The Fundamentals of Philanthropy
Time:
30 minutes
Materials:
- Pen and Paper
- Calculator
- Play money equal to the minimum wage times the number of people in your group plus extra play money
- The amount of the minimum wage for your state
Physical Setting:
Room large enough for small group work
Sequence:
- 5 minutes for introduction
- 15 minutes to calculate monetary equivalent of time spent
- 10 minutes for processing
Age:
- 7-11
Philanthropy is:
- Caring, sharing and taking action by using time, talent and treasure for the common good
Purpose:
- Participants will discover how their time can equal dollars to help their community
Objectives:
- To determine the amount of money participants donate by using their time and talent to volunteer in their community
- To identify how much money volunteers donate to the community
- To reflect on his/her individual impact on the community
Religious Activity Theme:
Psalms 37:21
“A righteous person deals graciously and gives”
2 Corinthians 8
1Now, friends, I want to report on the surprising and generous ways in which God is working in the churches in Macedonia province. 2Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colors: They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor. The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts. 3I was there and saw it for myself. They gave offerings of whatever they could--far more than they could afford!- 4pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians.
(Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright ? 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group)
Activity Steps:
- Ask participants if anyone knows the minimum wage in their state. (Note: Facilitator will need to determine the minimum wage for your state) If participants can not guess the minimum wage, inform them of the minimum wage. Explain that the government sets the minimum wage as the amount that is required for a person to support himself or herself.
- Explain that today we are going to use the minimum wage figure to determine what the participants’ dollar value might be to their community through volunteering.
- Divide the participants into teams of 2-4 people. Ask the teams to write down ways they could give their time to the community. Assist the teams to think what they might do individually or as a group to volunteer in their community.
- Once the teams have created their lists of how they could volunteer, ask them to figure out how much time their volunteering would take. For example: If a young person said they would volunteer by visiting someone in a nursing home, that might take two hours; or picking up trash in the neighborhood might take one hour. Each team should come up with total hours donated by that team. Ask each team how many hours they would volunteer. Write down and add up the total number of hours volunteered by the whole group on flipchart paper.
- “If you were paid minimum wage for each hour your whole group volunteered, what would be the total monetary worth of your group’s volunteering to the community?” Let the participants do the math to provide the dollar amount. (Answer is number of hours X minimum wage) Tell them that although they are volunteers, their work has a value to society. Volunteers throughout all communities have a monetary value.
- Ask the participants to estimate what the total dollar amount would be if all the youth in their class at school were involved in volunteering. This would illustrate the impact that the more young people volunteer the more time equals treasures is given to their community.
- Ask again who has $20 dollars that they would like to give to the community. Point out that you may not have money but you do have time and time equals really important money when you volunteer.
- Lead a discussion with the participants about why more people don’t volunteer and what they as a group could do to encourage others to volunteer.
- Invite participants to set a goal for themselves on the amount of money they would like to give to the community and then decide how they could do it by giving their time and talents.
Processing Questions:
- What did you discover about money and volunteering today?
- How do volunteers donate money when they don’t actually have money?
- What would happen in our communities if no one volunteered? How would our community be different?
- Why do you think people volunteer?
- What keeps people from volunteering and how could we remove these barriers?
- In what way is it a privilege to help the poor?
- Why is righteousness produced by giving, and dealing graciously with others?
- In what ways could the faith community mobilize volunteers to address issues of poverty?
- In what ways do you see people in this faith community volunteering for the good of others?
Variation:
- Give everyone walking in the door play money equal to an hour of minimum wage. Ask them to list all the things they could do with that money that would help the community. Then lead the young people through the activity to show them that their volunteering could do so much more probably than just the money.
Supplemental Activity:
- Ask the members of your group to talk with other groups within the faith organization to determine the dollar value in time and talents that are given to the community. Ask them to report back at the next session so the group can figure out the total that the faith organization has given.
- During the following week, participants should take part in 3 deeds of service that do not serve themselves. (Washing mom or dad’s car, raking grandparents or neighbors yard, picking up garbage in the lunch room, calling their faith communities office and asking if they could wash the toys in the nursery ect.)
Activity Source:
Learning to Give Lesson (6-8) “Reflecting the Power of Volunteerism”
Unit “Welcome to Our School”
Additional Resources:
Further Reflection on a Service Project
Learning to Give Lesson (3-5) “Philanthropy —Why Do We Do It?”
Unit “Philanthropy —A Day at The Beach”
Giving of Private Resources
Learning to Give Lesson (3-5) “We Need More Than Money”
Unit “Raising Resources”
Civilian Conservation Corps
Learning to Give Lesson (3-5) “No Food, No Money, No Job — What to Do?”
Unit “Roosevelt’s Tree Army”
Philanthropy Theme Framework :
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