Kids in Philanthropy has been around for just over 10 years, and we've evolved a lot over that time. We started with a small group of incredible people who saw an opportunity to do more philanthropy in the youth space.

They used their own connections, donated their money and time and ran events that brought families together to talk about giving and to access hands-on opportunities to donate their time. This evolved into a series of public events across Melbourne and South Australia.

Today we work with over 30 different charity partners. Everything we do in our programs goes directly to amplifying the impact of these charities. Every event is different. A standard event involves making goods together, learning about those goods and who they will benefit and then donating the goods to our charity partners to distribute. It's a model that’s built on partnerships and collaboration.

In 2019, we started running programs with schools, in addition to our public programs. During COVID we ran them virtually, in-person and hybrid, depending on what was needed and we found this was a powerful way to scale our giving as we can run large scale programs with significant impact.

For example, we ran a program earlier this week for 190 young people to learn about different charity partners. We usually have between two to four different charity partners that come to speak about their work and engage the young people in different activities. Some sessions are just focused on learning about that charity, but there are also opportunities for hands-on volunteering.

For the program this week, a Pitch for Change, all the kids came with donations from home, and, after learning about each charity and engaging in hands on activities, they get to vote on where the donations go. The charity that receives the most votes gets 50% of the funds and the other charities share the remainder. Before the program we send a note home to the parents encouraging them to think about how their kids can earn this donation money. Should it be their pocket money? Should they do some extra chores? Should they hold a little bake sale? What can they do?

It's a great way to start conversations in the home around giving and philanthropy. We use this model across all our public and corporate programs. But the school programs, where every single kid in a year group is involved - that's where the real power is.

Absolutely. Over the past 18 months we’ve really invested in documenting our processes and creating a pool of incredible facilitators with lived experience as well as educators and experienced volunteers in the not-for-profit space. We’re in a good position to scale and are currently looking to partner with different people and expand into different areas.

South Australia is a natural location because we've run programs there before and we’re running some regional Victoria programs later this year, which is exciting. I believe there’s huge potential for scale because our programs are already making a big impact and we have increasing demand from schools and charity partners.

One of the biggest learnings is that giving is not a one-sided transaction, and there’s so much research that supports this. When it comes to volunteering time or money, the person who's making the donation gets almost as much benefit as the person receiving it. And that positive experience means they're more likely to do it again and again and again. A single philanthropic program can be catalytic, which is why every program we run is important because it’s an opportunity for a young person to have that moment.

We also find that it creates a kind of FOMO [‘fear of missing out’] when other kids look into the school hall and see how exciting it is. Then the word spreads. Our programs are designed to be energising and engaging. When you make a program exciting, more people want to do it, and the culture of giving expands.

It's the same as forming habits. You repeat a habit when you get that dopamine hit - we keep exercising because it feels good physiologically. So, if giving can have that same impact, it can become a habit and a part of who you are. This is why, if you plant that seed early, people have their whole lives to give back to their community. They don't have to wait until they're in their thirties and earning money, they can be philanthropists and change makers now.

I want every young person in Australia to have the opportunity to become a philanthropist. It's happening in more schools, but to get it happening in every school, we need strong partnerships with educational bodies and government.

We’ve recently developed our Kindness program, which is designed for schools in lower socioeconomic areas where they can donate their time, and then keep some of what they make. We can't expect kids who haven't had breakfast to make breakfast for other people, but they can make a breakfast and eat that and then make more to give to other people. This way they get all the benefits of giving. Every young person should have the opportunity to experience the gift of giving, and the sooner they have that experience, the more impact they can make.

We need a greater diversity of voices in philanthropy. We need more women and people from different cultural and economic backgrounds. Philanthropy is a big term, and we have to create more opportunities for people to experience it, otherwise we’re just creating more barriers. This is why in-school programs are so powerful – they enable an entire year group to participate in philanthropy.

It plays a big role - we are very much women-led and women-guided. As an organisation we’re at the intersection of philanthropy and education, which is currently very women dominated, and partially because of that, our core team are all women. Our chair is a woman, and our advisory board and board of directors are mostly women as well.

One of the reasons we’re so passionate about philanthropy education, is because the research shows that when you provide education with a social impact lens, women are more likely to participate. They can see the opportunities and link the philanthropy with career pathways around how they can give back.

I use the phrase ‘philanthropic self-efficacy’ a lot, which is the ability to see yourself as a philanthropist. The only way to do that is by having the experience of being a philanthropist. If we want more female philanthropists, we need more opportunities where women actually get to be philanthropists.