Opinion

Young at heart

Finance | Ian Allsop | 1 Feb 2008

Ian Allsop views charitable giving through the eyes of a child.

As one of the twentieth century’s great thinkers* once put it: “I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.” Marketers and branding people know all too well the importance of engaging children as young as possible and I can well remember the sinking feeling I got each time my eldest recognised the golden arches of a McDonald’s long before he knew most of his alphabet.

The voluntary sector also needs to remain aware of the importance of embracing the young – after all they are the next generation of donors and volunteers. Citizenship is now on the national curriculum, CAF has its family charity account, and I read something recently about rich parents sending children on courses run by New Philanthropy Capital, to educate them on how to spend their inherited wealth wisely and effectively. While this is not something I am going to have to worry about particularly, it did get me thinking about my three and a half-year-old son’s charitable giving.

For Tommy, it’s not about the cause – he just loves putting coins in receptacles. Anybody rattling a tin on our local high street is likely to benefit from his generosity – funded by me and whatever loose change I have in my pockets. Those spiral wishing wells you find in some shops are alwaysgood value for tuppence as the little chap stands transfixed watching with fascination as the coin spins around in circles at eye-blurring speeds, defying the laws of gravity as it descends the walls of the funnel. And the Paddington Bear collection box soliciting funds for Action Medical Research outside the bookshop has had a fair wedge of loose change shoved through the slot in his hat over the last year.

A quick basic calculation shows that if he ‘gives’ on average 20p a week in this way, that’s a tenner a year. If this pattern is repeated among even half of the estimated 700,000 three-year-olds in the UK then this accounts for well over £3m a year being randomly donated (and not benefiting from gift aid) by this age group – a whopping 0.3 per cent of all charitable giving. OK, slightly cod research – but probably as statistically significant as some of the more self-serving bits of PR masquerading as serious research that cross my desk.

Tommy does sometimes take it too far, such as the occasion when he insisted on giving a bagpipe-playing busker at Bank station some cash (he thinks that bagpipes sound “beautiful”) but generally I am not going to discourage his benevolence. And as he gets older I will attempt to make him more aware about what the money he is splashing about is actually meant to be achieving.

I can imagine the conversations we will have when he starts to ask those awkward questions that kids do. “Daddy, what’s a chugger?” “Son, you’re not to use that word, it’s a bad word. The correct term is face-to-face fundraiser.” And: “Daddy, Joseph’s Dad says that charities waste too much money on administration costs and so it is better not to give them anything. Is that right?” “Tommy, Joseph’s Dad may be better at skateboarding than I am, but trust me, he knows bugger all about charity. Any more of this talk and I’ll stop you going round there.”

A recent incident illustrated the importance of charities adhering to one of fundraising’s old rules when dealing with their young donors. The bloke in Sainsbury’s foyer was demonstrating an inexhaustibly chirpy demeanour to attract donations for cerebral palsy. Tommy spotted that he was giving out thank-you stickers and if there is one thing that three-year-olds like it is stickers. Therefore we dutifully toddled over to the bloke to put some shrapnel in his bucket. Imagine Tommy’s reaction when the chap gave him not a cheap luminous orange sticker but a shiny metallic badge with a bear on it. “I wanted a sticker Daddy.” “Don’t you like your badge?” “Yes, it’s nice, but it isn’t a sticker.” He was soon distracted by a biscuit but this incident will not easily be forgotten, and may have repercussions for his longer-term view of donating to charity. Two days later he was talking about how kind it was of people to give him presents. Then he said: “It isn’t nice when people don’t give you stickers when they should do.” Clearly he isn’t going to let this lie and it demonstrates that while showing donors that their money is being spent effectively is important, the way in which you say thank you is also not to be underestimated.

I wait to see if the experience has affected his propensity to give to random tin rattlers in future… while also looking forward to the numerous sponsorship opportunities that undoubtedly lie in store once he starts school.

*Whitney Houston

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