8 Things You Need to Understand About the New Philanthropic Mindset of the Millennial Generation

Trick-or-treating with a UNICEF box was like being a Thalidomide baby at the local pinball arcade … on “Kids Play Free” night. That thing was Halloween kryptonite, a cardboard candy-repellent that practically screamed, “Stop! Do not give this boy any candy. Stick a penny in me instead.”

Worse, we had no idea what UNICEF was or what they did with the money we raised. My fourth-grade teacher, Miss Morgan, told us that we were raising money to help starving children in Africa. But I didn’t know anything about Africa except what I learned from watching TV, so all I could conjure up was Abbott and Costello in pith helmets and some guy in a gorilla suit tearing open our UNICEF boxes and laughing maniacally as they shook the coins into canvas sacks with dollar signs stenciled on them.