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Book Helps Teach Kids About Charity
The Giving Book: Open the Door to a Lifetime of Giving, a personalized activity book for teaching kids the importance of charity, has just been published by Watering Can Press. For young readers, age 6-11, the 64-page spiral-bound hardcover book combines colorful illustrations and entertaining narrative with fun learning activities---making the children the author of their story and creating a 'scrapbook' of their journey into compassion and giving. The book is available through Amazon.
And don’t forget another tool for teaching children about philanthropy, www.moonjar.com, which we wrote about in the December, 2004, issue of the SmartGiving newsletter.
Five Tips for Raising Charitable Children
Every day, American children are inundated with messages about must-have toys, computer games, designer-label apparel, and more. In a “me-centered” culture, it can be quite a challenge to educate children about the needs of the less fortunate in our neighborhoods and around the world.
World Vision, a nonprofit serving the world’s poorest children and families, offers these five recommendations for raising charitable children:
- Expect your children to give. Set the giving standard and watch as they rise up to meet it. Children of all ages typically respond well to reasonable yet challenging expectations.
- Show them what and where you give. Some people will find this difficult because we were taught from young age to be private about our giving. However, mentoring means modeling.
- Match their giving. When you match your children’s giving, you begin to understand what touches their hearts, and they discover that you value these things.
- Take them with you on visits to charities. You may be surprised how much children learn just from being with you in any visits you make to charities. Being exposed to the work can open up a variety of ideas and conversations and give children experiences to think about for weeks to come.
- Celebrate their giving. Find ways to catch children in the act of giving. Let them know you notice and approve of their giving.
Private Foundation or Advised Fund? Which is Right for You?
Many people are unclear about the differences, and relative strengths and weaknesses of Private Foundations and Donor Advised Funds. Here is a quick summary of some key points to consider:
- Definitions: A private foundation is a non-profit entity that can be controlled by a individual, family or business. It is organized exclusively for educational, scientific, religious and literary purposes.
- Distributions: Private foundations are required to distribute 5% of funds annually, whereas individual advised funds are not required to meet that percentage so long as the advised funds, in the aggregate, do so. That is, if your advised fund is held at the local Community Foundation, as long as the aggregate distribution of all the advised funds held by that Community Foundation distribute 5%, that minimum is not imposed on any one account. However, this requirement may change as Congress and other regulators consider advised fund reform.
- Control: Private foundations control distribution of assets whereas, technically, donors with advised funds recommend eligible charities as recipients for grants, but the fund’s governing body is free to accept or reject any recommendation. In both cases, donations may only be used for charitable purposes.
- Family Legacy: Both private foundations and advised funds enable the fund to carry the family name and to involve the family in philanthropy.
- Tax-Deductibility: Both instruments allow for an immediate tax deduction for contributed assets, even if charitable grants are not made until a later date. In some cases, you may be able to remove taxable assets from your estate without incurring capital gains taxes. Typically, however, donors can contribute a wider variety of assets to private foundations.
- Minimum Investment: Most advised funds have a minimum in the $10,000 - $25,000 range and while private foundations have no such minimum, the cost of setting up and administering a private foundation suggests that you should plan to fund the foundation with assets of at least $250,000.
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