If you’re looking for a way to infuse giving into your family’s culture, consider committing as a group to a Monthly Family Give. You can sit down now and plan out the year or decide on your ‘give’ from month to month, just be sure that once you make the commitment you follow through. Before you know it, helping others in your community will become second nature! Here are a few ways your family can come together once a month to help others and get involved in your community:

If you’re looking for a way to infuse giving into your family’s culture, consider committing as a group to a Monthly Family Give. You can sit down now and plan out the year or decide on your ‘give’ from month to month, just be sure that once you make the commitment you follow through. Before you know it, helping others in your community will become second nature! Here are a few ways your family can come together once a month to help others and get involved in your community:

1. Give money. Perhaps you have a regular tradition of going out for dessert as a family. Skip one trip to ice cream shop a month and instead, select a nonprofit that you would like to give that money too. Or, as a family set aside a certain amount of money from your budget each month that you would like to donate. The amount doesn’t matter because every donation counts. Whether you mail a check, donate online or drop it off, do it as a family. Spend a little time talking about the nonprofit and educating yourselves on what they do, who they help and why it’s important to our community. And teach your children about due diligence so you know the money you’re giving is used well.
2. Volunteer Together. Once a month, come together as a family to help someone in need. The benefits of volunteering to kids are immense. Serve a meal at a local soup kitchen, host a canned food drive for Harvest Hope or help build a home with Habitat for Humanity.
3. Acts of Kindness. There are lots of little (and big) things that we can do to simply make a day brighter or life a little easier for someone else.  Each month, commit to performing an Act of Kindness as a family. Spend an afternoon doing yard work for an elderly neighbor, bake cookies for your local police department or take flowers to a friend who could use some cheer. Here are some more ideas.
4. Donate items. We all drudge through the grocery store with our kids on a regular basis. Once a month, select a local nonprofit, review their wish list and pick-up a few of the requested items while you’re doing your household shopping. Talk with your kids about what the nonprofit does and why they need these items. If possible, drop them off as a family. Here are some links to Columbia nonprofits’ wish lists.