Involve Your Kids in Making Donations

It feels like the holidays arrived overnight (we'll take it!) and with that, 'tis the season of giving. We might work in this space every day, all year, but it doesn't exhaust us from focusing on this toping of giving-back for our own family. In fact, I can't wait for it. I know it'll prompt curiosity and hard questions from our kids, and thoughtful explanations from us. People sometimes ask us for advice on involving their kids with giving support to nonprofits. I write most posts and offer most suggestions from the perspective of handling large family foundations and assisting philanthropists who will consider 6- and 7-figure gifts. But today I write from my own perspective: a family of six, handling the activities, expenses and schedules that come with four kids, currently tucked into village life in Upstate New York.

We begin by helping our kids "organize" their money which consists of crumpled up cash in their sock drawer. Our 12-year-old and 9-year-old usually have a good handle on how much money they have (so they can tease each other over who has more), and our 4-year-old usually asks us all year if he still has any birthday money left since we hold on to it for him; unfortunately for me, I'm not good at keeping track so I think he gets a lot more out of it than he actually had. This weekend we counted their money and talked through things they might be saving for, including the notion of just saving money to have it safely in an account, as well as spending money, and finally, giving money to good causes. I love when they ask more about why we make donations, because if I'm a kid, I'm wondering the same thing. I try to use language that I know they can understand and digest, but my husband sometimes (gently) tells me that my diatribe may have gone on a little long, and a little over their heads. My advice: show them the things around your house (food, water, beds) and the feelings that they have (warmth, love, gratitude) that not everyone has, and explain how good it feels to help others get and feel those same things; with donations, we can do our part towards making other peoples' lives better -- to put it simply.

Once we understand their birthday-cash-on-hand, we encourage a range of money they might consider choosing from to put into their philanthropy envelope, and we promise to match it with our own money so they can double their gift. See, dollar-for-dollar challenges don't need to exist only at nonprofits! You'd think that being kids they might just give us the bare minimum, but they almost always give a gift that's on the high-end of what we casually suggested they consider. There is, of course, a little peer pressure once the first kid makes a move and the others follow.

Next, we take the envelope, count the money (including the parents' contribution), and go through the discernment process. Together, our goal is to choose one organization we'll give to, and I do my homework ahead of time to narrow down the options. I know the things my kids care about, so I present three nonprofit organizations to them with different missions and explain: why they exist, what they strive to do and how they do it, and offer examples of the things they spend their money on so that it makes sense to them. Our kids care very much about other kids, so this year I've stuck to 2 nonprofit organizations that support kids directly and 1 that is responsive to the food insecurity in our area to support all ages. I've included those details below in case you're searching for ideas for your own similarly situated families (if you're in CNY right now, these will be relevant!).

We let our kids ask us questions and hash it out. They oftentimes disagree. You might be thinking "that's an easy fix, let them each give their money to the places they want" but we try to practice what we preach to all of our clients -- if you focus your money, you can generate an even bigger outcome and have a more significant impact. Although we ultimately leave the decision up to them, we approach this as though our family will decide on one place where we'll invest our collective gift, and if they decide over and above this to support another organization (either at year-end or when they fall in to some birthday money), then they can do that. We can revisit this another time, so even when it's hard for them to agree or "leave a place behind" we tell them we can have this discussion again. Relatively speaking, we deal with smaller, more manageable amounts of money. I'm telling you: Any. Amount. Works. They are always so, so excited and feel fulfilled when we finalize the decision and send in the money.

It shows you first-hand how human nature works: people of all ages feel amazing about giving-back, and if you give them a little encouragement and direction, they'll have a whole lot of pride.

Nonprofit organizations for consideration this year (in Central New York):

1 - On My Team 16 (OMT16): their mission is to comfort and support pediatric oncology patients, families and caregivers by raising money, ensuring that no child feels left alone in his/her fight against cancer.

2 - Sleep In Heavenly Peace (Syracuse): they believe that a bed is a basic need for the proper physical, emotional, and mental support that a child needs, and strive to get as many kids “off the ground” in communities across the country as they can; they’re national in scope with local chapters, and 100% volunteer based.

3 - The Food Bank of CNY: 1 in 8 individuals in CNY is food insecure; they distribute over 33k meals to CNY / Northern NY every single day. For my children’s frame of reference: $1 provides 3 meals and $25 dollars provides 75 meals! Monetary donations go a long, long way at these organizations.

*The above organizations are not clients of or have an affiliation with Meg George or George Philanthropy Group; I’m fortunate and grateful to learn of nonprofit organizations everyday in my job, and look forward to sharing more worthy organizations in the near future.