It's Christmas Day, and like most Hawai'i families, yours has probably finished opening presents from friends and loved ones. This is certainly the time of year when we think about giving and the impact that it has on others. Every holiday season, we are besieged with pleas from worthy charities that need our support. And as always, we as a community respond generously.

When we give, we embrace a meaning larger than ourselves. Making philanthropy a way of life in your family every day —not just at Christmastime — will give our children a solid foundation as they become our community's future donors, volunteers and leaders. Helping our children to understand the value gained by being an engaged member of the community and the incredible meaning that comes with giving back is one of the most important things that we can do for them, and for the whole community.

Passion is an underlying motivator for most giving. It is not something you can learn because it comes from inside. Therefore, it's important for the adults in children's lives to help them identify what their passion is, whether it is preserving the environment or feeding the hungry.

If we think back to our childhood, we probably can identify a parent, teacher or youth program leader who got us involved in something that we deeply cared about. This is where the practice of service learning in schools can open up opportunities for children to discover their interests.

In "The Giving Family: Raising Our Children to Help Others," by Susan Crites Price, parents are urged to encourage children to develop a personal mission statement. Although the statement may change over time, it serves to focus the child on his or her passion at hand.

Fortunately, today's young people are becoming vital players in the nonprofit world. They are raising money, volunteering and leading efforts to solve problems in their neighborhoods, schools and more. This generation is amazing in terms of its desire to give because giving is a part of their lives.

Shortly after the Hawai'i Community Foundation set up the Sept. 11th Fund in 2001 as a way for Hawai'i residents to support the victims of the terrorist attacks on the Mainland, we got a call from a Kailua teen wanting to help. She explained that although she and her friends didn't have any money to donate, and was too young to give blood, she was determined to do something. A few weeks later, the teen was able to convince a local radio station to host a benefit concert and proudly presented us with a check for the fund a few days later.

A report by Independent Sector and Youth Service America found that people who began volunteering as youths are twice as likely to volunteer as adults as are those who did not volunteer when they were younger. The report also found that adults who volunteered as youths tend to give more money to charity than those who did not.

For many of us, giving is an intrinsic act and a rewarding experience that should be practiced all year long. When philanthropy is nurtured together as a family, author Robert Greenleaf once said, "youth will be helped to believe that they can cope, and that, if they work at it over a lifetime, they may leave a little corner of the world a bit better than they found it."

Kelvin H. Taketa is president and CEO of the Hawai'i Community Foundation. E-mail him at kelvin@hcf-hawaii.org.

Reach Kelvin Taketa at kelvin@hcf-hawaii.org.