As summer approaches, many welcome changes are coming to Chicago. Flip-flops, sunscreen, and beach are words that once again enter our daily vernacular. Of course, summer also means a hiatus from school for children and teenagers. As the young people in your life take a break from schoolwork, the staff at the Center for Jewish Philanthropy encourages you to engage in a meaningful conversation on philanthropy and its importance to your family.

Words such as tzedakah , philanthropy, and charitable giving can be integrated into conversations with your children in a way that is age appropriate and significant. In today’s world, with the multitude of video games and screens that attract the attention of youth, the chance to unplug and impact the community is essential. Depending on your children’s ages and maturity, their involvement in your family’s charitable giving can range from discussions introducing these concepts, collective decisions on which charities you are passionate about as a family and for a young adult, establishing his or her own tzedakah fund. If you would like to discuss ideas or learn more about strategies and ways to speak with your children about Jewish giving, our staff is here to offer professional insight and advice.

The Center for Jewish Philanthropy can also help your family handle your charitable giving. We help thousands of individuals and families manage their philanthropic interests through donor-advised funds, annually allocating many millions of dollars to charities in the Jewish and wider community here in Chicago, Israel, and worldwide. A donor-advised fund is a simple, easy-to-use charitable giving account that allows fund holders to recommend grants to qualified charities. For only $1,000, you can establish a fund-either collectively as a family or for a young person in your life-in order to begin incorporating charitable giving with a Jewish lens into your everyday life.

In particular, as a child approaches celebrating the significant milestone of a b’nai mitzvah , opening a donor-advised fund to honor this event can be especially meaningful. In the eyes of Jewish tradition, a bar or bat mitzvah becomes an adult and is afforded corresponding privileges, but also must take on the responsibilities of Jewish adulthood. Allowing family and friends to contribute to a b’nai mitzvah fund and giving your child the opportunity to decide which charities to support can help instill the importance of tzedakah at such a critical personal and religious moment.

For instance, if your child heads off to summer camp or participates in a youth leadership program for the summer, whether Jewish or secular, he or she can support the charities that run those programs. The opportunities to support the organizations that give them such a monumental life-changing experience-whether as a camper or a staff member-through their donor-advised fund can be an instrumental learning experience.

Now that tax season is behind us and the calm of summer is upon us, the Center for Jewish Philanthropy is also taking the time to reflect on all of the kindness exhibited by our generous community. Mother Teresa advised that one should ” never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you .” While we agree and are extremely proud of every single generous donation, our staff is also floored to see the collective impact of our close to 850 donor advised funds. In 2015 alone, our funds distributed over $28.5 million from 6,816 grants to charities both Jewish and secular, helping those nearest to us here in Chicago, in Israel, and around the world.

We encourage you to also reflect on your charitable giving over the past year and if you and your family are working towards accomplishing your philanthropic goals. Are you fulfilling your responsibility to pass the value of tzedakah onto the next generation? For more information on reaching your charitable goals now and in the future, contact Amy Saltzman at the Center for Jewish Philanthropy at [email protected] or (312) 357-4719. We look forward to seeing what the next generation of thoughtful philanthropists can accomplish.

Amy Saltzman is the endowment associate for Donor Advised Programs in the Legacies & Endowments department of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.