Kids and Philanthropy: Teaching Your Children To Be Charitable

When I was a kid, Lucy the Elephant, was in a state of disrepair. A community group worked hard to get her placed on the historic register and raise money to restore her to her mid-century glory.  How?  Bake sales organized by my third grade teacher, Josephine Harron, nicknamed "Cupcake."  Sitting by next to my mom in the kitchen,  I mixed up a lot of cupcake batter and icing with my mom for those bake sales.

Now a parent with my own children, I involve my kids in when I'm fundraising for Cambodia or Creative Commons,  But it doesn't involve baking cupcakes.  We have dinner table discussions on why it is important to support causes, particularly programs in Cambodia like the Sharing Foundation.  My kids have posed for photos in t-shirts, emptied their piggy banks, helped me make fundraising videos, contributed clothing or other items to drives at school, and have attended lots of fund raising events.

I also want to them to discover and follow their own sense of social activism.  Last winter, after Harry and I had a conversation about global warming (and quite a conversation it was for a then eight-year old), and we collaborated on a series of green videos.   As Ryanne Hodson points out, making media together helps kids learn about the issue as well as the technology.

My kids have become more and more interested in playing video games.  And like Suzanne Seggerman who plays video games with her daughter,  I will play video games with my son and daughter.  And while video games like Zoo Tycoon or online games can teach them all sorts of skills that they will need to be successful adults (and this has been validated recently by a MacArthur Foundation funded study,) I was excited to discover this wonderful list of games for change. 

This new genre of video games are about solving real world problems such as environment, global hunger, poverty and disease.  What a great way to teach your children to become more thoughtful and responsible about the world we live in. Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth Blog shared a story of how she and her daughter played the Freerice game, a quiz-style vocabulary builder that rewards correct answers with ten grains per bowl to feed hungry children, distributed by the U.N.’s World Food Programme.  Not only was her daughter able to contribute to a good cause by playing a game, the experience also brought up a ethical dilemma.

I reached out to my readers for suggestions about how to raise more charitable and socially aware children.  Here's some inspiring stories, tips and resources:

Some Inspirational Stories

Last week I wrote the Columbus Foundation's recently launhced Match Day 2.0, a giving stimulus plan created to matching gifts to PowerPhilanthropy organizations and raise $1 million in 48 hours to support local needs in their community.   They beat their own record, according to Lucy Bernholz, on November 18 they used up their entire match fund in 34 minutes, processed 650 gifts in the first 17 minutes alone and 1,000 gifts in 40 minutes.  

One of their donors was a class of kindergarteners at the Berwick Alternative Elementary School. The class of 27 students have been collecting pennies and donated $100 to Ohio Nature Education, a nonprofit offering environmental education programs, and secured $150 for the organization. 

Angela Stockman, an educator and blogger in upstate New York, told me about how Sarah Hanson from Alden High School and Stacy VanEtten's seventh grade class are participating  in the Working Together 2 Make A Difference project.  Says Angela, "Stacy is a self-proclaimed techno-phobe, but has waded into blogging with her students, who are very excited about their project."  The Charity for Change project is another example where charitable giving is embedded in the curriculum.

Ed Nicholson from Tyson Foods pointed to two excellent examples of young girl who raised money for hunger relief by asking her friends to donate money to host a mobile food pantry.  Here's another story, about teenage boy who started with a small project to raised money for the local food pantry his first year and then rallied his community to raise $20,000 for hunger organizations.  Network Solutions partnered with a 12-year old Connor who was raising money for hunger by selling popcorn.  They created the Popcorn For Kids Campaign.

Virginia DeBolt pointed me to this very inspiring story about a third grader in Albuquerque who raised $6000 to build a library in Ethiopia.

Parenting Tips To Encourage Your Child's Philanthropy

1.  Help Them Learn More About Nonprofits:  YouthGive is a site that helps young peole and their families easily donate to charities while learning more about the organizations.  The organizations listed are profiled by other young people.

2.  Let Your Kids Choose: Kayta Andresen from Network for Good has fantastic idea last holiday season, "Give with your kids day" She suggests giving your child or someone else's child $25 to donate to a charity.   "You can give them money to spend at Network for Good (which has every charity based in the US) or Global Giving (which has a bunch of international projects).  Let them choose how to spend it, either by letting them pick the charity or by designating their donation to a special project.  Spend it together online, checking out pictures and project descriptions."

3.  Offer a Match: Blogger Marion Conway,whose children are now grown, recommended the book Raising Charitable Children by Carol Wiseman. With her children's fundraising projects, she and her husband offered to match what they raised because they both worked for companies that matching gift programs.

4.  Set up a Spend, Give, and Save Allowance Policy: Celeste for the studio 501c3 blog suggests this piggy bank, with separate slots for investing, saving, spending, and donating is a great way to teach kids about devoting a portion of their income to
charity. 

5.  Encourage Them To Give Their Time:  Laura Hecht shared a wonderful story about a class project where students made cards for some elderly residents of a group home. They had to work hard to spare the time for the effort, but when the residents wrote moving letters of thanks, the kids felt great.  As Laura notes, "This prompted a sincere discussiona bout giving the most valuable thing we possess  - ourselves."

Resources

Youth in Philanthropy
Six Steps for Raising a Charitable Child
Learning To Give
Youth In Philanthropy
Children for Children Foundation
Kids Can Make A Difference
Youth Noise

What other stories, tips, or resources would you add to this post?

Comments

[Jeffrey Levy]

Hi Beth. Great post! I've bookmarked it for later reference. Boy, you put me to shame. Thx for the the suggestion to play freerice with my girls - I'd seen it, but not shown it to them.

We do talk to our kids a lot about giving back, I work for EPA out of a desire for public service, and we tell our kids about our donation strategy.

We also have done three-way splits of allowance from the beginning: some for tzedaka (the Hebrew word for charity since we're Jewish), saving (where they can only take money out to buy something costing at least $20), and spending.

BTW, in Judaism, tzedaka is a little more than "give if you feel like it." It's more an obligation to be a part of your community.

[Angela Stockman]

Beth--
What a bounty of resources you've shared here. I'm looking forward to exploring this post deeply with some of the teachers and students I'm working with this year. Thanks for including Stacy, Sarah, and Working Together 2 Make a Difference too. It's people like this who truly build this sort of spirit...largely because they inspire it. Great post.

[Amy Jussel]

Hey, Beth, I actually wrote a series on instilling philanthropy in kids, here are a few links you might like (I'm about to do another update for Shaping Youth soon!) Meanwhile, here are some faves for your crew:

Marketing Mindfulness to Kids: Giving vs. Receiving:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=835

Counter-Marketing Consumption, A Kids Guide to Giving:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=877

Shaping Youth Through Philanthropic Fun:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=864

Enjoy! Hope you're dad's hangin' tough...off to deal w/similar scenarios this Thanksgiving. Peace and appreciation, --Amy

[Amy Jussel]

Oh, wait...I should add one more really cool one...The EchoAge philanthropy...for parties, giving for good...etc.
http://www.echoage.com

[Liz Ditz]

Hi Beth!

In my view, teaching children to give of their "time and talents" needs to be supported at home and at school (just like supporting literacy).

I was just introduced to a classroom-based community service/service learning network, the LEAGUE. I wrote about it here:

http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2008/11/boosting-servic.html

The LEAGUE supports individual teachers even if the whole school doesn't foster a "culture of giving".

[Sean Rodman]

Hi, Beth.

Terrific post! Yesterday, my four year-old daughter asked me what "charity" was. That started a pretty interesting conversation, that had some confusing detours into Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Hanukkah.

I worked for years as the director of an educational program for youth which was grounded in social justice (http://www.psyl.ca) The students were largely teenagers, and it never amazed me how philanthropy was a huge passion for them. And what really suprised me was the enjoyment they took from collective tasks, the sense of working together to meet a goal. So I would add to your list of parenting tips to encourage philanthropy: connect with other parents and kids who are working on the same goals. Show your kids the joys of being part of something larger than themselves.

Sean

[Dorit Sasson]

Hi, Beth,

Judging from these resources, there is so much that a young person can learn from. There are so many ways you've shown just in this one post how we can use our technologies for the purposes of bettering all of humankind. And it starts with our families and pervades in our classrooms. I'm glad to also see in your post a nice balance of traditional and online resources. Good job. I'm bookmarking your site for new teachers to access at the New Teacher Resource Center. I'll be visiting more often.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Dorit Sasson
www.newteacherresourcecenter.com
The New Teacher Resource Center
"Helping You Become a Successful and Confident Classroom Teacher"

T

[Dorit Sasson]

Hi, Beth,

Since we're right on target in terms of bettering humankind, I'd like to interview you for the New Teacher Resource Center in terms of how teachers can use and manipulate social media and other information technologies with their students. If you're interested and available, could you please shoot me an email at sassondorit at gmail dot com?

Thanks in advance so much!
Dorit Sasson
The New Teacher Resource Center
www.newteacherresourcecenter.com
"Helping You Become a Successful Classroom Teacher"

[Jasmin Tragas]

Beth I am simply amazed at how much knowledge you have to share, and your generosity in imparting your passion to your children and others. I'm so glad you are here on the web :)