Words by Abi Scaife
Despite the cost of living crisis, studies have shown that charitable giving has actually increased from where we were two years ago - and, even better, these are statistics from children.
When thinking of donating money to charity, you don’t usually think of children donating. But that’s exactly what is happening, according to GoHenry, a supervised debit card and account for children.
According to research by GoHenry, the number of children giving to charity has increased by a whopping 256% in 2022. The total amount donated to charity via GoHenry accounts went from £120,000 in the first half of 2021, to £435,000 in the first half of 2022 - a huge jump.
Aurora, age 5, and her older brother Jaxon, age 8, were inspired to give using their GoHenry card when they learned about food banks in school. Using Jaxon’s GoHenry card, they decided to do a small food shop, with all the items they bought being donated to a local food bank.
“I decided to do a shop using my card with my sister for the food bank because it feels nice to help other people and it's kind to do it,” explained Jaxon. “If you are kind to people then people will be kind to you.”
“It made us feel happy,” said Aurora. “They have no food and we do. It’s not very fair. I want to give to the food banks lots and lots of times!”
Aurora and Jaxon aren’t the only kids who are taking advantage of their (supervised!) access to money to give back.
In 2022, Oscar, aged 7, did a sponsored walk - 14 miles all the way around Mersey Island! - which took him 8 hours and 14 minutes to complete. He raised over £1,600 to help Ukrainian refugees after seeing what was happening on the news and has decided that he wants to do another one.
“I wanted to do a sponsored walk to raise money for the Ukrainian people because it made me sad to see them having to leave everything behind and not know if they would see their families again,” Oscar said. “It made me feel happy that I completed the walk. It did take a long time but it felt good to know the money I raised would help lots of people.”
Whether they are raising money through a sponsored walk like Oscar or using saved money to help someone else like Jaxon and Aurora, it’s great to see kids taking an active role in giving back.
This article aligns with the UN SDG Partnership for the Goals.
