One of my challenges after the holiday season is to continue to model a lifestyle of giving all year round with my family. I feel like giving tends to come easier for our family in the months of November and December because it ties in with thankfulness and gift giving. After the holidays, we have good intentions and sometimes they are that are just that….good intentions. I’ll think about lots of ways to give…and then I’ll forget about it…or I’ll get a great idea while I’m doing something else, at a time when I can’t stop to put that thought into action. Sometimes giving can feel like another thing on my to do list of what I should be doing. I want our family to give more with more frequency. Sometimes I just need the reminder and the deadline to give myself accountability.
My friend Beth has come up with a solution for that problem. She wanted to create opportunities to give WITH her family. Modeling giving and serving others can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. She also wanted to create giving challenges that are REALISTIC for busy families.
Here is a little more about Giving Families.
Taking the guess work out of giving back for busy families, Giving Families’ mission is to help parents and children strengthen their bond through shared moments of giving. Families participating in the Good Mail Challenge program will receive monthly mailers via snail mail, suggesting simple activities that can be completed anytime, anywhere using materials readily available in almost every home.
Looking for that PERFECT gift idea?
Send a friend or family member a Gift Subscription! Developed by former kindergarten teacher, Beth Nowak, Giving Families’ Good Mail Challenge program is a mix between National Wildlife Federation’s Ranger Rick Magazine and the wildly popular subscription-based program, Little Passports.
Rather than teaching children about animals or geography, however, Giving Families’ suggested activities are designed to help children develop desirable character traits such as kindness, compassion and generosity through quality time spent with their parents, bettering the community.
Sample challenges include: cleaning up a local park; delivering valentines to elderly neighbors living in a nearby nursing home; recycling shoes to create jobs in third world countries; and making dog toys out of recycled materials, then donating them to a local animal shelter.
Subscriptions are available at GivingFamilies.com where families also gain access to exclusive “What to Know Before You Go!” tips and printable downloads, such as journaling pages designed to help children document their experiences.
The Cost– $24 a year. You can also give subscriptions as a gift.
What you get– Arriving via “snail mail,” monthly Good Mail Challenges are FUN & EASY activities designed to help children (ages 3+) change the future of our world through acts of kindness, compassion, and generosity.
All of the activities are explained in 3 EASY steps and can be completed anytime, anywhere using materials found in almost EVERY home!
Easy Ways to Earn $ for your favorite non profit
Helping primary schools and nonprofits raise funds, Giving Families has committed to donating $5 from the sale of every Good Mail Challenge subscription to organizations participating in its Partner Program.
To sign up, visit GivingFamilies.com and click on “Partner with Us.”
For more information, contact Giving Families’ founder, Beth Nowak at (859) 982-9561 or Beth@GivingFamilies.com.
Disclosure: I’m a proud Giving Families affiliate.
This is AWESOME, Nedra! Thanks so much for sharing GivingFamilies.com as a resource for parents looking for year-round adventures with their kids:)