Cleveland Jewish News: Children should learn importance of giving early

MEGHAN WALSH mwalsh@cjn.org 

Posted Oct 19, 2022 at 1: 00 PM Updated Oct 19, 2022 at 6: 23 PM

People of all ages can have a hand in helping others and, in order to ensure that charitable services are available for years to come, it is critical to teach children the value of generosity and encourage them to get involved.

Danielle Crawford, director of grant making and community partnerships at United Way of Greater Cleveland, and Missy Toms, vice president development and communications at Youth Opportunities Unlimited, both in Cleveland, discussed the importance of instilling in children an appreciation for charitable giving.

“Children and young people get a sense of fulfillment and a sense of community when they get to work on solving community issues that impact youth that look just like them,” Crawford said.

Teaching children a sense of compassion for other people is helpful in imprinting generous values on them, she noted.

“You want to instill in your young people a sense of equity,” she said. “Equity is important to the work that we do every day and what I mean by equity is that not everybody’s journey is going to look the same, so some people may need different things in order to succeed.”

Giving children the opportunity to have hands-on experiences in identifying and solving community issues that impact young people such as themselves allows them to see this, Crawford said.

Additionally, Crawford advised giving children a sense of community, as it is important to understand that it takes a lot of people supporting an individual to help them be successful in life.

“I want future generations to be able to understand that we’re all here to solve community issues,” she said. “We’re giving away dollars that, at United Way, have been raised by the community, so we want to make sure that we’re responsive to community needs.”

Crawford said she wants children to come away with a sense of the serious matters that are at hand.

“It’s important for them to see that these issues, they have a history – some of them, so it’s important to see the history – but it’s also important to see the sense of urgency that surrounds the issues,” she said.

During a charitable experience, offering children the opportunity to learn about what philanthropy is can also benefit them, Crawford stated.

“Up until between 10 and 15 years ago, philanthropy and nonprofit management wasn’t necessarily thought of as a career path,” she pointed out. “Now, I think it’s more commonplace for students to see themselves in my shoes.”

Kids enjoy connecting with organizations and develop a sense of pride – when a charitable project is done – that they’ve helped someone else, Toms said.

“They really take ownership of the project, so it gives them that feeling of responsibility and seeing a project through to the end and they actually get to see the fruits of their labor, so there’s that satisfaction,” she pointed out.

Kids learn by seeing, she noted, so parents setting an example that conveys the importance of charitable work is key to children adopting these same values.

“As a parent, myself, I get involved with community organizations and I volunteer, and so my children see me do that and so they volunteer because they’re modeling after me,” Toms explained. “It’s showing by doing.”

Additionally, parents should encourage their children to get involved in causes that the children are passionate about, she suggested.

Many places take youth volunteers, she said, adding that young people can find these opportunities in a myriad of ways, such as through places of worship and schools.

They may also get involved by hosting small fundraisers, like asking people to make donations to charitable organizations in lieu of giving them presents on their birthdays, she said.

“I think that these next generations coming up, they’re so caring,” Toms said. “I think if we nurture that caring, we’ll be a great community.”