Childhood Philanthropy
November 2, 2007 11:57 am Important issuesMy son, Scott, has a holiday time ritual he’s been practicing for a few years now. Throughout the year, whenever he earns some money, or is give some as a gift, he puts a bit of it in a piggy bank for charity. At then end of the year, we go to the bank, dump the change in the counting machine, and then meet with a friend of mine, who leads our local community foundation, to present her with a check derived from the money in Scott’s bank.
This year Scott had $61.32 to give to the Foundation. Like many community foundations, ours provides funding to dozens of smaller non-profits in the community. My friend, Barbara, always provides Scott with several options of what organizations he want to give money to. Scott always chooses one organization that helps children in some way, and then sometimes he splits that with another organization. Today he chose two organizations, one Called Voices for Children, and another called Family and Children Services.
I think its important to reinforce an experience like this wil some good solid thinking. So, after we left the Foundation I asked him, “Why did you pick Voices this year? Why did you pick Family and Children Services? How did it feel to give money to these two groups? Do you miss not being able to spend that money on toys? Is there something you think we could do to raise more money for these organizations?
