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This is the time for yard sales and it’s a great time to de-clutter your home and life. Simplifying is a wonderful thing, especially when you can make a difference in other’s lives by doing so. Get your children to go through their toy boxes and choose things that they no longer play with and place items in bins for a certain price range: $0.25, $0.50, $1.00, etc. Make it fun and your kids will get into this with you. Involve them by having them make colorful signs. Make sure to highlight that the money will be donated to a worthy cause.
Here are a couple ideas of amazing charities:
Care for Life is a global non-profit organization with a holistic approach to ending poverty in a sustainable way, by preserving the family while encouraging and enabling the practice of self-reliance. Care for Life is not a handout or a give-away organization, but one that believes in working with people to help them take charge of their own destiny, realize their full potential, and create a culture of individual effort and responsibility.
What I love about this website are the stories and videos that you can share with your family about the people whose lives are changing because of your donation. I also love that they have different specific items you can choose to donate. This is a very tangible way for kids to see where their money is going and exactly what their donation is buying. They can choose from a variety of items depending on the donation amount. Items range from $10 – $1000. They are doing amazing things and you can be a part of it!
Free The Children is a charity I have supported for many years and absolutely love what they are doing and how they empower young people to make a difference in the world! If you click on the link above you will find a lot of great resources to get your family geared up and excited to get involved. You will find family articles and ideas for raising funds and awareness.
Free The Children is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million youth involved in their innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded in 1995 by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has a proven track record of success. The organization has received the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize), the Human Rights Award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, and has formed successful partnerships with leading school boards and Oprah’s Angel Network.
I love that their focus is moving from ‘ME’ to ‘WE’. This is one trait I believe is so crucial for our children to learn: To be able to see a need and put aside their own wants for the moment and give to others because they know it is the right thing to do, it is fun, and it makes a big difference to someone in great need.
