Informed and impactful giving isn’t an innate skill, and nor is it included in the education curriculum in Australia. But many believe philanthropy education for school and university students is essential to the longevity of the sector, as well as a convenient conduit for other ‘life skills’ such as compassion and logic. Read about recent trends in a technique of philanthropy education known as ‘experiential philanthropy’, as trialled by international organisation The Life You Can Save on a 'micro' scale, with their Giving Games initiative.


*Cover image: Kat Yukawa

Why is teaching philanthropy important?

We know that it’s important to teach kids how to be philanthropists.

Philanthropy provides a great medium to instill values of compassion, awareness and altruism, not to mention the practical skills such as public speaking, entrepreneurial skills, as well as financial and event management.

But what about our teenagers and university undergraduates?

In recent years, philanthropic education programs have demonstrated strong results in universities throughout the world, adapting the successful ‘hands-on’ approach known as ‘experiential philanthropy.’

Traditionally, experiential philanthropy programs involved large-scale, high-stakes educational programs, which would see students studying intensively for months, and collectively donating large sums of money for their chosen charities.

How has ‘experiential philanthropy’ changed?

However, a new trend has emerged that is significantly more scalable and dynamic.

Rather than running extensive educational programs, where students ultimately donate large sums of money to their chosen charities, recent experiments have dabbled in a ‘micro’ approach.

They ask, “If a class had $20,000 to donate instead of $10,000, would students learn twice as much?”

And the answer, of course, is no, they wouldn’t.

The Giving Games is an initiative of The Life You Can Save that plays with these learnings, by providing low-cost simulations of real giving choices that encourage participants to assess a charity’s impact and relevance, in a low-risk environment.

The Life You Can Save is an organisation that educates people about the importance of ‘high impact philanthropy’ - that is, how can donors make more informed, intentional and impactful charitable giving decisions to amplify philanthropic efforts globally.

In a nutshell, The Life You Can Save helps you learn how can you get the best “bang for your buck” when choosing which charity to donate to.

Recently the Giving Games collaborated with Altruistic Accounting, a group of accounting educators from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Sydney.

As you’ll see, this program found that you don’t need long uni courses and loads of money to teach philanthropy to students, but it’s more about creating engaging and dynamic short sessions that can be easily scaled in a range of institutions.

Case study: Giving Games and Altruistic Accounting program at UTS in Sydney

In May of this year, the Altruistic Accounting team held their inaugural round of Giving Games at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), with 173 undergraduate accounting students from UTS Business School participating in an adapted Giving Game activity as part of their normal coursework.

Students were challenged to ‘make the optimal choice’ by using their accounting knowledge to collectively decide how to allocate a pool of real funds to one of three charities in order to ‘do the most good’. UTS Business school generously donated $1,000, and it was this money that students would ultimately allocate to their charity (or charities) of choice.

Guided through a structured sequence of in class tasks, such as developing decision criteria, collecting relevant information and evaluating alternative investment strategies, the students are encouraged to reflect on how biases and decision constraints affect their decision-making.

This semester, the UTS accounting students decide to allocate $900 to The Fred Hollows Foundation and $100 to Give Directly. Key decision factors included charities’ impact per dollar, perceived significance of their cause, and whether or not sufficient evidence was available to support the charities’ claims.

Would you like more information on The Life You Can Save’s Giving Games?

The Giving Games team is keen to hear from anyone who would like to be involved in their programs; schools, universities and anyone else who is interested.

Feel free to get in touch with Kathryn Mecrow-Flynn, Giving Games project lead by emailing [email protected]

To receive email updates, including the full results of the Altruistic Accounting team’s June roll-out, please subscribe to The Giving Games Project’s newsletter or follow them on Facebook. If you’re an educator who would like access to their teaching materials, please contact Nicole at [email protected]

The Life You Can Save has recently launched its affiliate charity in Australia. Visit their website to check out The Fred Hollows Foundation listing, and examine all the other recommend charities.

Here's the Founder of The Life You Can Save, Peter Singer, announcing their Australia branch.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Kathryn Mecrow-Flynn has an LLM in International Law and Human Rights and an LLB in Law. Before becoming involved in the High Impact Philanthropy ecosystem, she worked in international development in India, Malaysia, and Ethiopia as a legal researcher then lecturer in Women's Human Rights. Kathryn brings to her role as Philanthropic Educator and Curriculum Developer at The Life You Can Save a genuine enthusiasm for philanthropy education and a strong commitment to tackling the world's most critical problems.

Dr Nicole Sutton is a Lecturer of management accounting at the University of Sydney (UTS) Business School. She is passionate about making business concepts engaging and accessible, and outside the classroom co-hosts the ‘Think Business Futures’ podcast. Nicole’s research focuses on how management systems influence the way people think and behave in organisations, be it in corporate boardrooms, cotton fields, laboratories, sports, aged care or charitable giving.