Lexington, KY - As a parent of three, I like to think my kids are at least as financially aware as the next mom's. My 7-year-old son and my 10-year-old daughter both have savings accounts, and they know the basics on how they work. They help me compare unit prices at the grocery store to find the best deal. My husband and I teach them that the toys they see advertised on television are never as cool in real life as they might appear on a commercial. My oldest has even expressed an interest in starting a portfolio after her fifth-grade teacher introduced her to the basics of the stock market earlier this year.
But while we have been drilling them on the value of not spending more than they have and saving a little all the time, we have not been as diligent in teaching them the importance of giving what they can. Their exposure to charitable giving is typically limited to collecting pennies for a school fundraising drive, or serving as a go-between to place a few bucks in the collection plate at church. They have very little knowledge of where that money goes from there or why it matters.
It's not that instilling a sense of generosity in my kids isn't high on my list of concerns. In fact, I know very few parents who don't share at least some of my fear that our kids are well on the way to becoming too spoiled, self-obsessed and materialistic. But I suppose I have expected charitable giving to somehow rub off on them as simply the right thing to do.
And on the face of it, philanthropic giving can seem counterintuitive for young kids just learning the value of money. After all, why should they give someone their painstakingly saved cash if they are handed no goods or services in return? Isn't that contrary to everything that Mom and Dad have tried to teach them?
At the same time, however, most of the kids I know today are quite aware of the grave concerns that exist in the world. From hurricanes and tsunamis to oil spills and dwindling polar bear populations, it's difficult for even the youngest school-age children to miss the headlines. Young people are becoming aware of global problems at an early age, but there are relatively few avenues for them to take action to promote change. Especially for the under-12 crowd, volunteering opportunities are limited. Some of these problems seem too distant from our children's everyday lives, and others are just too immense. In short, they know there are problems to be fixed, but they don't see how they can be part of any solution. It is our responsibility as parents to help them find a way to contribute and to let them experience the personal satisfaction that can come from doing something that will make a difference.
So last year, when my husband and I sat down to discuss our family's year-end charitable giving plans, we made sure our daughter had a place at the table. The giving options we discussed with her were limited mostly to those nonprofits with which she had direct contact, such as the Lexington Children's Theater and the Living Arts and Science Center. She was already familiar with them, and it wasn't difficult to explain how our contributions could allow these groups to reach even more families and children. We also had her help us in responding to a few requests from some of the larger nonprofit organizations, such as Heifer International, that also do great work worldwide. Buying a few chickens for a family without access to the eggs we get at the grocery store was not a hard sell, but it didn't spark much of a passion for philanthropy in our little girl. Sometimes large organizations that focus on global crises can make issues like hunger, poverty and homelessness seem worlds away from Lexington.
This year, I'm pleased to have available the GoodGiving Guide, produced through a partnership of the Blue Grass Community Foundation and Smiley Pete Publishing (owners of Business Lexington), to serve as a resource for our development of a family-inspired giving strategy. My kids will each have their own modest budget for charitable giving this holiday season. I'm hoping to have a healthy discussion with them about what they are happy we have in our community, and alternatively, what they see that makes them sad. Together, we will research the organizations that address these concerns of theirs, and the kids will get the chance to take the lead on their first independent decisions as hopefully lifelong philanthropists.
I'm hoping that giving to local nonprofits will help our kids understand the needs that exist right in their own neighborhood and how they can assist in setting the agenda, along with making them a little more familiar with the many organizations that are fulfilling their own missions of service to our community. Maybe that's too ambitious, but at the very least, my elementary-age kids will be able to see signs of the work these organizations do in the community throughout the year. We can drive by the offices of the charities that the kids have chosen to support and stop in to visit, so my kids can hopefully see their investments at work.
In the same way that parents teach their kids money doesn't grow on trees, we should also make sure our children are aware that charity is not free. When it comes to building the community they hope to live in, our children will get what they pay for. And when it comes to nurturing a generous and civic-minded spirit in the next generation, there is no time like the present.