PASSION
SPCCAA 11
When Young Hearts Embrace
the Spirit of Giving
Michelle Chow (1986)
An e-mail from the alumni choir of my alma mater recently
turned up in my inbox. “Let’s bring the joy of music and
laughter to the community,” the title read.
They were recruiting volunteers to sing and interact with
the mentally and physically handicapped through SAHK,
formerly known as the Spastics Association of Hong Kong, a
rehabilitation centre which has been in Hong Kong since 1963.
Such events are often oversubscribed, so I thought long and
hard: was it time to teach my four-year-old goddaughter to
help the less fortunate?
Most people tend to associate charity with giving money. We
take out our cheque books and participate in our children’s
school fund-raising events. While we dig deep in our pockets,
children of different ages are introduced to a culture which
promotes donating money to worthy causes.
Parents can teach young children about the importance of
reaching out to others in their time of need. We can educate
children in the spirit of giving and make charity a habit by
letting them experience charitable giving first-hand.
There is a wide range of both direct and indirect ways in which
children can participate.
For every age and ability, we should aim to find the right
approach to raise funds for the needy in a fun and meaningful
way. For younger children, this could be an activity such as
baking and selling cupcakes.
While children can join their older siblings and parents to
volunteer at events such as the one organised by my alma
mater, it is increasingly common for families to start their own
foundations, or reactivate an old foundation set up by an older
relative. Teenagers who are brought up to acknowledge the
pain and suffering in the world and who feel compelled to
make a difference would welcome a chance to participate in
their family’s foundation.
A recent case study by the Hong Kong Council of Social
Service WiseGiving (HKCSS WiseGiving) describes how an
established Hong Kong family set up the Next Generation
Committee to provide guidance and support for younger family
members, including teenagers.
This family is particularly serious about educating the younger
generation as to how they can carry out their philanthropic
efforts by giving them a small but meaningful budget and
teaching them how to write a grant proposal to be vetted by
the board.
They are shown a few local charities working in their area of
interest so they can carry out their own due diligence.
Reviewing annual reports and budgets can be boring for
teenagers, but getting them involved from the beginning can
be exciting.
In Hong Kong, charities set up to relieve poverty and advance
education and religion can carry out their activities anywhere
in the world. They can take their philanthropic efforts to the
mainland and beyond. Charities established to benefit the
community must be carried out locally in Hong Kong.
Activities such as solving environmental issues and promoting
arts and culture to friends outside Hong Kong can be done
with careful legal planning and structuring.
This may mean setting up a charity in another jurisdiction
where the charity law allows these activities to be carried out
anywhere in the world.
For some parents, nurturing children in charitable giving is
part of a plan to groom them to sit on the family foundation,
or even the board of the family business. Project planning and
budgeting skills are life skills that can be transferred to profit-
based businesses easily.
Charities and businesses face similar challenges, and family-
run businesses can therefore benefit greatly from promoting
charity activities as a learning tool.
If a child is not keen to inherit the management of the family
business, taking a role in the family foundation can ensure that
the child still has a valuable role within the family and is not left
out. Charity begins at home. It brings the family closer.
Michelle Chow is a member of the steering committee of
HKCSS WiseGiving.
This article appeared in the Legal Eye, South China Morning Post published on Tuesday, 24 June 2014.
