Need Your Help for a BlogHer Post: Kids and Philanthropy

I'm working on what has become my annual holiday post at BlogHer on the topic:  Helping kids understand why it is better to give than to receive.

I have many examples from my own children and those of Sharing Foundation stakeholders - many who are adoptive parents and have encouraged their children to give back to Cambodia. Take for example the lemon stand fundraiser.  And, my own children have participated in many Cambodian fundraising projects and more recently Harry has taken to environmental activism and fundraising.

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! 

So, I'm looking for examples and answers to these questions for my November 26th deadline for the story - help me write it by leaving a comment:

• What are some awesome examples of teaching young children about the importance of giving and philanthropy?
• Any that use Web 2.0?
• As a parent or teacher, how do you teach this important life lesson?
• What are the best articles, posts, blogs, or web resources on this topic?

Comments

[Beth Kanter]

http://www.positivechange.com/
http://twitter.com/troyapeterson/status/1018099157

[Angela Stockman]

In Western New York:
Sarah Hanson from Alden High School and Stacy VanEtten's seventh grade class are participating here:
http://workingtogether2makeadifference.ning.com
Stacy is a self-proclaimed techno-phobe, but has waded into blogging with her students, who are very excited. This is their project: http://gradesevengivesback.wordpress.com.

I believe that Jenny Luca's kids in Australia are up to great things too, and Andrea Hernandez did a mitzvah project with her students in Fla. last year. I'll email more as I think of them if you'd like, Beth. These are just the tiny ones I'm aware of through Laura's project. There are SO MANY more great examples.

[Carol McCreary]

Several years ago, my Brownie Troop in Morocco ended the year with a balance of $200. So we all sat down and decided what to do with it. The adults had already thought about it and had some appealing ideas, mostly linked to the program of the previous year. But the Brownies came up with a clearly superior idea and one close to their hearts. The wanted to do something for the kids of the women who worked for their families as maids. They realized they were sharing the time of these mothers with their own kids. The girls figured out a workable plan for redistributing the money in books and educational toys for these kids, as sort of a thank you for the service of their mothers.

[Beth Kanter]

From Ed Nicolson
http://twitter.com/TysonFoods/status/1018109188

[Beth Kanter]

Program at Case Western's Mandel school for nonprofit:

http://www.case.edu/mandelcenter/yps/

They do awesome stuff - I wrote for them a couple of years ago - they've been around for 12-13 years - let me know if you want contact info

Jill Miller Zimon
The Moderate Voice
Writes Like She Talks
http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/

[Virginia]

An Albuquerque 3rd grader raised $6000 for a library in Ethiopia.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Nov22/0,4670,BooksforEthiopia,00.html

[Olly Benson]

Hiya,

Try the rather excellent Go Givers (http://www.gogivers.org/) and other projects by the Citizenship Foundation (http://www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk/)

Giving. Web 2.0. And a catchy theme tune! What more could you want?

Olly

[Beth Kanter]

something to add to post ..
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4773437/

[Marion Conway]

Hi Beth,

My kids are in their twenties so my stories are fairly old, but here are a couple. You might want to check ou the book by Carol Wiseman, "Raising Charitable Children" I heard Carol speak in person on this subject and she was great. I would email her your question and see what she says.

My son wanted his Eagle Scout project to be something for the inner city rather than our local community. I connected him with the organization whose Board I would later be on. They discussed several possibilities and together they came up with this perfect project for his project. Hugh collected sleeping bags and money for sleeping bags that could be given to children who were going to camp. He then contracted with Coleman to buy new sleeping bags at a deep discount. In the end he provided 200 sleeping bags that the nonprofit distributed over three years to neeedy children who did not have them.

A local girl for her Bar Mitsvah asked for the following from her guests - a suitcase or duffel bag for a teen girl who came into a local crisis center. It should have toietries, a stuffed animal, clothing, etc. A thirteen year old can learn a lot when putting these basics in her life into a bag and realizing that this will be all in the world a young girl like her will have when she arrives at a crisis center one night.

What we did with our kids was offer a matching gift from each parent and both of us had employers who matched gifts. So we explained to our children how their gifts are multiplied and in fact a $20 gift became a $180 gift. If you do this be sure you visit the charity's website and share the thank you note with them.

Great idea for a Holiday post....

Marion Conway
marionconwaynonprofitconsultant.blogspot.com

[Kathy Hawkins]

Hi Beth -

The site I edit, Razoo.com, just ran a great article on this very subject - "Six Steps for Raising a Charitable Child." You can check it out here: http://razoo.com/articles/Raising_A_Charitable_Child

Please check out the rest of the site - we have an online donation platform and a variety of articles on giving and social activism, and would love your help spreading the word. Feel free to email me if there's any way we can collaborate!

Kathy

[Leslie Forman]

I met the founders of http://youthgive.org/ at a recent event. Their new website is pretty cool and definitely fits this description. Good luck with the article!

[On Da Road]

I too would recommend Carol Weisman's "How to Raise Charitable Children". She did a great job with her kids and has some nice ideas.

http://www.carolweisman.com/newsite/mediaroom/rcc_mediaroom.htm

OnDaRoad

[Birgit Pauli-Haack]

The "School Giver" Program started by Charity for Change in October 2008 was developed for Elementary school teachers to work with their students. It is in 'pilot' mode, until the off line and online activities and processes are tested.

The pilot groups in comprises of 50-+ teachers.

Visit the Charity For Change web page http://www.charityforchange.org/kids and hear "Giver" talk about the program. "Giver" is an orangutan cartoon character and very funny! There is a visitor's pass for the classroom activities.

Quote from the web site:
"Hear Giver talk about the powerful feeling he and his classmates share from achieving a goal that benefits others.

He’ll tell you all about students learning and practicing positive character traits through classroom lessons written especially for this exciting program. Students research charities and select one to support. Then together they set a goal to raise money for the charity they select.

Plus, students earn additional dollars for their classroom charity from Charity for Change Community Partners by playing the "Counting for Charity" math game!

"It's a great day to give!"

Let me know if you would like to learn more about it and I can provide you with the contact person's information.

[Laura Hecht]

Beth,
Sometimes the greatest lesson we can teach our children is the gift of giving ourselves and our time. While teaching last year in a Kindergarten classroom, I wanted to incorporate an activity which pooled together the 100th day celebration and Valentines Day. I decided to have the students make 100 Valentines cards for the Assisted Living residents down the road. Each student was responsible for making four cards.

They were very excited about the first two cards, but the idea of having to make two more didn't really excite them. After about a week of trying to squeeze in time for this project, we had finished them all. I delivered them on Valentines Day.

A week later, our class received a large envelope from the residents. When we opened it, we found letters of thanks from the receipients of our giving. The words were so moving of their appreciation. One even said that he had no family left and that was the first Valentines Card he has received in years. We were all moved.

This prompted a sincere discussion about giving the most valuable thing we possess - ourselves. It was a great lesson - in many ways.

Laura Hecht

[Reed Stockman]

Beth,
We post material on this topic regularly to our AFP Youth in Philanthropy Blog. www.afprc8.blogspot.com
We also have a variety of resources on our website
http://www.afpnet.org/youth_in_philanthropy