Last year, Foundation President & CEO JoAnn Turnquist had a conversation with Catharine Aitken about a new program the Foundation was launching called Talk About Giving (TAG). The brainchild of Foundation board member Cathy Monetti, TAG seeks to create a new generation of givers by encouraging family conversation about philanthropy.

“I’d had conversations about donating time and talents with my oldest son, Ian, but we’d never talked about donating our treasure,” Catharine Aitken, mother of three young children ages one to five, remarks. “I realized how few people talk with their children about planning to give.”

In the fall, Catharine wrote to the Foundation to share her experience after beginning that conversation.
 
When Ian turned five a few weeks ago, we gave him an allowance. Remembering what you told me about Talk About Giving, I did some research and asked friends how they handle allowances.
 
I glued three empty baby food jars to a piece of cardboard and wrote a word on each – ‘Spend’, ‘Save’ and ‘Give.’  I instructed him to dedicate 50 percent of his earnings to the spend jar, 25 percent to save and 25 percent to give.  

In October, we joined Ian's classmate, Evan, and his family in Palmetto Health Foundation’s Walk for Life. We walked to honor Evan's mother who passed away from breast cancer last year. That morning, Ian had 50 cents in his give jar.
 
He found a gold dollar coin his grandfather gave him and deposited it into his spend jar. Then, Ian paused to look at the three jars and moved two quarters from his spend jar to the give jar.
 
"Now I have four quarters to give for Evan's mommy," he said.
 
Ian put his money in a little plastic bag. When we joined Evan's Cancer Crushers team, Ian handed Evan his dollar for the Palmetto Health Breast Center.

My son's first donation…thanks for the inspiration.

Catharine and her husband, Frank, now plan to give each of their children an allowance when they turn five to help them learn about saving money. As evidenced by Ian’s gesture, lessons will be about saving and giving.
 
“People feel differently about the best way to handle allowances, and there is no one correct method,” Catharine says. “What I’ve learned, though, is parents should always use the subject as a teaching tool.”
 
Ian’s awareness of philanthropy is growing in other ways. As with many children, he has always loved to throw change into the fountains at Riverbanks Zoo, purely for the fun of tossing a coin in the air and making a wish.

“We’d never talked about what that money was being used for,” Catharine says. Then one day while at the zoo, she explained to
Ian that the money is used to save animals that are in danger and need help. “He got so excited about that,” Catharine says. “He tried to find every place at the zoo where he could give more.”

Their zoo trip ended, but Ian had one quarter left. As they were leaving, Ian approached a little boy at the entrance, held out his quarter and said, “I just saved some animals today. Take this quarter, and you can save some animals too.”

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