Authentic Giving

From Jean Chatzky's Teach Your Children to Give

Let them choose their own causes. You may be on the board of one organization or another. Don't push them on your kids. Instead, understand that when children can focus on things they find interesting, they'll be more apt to stay with it. So present them with some charitable or volunteering opportunities that they'll enjoy or at the very least understand. An important thing to consider is that, while natural instinct makes you want to shield your children from the wrongs of the world, that's not always the best approach. "There are sensitive, age-appropriate ways to introduce kids to issues in the world around them so that they are portrayed not as unsolvable and scary, but as opportunities to make a difference," says Ellen Sabin, author of The Giving Book, which was written for kids.