The Future of Fundraising

Katie Polone is only 13. She has plenty of time to figure out what she wants to do in life. Don’t be surprised, though, if philanthropy is in her future. The Keller, Texas, resident saw coverage of the Southern California wildfires and was moved not only to tears, but to action:

“I looked at the (fire) pictures online and saw how devastating it was,” Katie said by telephone Tuesday regarding last week’s fires.

“At that point I started crying,” she added. “I saw all the people at my (former) school being touched by this and it was really hard to watch everyone going through this so I decided to start the coin drive.”

Katie, a former resident of Vista, California, attended a grade school that was used last week as an evacuation center, and many of her relatives, including her grandparents, remain in the area. So she launched a drive to collect coins from fellow students and teachers at her Fort Worth middle school as well as from the residents of Keller; she plans on donating what she collects to the Red Cross. At a young age, she has learned the seminal lesson of donating: Pick one or two causes dear to your heart and concentrate your efforts on them. If that’s good enough for a 13-year-old, it should be good enough for your donors. Exploit their passion in the service of your good cause. | 501(c)