On November 3rd I attended the Association of Fundraising Professionals - NJ Chapter's annual Conference on Philanthropy. There was an outstanding choice of workshops and keynote speakers. If you haven't attended one of these conferences in the past, I strongly suggest you consider doing so next year. Today I want to blog about the Luncheon Keynote Speaker - Carol Weisman. Carol is a well known author and speaker in the nonprofit sector. Her topic was the same as her newest book - Raising Charitable Children. She gave a great speech about introducing the concepts of philanthropy with children and gave excellent advice.
I thought her most important idea for young children was to introduce the idea in a positive manner as an extra rather than as something they are giving away instead of getting themselves. Carol had some interesting ideas about how to approach this. She recommended that you start with asking children what made them happy and what made them sad in the last year. Their answers then become the inspiration for suggesting charities that they may support.
Carol talked about a family who told her 3 children that on the second night of Hannukah they would each have $36 to give away and how this had become an annual event and each year each child found a way to leverage their gift and get more than $36 to give away. She also described how she involved her own children in choosing the charities that her family supported.
Carol was definitely inspirational and I came away with great ideas for my clients and my own family.
I have to run now because I am working on a deadline but I will post again about two other sessions at the conference.
Marion Conway Consulting
1 comment:
Thanks so much for your kind comments. I LOVED speaking to the AFP NJ group. You are such a warm and receptive audience. Carol Weisman
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