Forum: Re-examine design of fund-raising campaigns for pre-schoolers

I recently received a fund-raising card from my child’s pre-school, encouraging her to collect donations from friends and family as part of a campaign on “gratitude”. While the charitable cause is commendable, I was unsettled by the campaign structure and its implications for very young children.

Children are asked to solicit donations, with badges awarded for every five donors. Donors receive handmade “thank-you” cards from the child, which could make the child the emotional face of the campaign.

At pre-school age, children cannot fully grasp the meaning of money or charitable giving. Instead, they may equate collecting more donations to praise and recognition.

This approach also puts undue pressure on families. Not all children have large networks of extended family or access to supportive donors. For them, the campaign can become an emotionally isolating experience – not a lesson in gratitude, but in exclusion.

One additional concern is the lack of transparency around how donations are processed. If the school collects donations under its own name, it is unclear whether tax deductions benefit the donors or the institution itself.

If the latter, this raises ethical questions about whether a commercial pre-school should derive financial or reputational benefit from the unpaid efforts of its pupils and their families.

There are many ways to teach young children values such as kindness and empathy without tying them to fund-raising goals or reward systems.

Activities like storytelling, classroom discussions and shared acts of appreciation can nurture these values in inclusive, age-appropriate ways.

I hope pre-school operators and the relevant authorities will re-examine how such campaigns are designed.

Fund-raising activities should be ethical, transparent and developmentally appropriate – especially in early-childhood settings.

Gong Pan Pan