For Modern Kids, 'Philanthropy' Is No Grown-Up Word

This holiday season, thousands of parents gave their kids "give cards," sold through philanthropy sites such as GlobalGiving.com. Like gift certificates, the cards enable people to go to an online marketplace and find a charity to make a donation.

Also popular among youth are "embedded" gifts: items such as T-shirts, scarves or cellphones that have a charitable donation built into the price. A prominent example of this trend is the (Product) RED campaign at such retail outlets as Gap and Apple. Spearheaded by U2 lead singer Bono, the campaign raises money to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Established foundations and nonprofit groups, including many in the Washington region, are engaging children and teens in new ways. For the first time, the Olney-based Carl M. Freeman Foundation included two teenagers this year on its grant-making board, which decides which projects to fund.

The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region began a youth philanthropy program about five years ago in local jurisdictions. The program makes some of the foundation's money available to a board made up exclusively of students who study needs among disadvantaged youth in their counties, and the students then award grants to certain projects.

"What's magical about the program is that young people usually don't have the opportunity to make decisions and have that kind of power," said Silvana Straw, senior program officer at the Community Foundation.

Some groups make youth philanthropy a primary mission. New Global Citizens, a national nonprofit group based in San Francisco, mobilizes high school students to tackle such global issues as poverty, child labor and disease by raising money for vetted projects.

Nicole Sanchez, co-founder of the group, said young people today are more engaged than prior generations largely because of technology.

"Now they could have friends on Facebook who are in the middle of these things," Sanchez said. "They're hearing stories firsthand about the Darfur genocide or about the mudslides in Indonesia. Most young people's immediate reaction is, 'What can I do to help?' and 'What do you need from me?' "

Sanchez said philanthropy once conjured up images of "very wealthy people in ball gowns at the opera. Those are philanthropists. But what we're trying to do is demonstrate that anybody can be a philanthropist and have an impact."

The scale of money children are raising through new technologies or giving away through charities is "mind-boggling," said Lucy Bernholz, founder and president of Blueprint Research and Design, a leading consulting firm for nonprofit organizations.

"It used to be the pennies we raised through UNICEF boxes, and now you're talking about 15- and 17-year-old children who are savvy enough and committed enough to raise tens of thousands of dollars and sending it halfway around the world," Bernholz said.

Research suggests that affluent families increasingly are including their children in philanthropic decisions.