of money. They regarded generosity as “myriad informal” acts of kindness and connecting. The hypothesis of the research: Individuals give in more ways than even they understand. And they “are not primarily motivated by or looking for external validation or incentives.”

One premise for the commission’s work is that generosity is ever-present. The new research is finding that this form of selfless love is hardly stagnant or limited. In fact, one report may not be enough to better measure generosity or to capture its future.