Buy stock in -- a kid

I'm always on the lookout for clever fund-raising ideas... Compared with other advanced nations, we pay fewer taxes, sure, but we have to do constant, unending fund-raising for charity to make up the difference. We're darn good at it, too, but it requires a constant flow of new ideas and creativity to keep it all going.

My friends and family I'm sure hate to see me coming; I always have my hand out for some cause or another. I usually skip the candy, cookie dough, magazine subscriptions and wrapping paper and just ask them to write a check. They're amazing -- they just ask me, "OK, how much do you need?" and they do it... I'm tellin' you, I have great buddies.

Fortunately, most people have more grace and energy than I do and they actually do something clever for the money. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Holmen, Wis., is selling stock in ... kids. Purchase two shares at $25 a share and you can attend a year-end "stockholders" meeting, where young people will serve dinner and talk about how they used the donated funds. The money sends kids to summer camps, conferences and bus trips. It's a cool idea, it teaches the children accountability and to be good stewards of the money.

I don't know they do this individually, but can you imagine a kid with certificates all over his bedroom wall with his shareholders' names on them? Now it would be cool just knowing that all those people were investing in his or her future success.

Here's more about it from the LaCrosse Tribune.