At the recent Diocesan Convention, Nathan Dungan, president of Share Save Spend®, gave a presentation on healthy money habits for families. The general idea was that as parents and grandparents, we in the faith community have a great opportunity to teach our families how to share, save and spend, countering the message of “spend spend spend” that we hear 5,000 times a day in ads and impressions.
Dungan suggested starting a family holiday and other celebration tradition of “share checks.” This is a simple concept where a check is made out with the date, amount, signature, everything except the “pay to” line. The recipient is invited to fill in the “pay to” line with the name of a charity. The only requirement is that the child or adult later tell you where the gift went.
The check might be shared with a feeding program like Northwest Harvest, Episcopal Charities Appeal (which supports 25 ministries in Western Washington) or Episcopal Relief and Development (which serves those in need around the world). One could pick from scores of local agencies and charities. The recipient of the “share check” can do some research to determine where they want it to go.
One of the great things about share checks is that it turns “gimme, gimme, gimme” into “give to others.” It also gives us a great opportunity to have meaningful discussions about who we share with and why.
“Share checks” are an easy way to share our abundance, pass on some of our own stewardship values, teach others the joy of giving, and have meaningful things to talk about with our kids, grandkids and families. I know we are incorporating this into our family gift-giving this holiday season and it will also be part of birthdays and other gift-giving from now on.
Like the adman says, “Try it. You’ll like it!”
Bill Brice
Past Diocesan Council Rep from Commission for Planned
Giving/Stewardship
Your writing style is good & tips is informative.Thanks
Posted by: Fog Light | February 24, 2010 at 09:52 PM