Keep the Momentum of Generosity Going!

December is a time for giving and remembering those who are less fortunate. But why should we teach our kids to only think about others during one month of the year? Let’s keep the momentum going and find ways to make generosity one of the values we teach and model for the next generation. Here are 4 ways to promote philanthropy in your community.

Make a Community Involvement Calendar

There are countless ways that kids can get involved within the community to make a positive difference. Ask around, brainstorm some ideas, and sit down with your kids to plan out monthly experiences helping others. Call it “Giving Back Weekend” or “Spread the Joy Days” or “Make the World Better Time.” Integrating these experiences into your routine will not only teach children that they can make a positive impact on the world, but that this is something worth doing on a regular basis.

Ideas could include picking up trash, running a food drive, donating to a shelter, packing meals to be shipped overseas, or adopting your own sponsor child in need that your kids can be pen pals with. (It’s a good idea to check with organizations first—to find out what their needs are, how you can be of help, and any age requirements.)

Do Something as a Class, Troop, Pack, or Neighborhood

For more impact and some fun times with friends, organize volunteering opportunities for groups. Whether it’s a scouting group, class, neighborhood, or extended family, more people means more help where it’s needed and some very impactful memories for your children. According to ServiceLeader.org, “Volunteering is the perfect way for children to be welcomed as productive, active members of a community…[It] promotes healthy lifestyle and choices, enhances development, teaches life skills, improves the community, and encourages a lifelong service ethic.”

Point Out and Model Generosity in Our Words

Part of being generous is not only in service projects, but in our daily lives and how we speak to (or about) other people.  Generosity begins with kindness, empathy, and love, and spreading those feelings around! When someone pulls out a stereotype or jumps to a conclusion about someone else, let your kids see you challenge it. When an adult shows patience or empathy to strangers, point it out to your kids. Watch the words and tones that you use as well. Whenever children share of their own accord, help someone else when others wouldn’t, or spread kindness in their own way, acknowledge that action and the emotions it probably caused.

Ask the Kids!

Ask children what they’d like to do to make the world a little bit better. Leave it open ended and let them think about it a bit. You may be surprised (and inspired) by their ideas. Letting them lead the way also empowers them to know they have good ideas, and their ideas can make a difference. Check out this example of children collecting items for the homeless.

Take for example our recent Holiday Free Shop in Allentown, PA. Just like all of our Lil’ Shoppers Shoppes, children can come in to find gifts for loved ones for the holidays. Normally most of the gifts are less than $3, but this annual event was free for disadvantaged kids to be able to shop comfortably for their parents and families. They even got some wrapping done, and it’s obvious that kids love to give!

Here’s to raising a generation of generosity!

Donating: Not Just A Holiday Theme

The importance of donating is a much-needed lesson to teach your children. Many organizations do incredible work for their communities based off the giving of others and take little to no profit for themselves. There are many reasons to teach your children about the importance of giving, especially once the holidays are over. Here are a few to get you started:

Donations Are Always Needed

The holidays are the most popular times for donations, as shoppers see Red Cross volunteers ringing bells and are told that donations are tax deductible for the upcoming tax season. The truth is, after the holidays are over, many organizations are still in need of toys and other donations - perhaps even more so.

Declutter Your Child’s Space

To most children, the glamor of new toys begins to wear off after some time. Have your children think about older toys (perhaps from last year’s holiday gifts) that they no longer play with, gather them together, and have them pick out toys they are willing to donate. This helps declutter your child’s room and gives your family a jump start on spring cleaning

Teach Your Children the Value of Giving

Giving to those less fortunate should be a year-round theme, not just during the holidays. Teach your children about the importance of giving and appreciation of what they have by donating some of their unused toys. This lesson can be taught much easily shortly after they have just been given new toys to play with. Let them know that there are some children that are not so fortunate to receive new toys, clothes, and other things they may take for granted.

Understanding that they are fortunate to have what they have will give your child a greater appreciation for the people and things in their life. Help your kids build character and help their community at the same time by donating some of their toys to worthy causes. Perhaps you have a local favorite organization that is near to your heart - if not, check out some of the top-rated charities in America at charitywatch.org.  

Humankind Water: Your Child Can Help Save Lives

We recently sat down with internationally known speaker TJ Foltz of Humankind Water. Scroll down to learn about his organization's mission and how its exciting relationship with Gifts 'N Things will allow your child to help save the lives of other children through the donation of clean water. 

What makes Humankind Water's mission unique?

There are other organizations that give to the crisis, and we respect them. For example, the water "Ethos", sold in Starbucks gives a nickel from every bottle to the crisis and we applaud their efforts. But we give 100% of our net profits to fund wells and filtration systems in the hardest hit areas of the world. The only other organization we've heard that gives 100% of their net profits is "Newman's Own" (the late Paul Newman's charity), and they've given millions. We're not there yet, but that's something we aspire to achieve."

Why is clean water so important?
Clean water is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT philanthropic effort there is right now, in my opinion, for two reasons. First, how bad the situation is and second, how relatively easy it is to correct it. Few Americans realize this, but the combined deadly effects of bad water in drinking and sanitation makes it the number one killer of children in the world every day. 5000 kids will die TODAY for no other reason than they lack clean water. 

Second, the fix is relatively simple. No miracle drug to discover here, no race for the cure. God bless all those scientists and doctors looking for the cures for as yet incurable diseases, but the truth is you introduce clean water where there is none, and you reduce infant mortality to almost nothing, almost overnight. Of course food is important...it's critical. Of course vaccines and mosquito nets are all crucial. But if you have all those things in place and kids are drinking filthy contaminated water, it won't matter. That's why - just my opinion - but I'm forever saying, "Water is the lowest hanging fruit on philanthropy's tree."

Why should elementary students, parents, and faculty be excited about Humankind Water's relationship with Gifts 'N Things?
Before now, there were two motivating factors to doing fund raisers with Gifts N' Things. The first, let's face it...COOL PRIZES! I know I got fired up about that stuff when I was a kid! Second, I know a ton of kids and certainly their parents...really do care a lot about raising that critical money for their own school need. Whether it's a great, fun, educational trip, or to resurface the gym floor, the money you make is great for your school and it's important to take pride in that. 

Those two factors really ought to be enough. But now it takes a huge extra leap forward. Now, in addition to cool prizes (and good for the school) we just might save the lives of THOUSANDS of children in really needy situations. Imagine. For every student that participates, even if you only sell ONE item, Gifts N' Things will contribute [enough money to supply] clean drinking water for one child for a YEAR! That's amazing!


Closing remarks
One of the unique things about Humankind Water is that because we give away all this money for wells and filters, we have never ever spent a penny (yet) on traditional advertising. Never bought a billboard. Never took out a magazine ad. Never bought a tv commercial. Products today just are not successful without that stuff. But we ...somehow...have to be. And that's why we are dependent upon YOU to tell the story. Share it. Tell other schools. Do presentations. Like us on Facebook and go to the website. 

Above all, make sure you thank the great people at Gifts N' Things. I mean, look at the back cover of the catalog. That's a primo spot to sell some other item. It's costing them money to NOT put another yummy candy or crunchy cookie there. Thank you to Gifts N' Things and every other organization going out of their way to help Humankind Water be successful, because they know that our success actually means kids lives saved. Humankind Water LOVES Gifts N' Things!