5 Ways to Help Children Give to Others

“Parents are the number one influence on their children’s financial behaviors, so it’s up to us to raise a generation of mindful consumers, investors, savers, and givers,” says Beth Kobliner, author of the New York Times bestseller Get a Financial Life.  Here are a few ways I’ve thought of to help children learn the joy of giving.

1. Donate clothes.

Children grow like weeds so as they outgrow their clothes donate the ones in good condition to Goodwill, the Salvation Army or another organization that distributes clothes to the needy.  Allow children to be part of the donation process from picking which clothes to donate to dropping them off.

2. Help those around you.

Schedule service-oriented projects where your children will take part. You could bake cookies for local firefighters, rake the leaves of an elderly person or buy lunch and deliver it to a local homeless shelter.  There are so many ways to be generous if we’ll just take the time to look for them.

3. Make birthdays charitable.

Some people would go as far as to ask others to donate a used book or toy to a shelter in place of a birthday gift.  That’s fine but I like the idea of letting people buy a gift if they choose to or not and then making a special tradition of going out together and buying a “birthday gift” for another less fortunate child.  Have the child choose what type of gift and where it should be donated.  Children’s books could go to a doctor’s office, a coat could go to the homeless shelter, and their favorite action figures could go to a local family in need.  There are many different ways to give but no matter what you choose take photos of the day and keep a little journal of the ways your child gave to others on each birthday.  Those will be special memories to revisit on future birthdays.

4.  Sell to give.

If you have an older child you may want to help them list and sell their old DVDs, video games, collector items, etc. online and then once the item sells they can decide how they want to donate that money.  They could give it in the offering plate at church, give it anonymously to a needy family in the neighborhood, or use it to buy items to donate.  The options are really endless!

5. Include pets.

At regular intervals, buy dog/ cat food or kitty litter and take it to a local humane society.  You may even want to see if your child is allowed to spend some time with the recipients of the gift. These are just a few ways that I’ve came up with to help teach my daughter about giving and I would love to hear any of your ideas!! {See: 31 Days of Giving Challenge}