17 different women, 36 crazy children, 0 babies in utero
Adventures, Advice and Questions from a group of Mormon women who met in Queens, NY and have now scattered all over the place.
 

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Philanthropy for Kids

I had to share this article that appeared recently in the Washington Post.

It shows how the youngest generation is using new technologies and their own ingenuity to raise money for important causes. It's always nice to read a newspaper article and think, "Wow, I hope my kids are like these kids in a few more years."

I especially loved learning about "giving cards" (similar to gift cards but the recipient gets to choose the charity where the money will go) and the idea of birthday giving. TfCarrie originally gave me this idea here, and I plan to put it in place this coming year, now that my kids are old enough (hopefully) to willingly give away their new toys and books to other kids.

So...think about adding some of these ideas in with your ever expanding list of New Year's Resolutions, even if you write them in crayon rather than the accounting softward that your friend suggested you purchase.

posted by Jen @ 1/06/2008 07:11:00 PM   add to kirtsy


6 Comments:

  • I recently had an idea that I'm really excited about. Thanks for reminding me--this will help me follow through.

    I think that we may give our 6 year old $50-$100 for a micro-loan, probably through kiva.org. She is learning Spanish, and I thought it would be a great opportunity for her to look at profiles of people in Latin America with our help and make a decision about who she wanted to give money too. And since it is a loan, there is a strong likelihood she will get the money back so that she can start over. Hopefully, we can follow the story and outcome of the person to whom she loaned the money to.
    posted by Blogger Michelle at 1/06/2008 05:43:00 PM  



  • Michelle, I love that idea. I think that Simon would go for something like that...

    Jen, thanks for writing this post. I need to be reminded that my kids are never too young to start appreciating and giving back...
    posted by Blogger Sara at 1/06/2008 10:20:00 PM  



  • Michelle, I think that is a wonderful idea for M! My experience with Kiva is that they contact you whenever an installment of the loan is paid, and then when the entire loan is paid (I've never contributed to a loan that defaulted!).

    They do such a good job telling the story of the person initially...I wish they would finish the story after the loan (ie) Maria's business is doing well and she was able to send her daughter to school with her extra income...or something... I understand that they are trying to keep overhead low and giving personal updates would likely increase that overhead. Maybe they would do it for M if you asked...
    posted by Blogger Jen at 1/07/2008 08:24:00 AM  



  • Thanks to the link to the article. It was really interesting. Nice hear of a good trend relating to kids beyond Hannah Montana and Webkins.

    And I was trying to figure out if I could afford to buy your recommended software when I was running those numbers in crayon (and on the back of a t-mobile bill that now will have to be filed with my business paperwork) :)
    posted by Anonymous Anonymous at 1/08/2008 12:41:00 AM  



  • Our kids' grandparents sent a check for several hundred dollars to spend as we chose for Christmas.

    We turned it into cash and split up between four kids. They got an amount to spend on themselves and an amount to spend on a charitable purpose (not including their siblings).

    So far, they are just sitting on the money for themselves, thinking of ways to spend it and whether they should put it together for big ticket items.

    It was with a little trepidation that I agreed to their wish to give 50 dollars out of the charitable money to our neighbor, Mr L, who is in the National Guard and left for Iraq last weekend. How would the L family react to a gift of cash?

    Several days later Mrs L called and with some emotion told me that they have been a little short on funds recently and her husband was leaving for Iraq with no pocket money for the trip. She said the gift was an answer to prayer.

    What a nice neighbor to call and tell us that so that the children could have some immediate feed-back on the art of "philanthropy for kids."
    posted by Anonymous Anonymous at 1/10/2008 07:07:00 AM  



  • Jen, I loved that article (and it came from such a stellar Newspaper:), thanks for sharing.
    What is the appropriate age to start teaching your children philantropy?
    posted by Blogger Melissa at 1/10/2008 07:39:00 AM  



Post a Comment

<< Home