 Helpful Articles
from David Vollrath,
Union County Foundation Executive Director
The Foundation encourages you to work closely with your professional advisor(s)
as you develop your estate plan and consider your present and future charitable goals. |
Charity & Children
(Part of a series of articles on charitable giving and the Union County Foundation
by David Vollrath - Exec. Dir.)
Arguably the most important job many of us ever hold in our lifetime is that of parent. Parents are generally in
a position to mold, model, and influence our children unlike anyone else that will touch their lives. One of the
wonderful gifts that parents can give their children is to help them develop a charitable spirit; an understanding
that charitable action is just a natural part of who we should be as human beings. From the time your children
are very young take advantage of teachable moments to talk with them about how important it is to help other people
by "giving back." Talk with them in simple terms about ways you support charity. Simply creating awareness
of your family’s commitment to charitable giving throughout your children’s childhood and adolescence years is
a wonderful legacy that you can impart to your children. Establishing family charitable traditions can be very
meaningful and leave lasting impressions. An example might be to collect family change in a special jar and then
have the kids direct it to a local charity. Maybe at Christmas every family member agrees to give up the value
of one gift and then collectively donates the money to a carefully selected charitable cause. Maybe the family
volunteers together and works for a specific cause. There are countless ways that as parents and grandparents we
can impress on our children (and grandchildren) the importance of charitable giving.
Apparently American families in recent decades have done a pretty good job of nurturing charitable spirits. Americans,
as a group, are an extremely charitable group of people. The most recent available statistics indicate that in
2003 America individuals, estates, foundations, and corporations gave an estimated $240.72 billion dollars to charitable
causes. Furthermore in a typical year slightly more than 1/3 of all Americans have performed volunteer service.
If you are like me the amount of volunteer hours represented by 1/3 of the U.S. population or $240 billion dollars
of charitable donations aren’t even numbers that I can begin to relate to. But what I can relate to is the feeling
of joy my wife and I felt when our kids at a very young age began, on their own accord, to give some of their money
to charity, in this case their church. That charitable inclination has followed them into adulthood and I’m certain
will stay with them their entire lives. Americans are among the most charitable people on the planet. That doesn’t
happen by accident. The seeds of a charitable spirit are indeed best sown at a very early age.
The Union County Foundation encourages you to consider your present and future charitable goals. Perhaps those
goals may include the establishment of your own Scholarship Fund. The Foundation is equipped to help you achieve
these goals by providing: planned giving and estate planning resource information, charitable gift annuities/life
income plans, and a broad array of charitable choices. Please call us at 937-642-9618, email us, reference our
website, or stop by our Marysville office at 126 N. Main St. We are committed to helping you.... “preserve
your footprint in time.” |
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