Bringing the Community Together with Magnified Giving
What would your ideal world be? If you could do anything, how would you fix the world’s problems? These are questions we asked the GLAD House kids, as over the last year they were given the opportunity to be the change they wished to see in the world!
Magnified Giving is an incredible organization that teaches philanthropy to youth—for life! Their mission is to educate, inspire, and engage students in philanthropy, and to touch the hearts and minds of teens, lighten the concerns of others, and magnify the impact of philanthropy.
When GLAD House connected with Magnified Giving last year, students from several local junior high and high schools reached out to us to learn more about our program and our impact on the community. They researched GLAD House and interviewed our executive director, and learned that GLAD House has the only comprehensive, trauma-informed program in the Cincinnati area that provides mental health and drug prevention services to children of addicted parents!
Finally, the students presented about GLAD House to their student body in an INCREDIBLE, informative, impactful presentation! Thanks to their amazing efforts, GLAD House was selected to receive four grants from Magnified Giving!
The GLAD House kids were so excited to hear that they had been selected for grants that would go to pay for point store prizes, art supplies, and fun, holiday activities.
GLAD HOUSE KIDS GIVE BACK…
But the excitement wasn’t over: Our kids were given the amazing task to research their own local nonprofits and select one that THEY would donate a gift to!
Our oldest group of 10-12 year olds took the lead on the project. They started with a Zoom interview with Magnified Giving’s founder, Roger Grein, who has an inspiring story of perseverance, love, and generosity. Our kids related to his story of being adopted, and they wanted to know all about his life! They were also very curious about how he made his money, and why he chose to give so much of it away.
Next the kids discussed what “community” means to them, their friends, and their family—and what they think the needs in their community are. They envisioned a brighter future: “What would the community look like in 10 years with this issue fixed?” And then brainstormed how they could contribute to solving the problem.
After much research and discussion, one of our kids chose Bethany House, which 11-year-old Jaxson presented to all of GLAD House! Bethany House is a family-centered resource of homelessness services, which includes prevention of homelessness, emergency shelter, housing programs, and support post-shelter!
Jaxson knows what it is like to wonder where he is going to sleep at night, as he and his mother have transitioned in and out of shelters. He very passionately asked his GLAD House peers:
“If you were homeless, how would you feel? Wouldn’t you want a safe place to be? We need to be good human beings: If you see someone thirsty, you give them a bottle of water. If you see someone without a place to live, you help them find a home.”
After Jaxson’s heartfelt presentation, Bethany House was chosen with unanimous support from the GLAD House kids! Due to Covid precautions, we participated in a private award ceremony with the staff of Bethany House, and the kids were thrilled to have made such a difference.
We can’t thank Magnified Giving enough for the wonderful experience that the GLAD House kids had. Through Magnified Giving, our kids felt important and valued. They were so gratified to learn that four schools felt they were important enough to donate money to! And they felt so important to have been given the responsibility of deciding who they could donate money to in turn.
This year, our kids will be researching more non-profits and charities to decide who they want to donate to again, and they couldn’t be more excited! Magnified Giving is community at its best: bringing people together to give, and teaching them the joy of giving back.
