Family Charitable Giving

Q: What do Career Counseling and Philanthropy have in Common?
A: Camp Charity Volunteers!  
 

There is nothing better than actually giving money away to become a smart donor.
 

After today there are just four shopping days left before Christmas, and the clock seems to be ticking faster and faster as the holiday season progresses. Fortunately there’s still time to purchase Giving Cards from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Greater Horizons.

Charitable giving looked a lot like yard work, as Teen Giving Institute teens raked leaves at Community LINC. The nonprofit organization provides transitional housing for homeless families in the Kansas City area in an effort to help them become self-sufficient.
 

Decision Making 101 suggests that the first thing you should do when faced with a decision is to gather the facts. It's even better when you can gather the facts from experts. The members of the Teen Giving Institute (TGI) can go to the head of the class after last Sunday’s session at the Ronald McDonald House, where they heard from experts in the area of health, human services, the arts, education and the environment. 

Q: How does a charitable spirit manifest itself in adolescent boys?

A: Why, through PAINTBALL! (What else should we have expected?)

For a week each summer, pals William Andrews, Allister Macdonald and their friends battle it out at Camp Wood’s Paintball Tournament. Hours on end of. . .Splat! Fire! Splat! Day after hot sunny day of FUN! Then the inevitable, school, fall, homework and, well, no paintball.

Fall has arrived! After spending our summer cooking up new innovations in charitable giving, we’re having a hard time believing it’s already over.

Last Sunday was all about charitable giving, as 14 members of the next generation of Kansas City's leaders began the seven-month Teen Giving Institute (TGI) program. The teens, who are already involved in giving back, will explore their own charitable passions and how they can make an even bigger difference in the community. Their parents and grandparents joined the teens to support their charitable efforts at a TGI reception.

What a joyous summer. This July I had a monumental birthday—one quarter of a century. A few of my friends have expressed small bouts of anxiety over crossing this first big threshold but in all honesty, I sort of glossed over it. I barely noticed that I turned 25 because I spent the summer remembering what it was like to be 10.

If you’d like charitable giving to be a topic at your family table, the Teen Giving Institute (TGI) can help. TGI, a hands-on charitable giving course for high school age students, kicks off next month in Kansas City.