Charity

When Sarah Darling dropped some change into a homeless man's cup, she didn't notice anything amiss. But she quickly realized that her diamond engagement ring was missing. Turns out, panhandler Billy Ray Harris noticed it in his cup right away, and held onto it. When Sarah came back the next day, he had it waiting for her.

As a reward for his honesty, Sarah gave him all the cash she had on her, and then set up a site for receiving donations from strangers wanting to help reward Harris' honesty. The site has received an overwhelming response. Along with the money, Harris is getting legal and financial counsel to help him use it well.

And that’s not all: After he made a TV appearance about the incident, his family members, who had not been able to find him for 16 years and had heard rumors that he was dead, were able to track him down. They were happily reunited, and Harris is now working on his relationship with them.

Harris said, “When I think of the past, I think, thank God it’s over. I mean, I feel human now.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes, honesty pays off, but sometimes our honesty may only be for our "Father who sees in secret." (Matt. 6:1-4)

In the pouring rain, Robert Hale Jr., founder and CEO of wholesale telecommunications provider Granite Telecommunications, took the stage for the graduation ceremony at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Hale pointed to the security guards coming on stage with two duffle bags he had packed with envelopes of cash. Hale then announced that each graduate who crossed the stage would receive one $500 envelope to keep as a gift and a second $500 envelope to give to someone in need or a charity or cause close to them.

Video shows the students, sitting underneath umbrellas and wearing ponchos in the rain, erupting in cheers at the news. Hale, who is reportedly worth $5.4 billion, told the crowd that for him and his wife Karen, “the greatest joys we’ve had in our life have been the gift of giving. Our community and our world need our help now more than ever.”

The holidays are here, and plenty of people are thinking about the gifts they hope to receive. However, many Americans are also considering what they can give others, with a surprising group leading the charge.

A survey found that Gen Z and millennials are significantly more engaged in charitable activities, with 59% actively increasing their good deeds before year’s end. That’s notably higher than their older counterparts, where only 37% of Gen X and baby boomers are giving more as the year ends.

Younger Americans were also more consistent in their community involvement throughout the year. 60% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they participated in good deeds within their community, and 50% extended their efforts globally. Conversely, only 47% of Gen X and baby boomers were getting involved, with just 38% engaging in worldwide initiatives.

Despite their higher engagement, younger generations express more doubt about the impact of their deeds. 42% of Gen Z and millennials admit feeling their actions are too small to make a difference. However, some people are optimistic that their goodwill is having an impact.

One respondent said, “Sometimes, it’s the small stuff, like checking in with a co-worker who seems down or helping someone figure out a solution. You might not realize the impact right away, but later, it clicks that maybe that small act brightened their day.”

As for what motivates Americans to be charitable, the satisfaction of giving (47%) tops the list, followed by a sense of purpose (43%) and the desire to make the world a better place (40%). While 38% of respondents find it easier to engage in charitable activities during the holiday season, an overwhelming 85% acknowledge the importance of year-round giving.

When James Free looked inside the donation bin, he saw something that he normally sees: a pair of shoes. Free was volunteering with Portland Rescue Mission, the organization that helped him to stabilize and get back on his feet after a season of addiction and houseless living. In his role helping to sort donated goods, he’d seen many pairs of shoes come through the bin. But these shoes looked different. They looked special.

It turns out, they were. They were a pair of limited-edition gold-colored Air Jordan IIIs, which were specially designed at the request of film director Spike Lee to celebrate his first televised Oscar win at the Academy Awards in 2019. Somehow, someone at Nike’s global headquarters in nearby Beaverton, got a pair of these rare shoes, and instead of keeping them or selling them, donated them to Portland Rescue Mission.

After Free saw the shoes, he alerted director of staff ministries Erin Holcomwb, who reached out to some local sneakerhead experts who could help authenticate their value. Eventually Holcomb reached out to Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, who donated an original box and several other design artifacts to complete and legitimize the shoes as a collector’s item. In their final more glorified form, Holcomb personally escorted the shoes to New York, where they could be authenticated and auctioned off by the luxury auction firm Sotheby’s.

Holcomb said, “In my seventeen years of working at the mission, this is the first time we’ve ever decided to resell a donation.” She says those Air Jordans are a great metaphor for the work they do at the mission: helping people rediscover themselves as incalculable treasures of humanity, despite having been discarded or overlooked by others.

The shoes eventually sold for more than $50,000, which was donated to the mission to continue their work. Hatfield said, “I’m thrilled the shoes ended up here. It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”

Michael heard from a neighbor about a charitable cause that he wanted to support. So, he found the GoFundMe website and began the donation process. Michael intended to give $150, so those were the first three digits he entered into the “amount” field on the website. However, he began typing the numbers to his credit card before he remembered to move the cursor to the next field. So, what remained in the “amount” field was, instead of $150, more than $15,000 – about a hundred times what he intended to give.

He said, “It was just a complete typo. I was so bewildered.” Michael quickly canceled the transaction with his credit card company so that he could do it again properly. But a huge problem remained: the GoFundMe website still showed the original amount of $15,041, which was giving people the wrong idea.

Michael recalled, “I was like, ‘Oh no, that’s a problem.’” But before he could alert anyone, he began receiving an outpouring of thankful messages from Shohag Chandra, the Bangladesh-based charity’s program manager. Michael said:

The man had sent me a video of himself from Bangladesh, surrounded by dozens of impoverished and hungry people holding bags of food, thanking me BY NAME. It was picture after picture after picture of poor Bangladeshis thanking me for my kind donation. I felt so bad about the mistake that I made. I was definitely stressing about it.

Once his original contribution was refunded, he decided to donate $1,500. But more than that, he decided to tell others about his mistake. “The least I could do was take the time to post this story online and see if I can inspire other people to donate to this cause.”

Somehow the awkwardness of the situation combined with word of the poverty-stricken people needing help generated an unprecedented outpouring of donations. In just a few weeks, the Bangladesh relief organization received over $120,000 in donations, more than eight times over Michael’s original mistaken donation amount.

Michael said he was overwhelmed with gratitude when he saw some of the lighthearted comments online. One GoFundMe donor wrote, “We’re all here to make up for Michael’s mistake.” Sarah Peck, senior public affairs director for GoFundMe, said “We love that Michael’s story inspired others to rally behind this fundraiser and multiply his generosity.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a real-life example of God redeeming our mistakes and using them to bring about good for others.

When US District Court judge Sara Ellis sentenced Stuart Nitzkin to more than three years in prison, she noted that the case essentially boiled down to a man beset by greed, trying to live a life he couldn’t afford.

Nitzkin, 45, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud stemming from his financial mismanagement of American Friends of the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled, where he served as executive director. Despite earning an annual salary of $150,000 for his duties as a networking fundraiser, Nitzkin stole more than $800,000 from the organization over a five-year period, and used it to purchase lavish goods, services, and experiences.

Assistant US Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg wrote, “The money raised by the charity paid not just for sporting events for the children, but also for wheelchairs, therapeutic pools and other rehabilitative equipment. Nitzkin repeatedly has said that he would ‘never hurt the kids,’ but that is exactly what he did.”

Mecklenburg went on to contrast the fortunes of the charity and Nitzkin. While it was struggling he was thriving, with real estate in four different states and a net worth of millions.

As part of his sentencing, Nitzkin was ordered to pay $516,000 in restitution.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Those who misuse money entrusted to them violate God's desire for integrity. Leaders who fail publicly don't just dishonor themselves and their families, but erode trust and goodwill in the community.

A federal judge sentenced retired NBA forward Kermit Washington, 66, to six years without parole for his role in a charity-related fraud scheme, only one of several branching corruption cases with ties to the embattled former player.

In press release for the Missouri Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Timothy Garrison addresses the charges in detail:

This former NBA player abused his fame and status to promote a charity scam by which he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars that he diverted to personal spending on lavish vacations, shopping sprees, and even plastic surgery for his girlfriend. Although he told his donors that 100 percent of all donations would go to support charitable work in Africa … in fact he spent most of the donated funds on himself.

Washington's charity, The Sixth Man Foundation, was doing business as Project Contact Africa, which is also connected to several alleged schemes of tax fraud and identity theft related to the charity's eBay sales and subsequent PayPal transactions. Washington also admitted his role in funneling other professional athletes as clients to an attorney filing fraudulent workers compensation claims.

Prior to this, Washington was most widely known to NBA fans and historians as the man who broke the jaw of former NBA coach Rudy Tomjanovich in a brawl during their playing days. The fallout from that infamous punch led to strict rules aimed at preventing violence during NBA games.

Potential Preaching Angle: Even when we're doing good things or working on worthy causes and issues, shortcuts can lead to danger and calamity. If integrity becomes an enemy to progress, that progress is an illusion.

In the wake of the destruction from Hurricane Harvey (2017), Americans rallied to provide aid and relief. But not all of the "help" actually helped. Some of it led to more complications and burdens. In an Acton Institute Powerblog disaster relief expert Juanita Rilling said, "Generally after a disaster, people with loving intentions donate things that cannot be used in a disaster response, and in fact may actually be harmful." For instance, she continued, "People have donated prom gowns and wigs and tiger costumes and pumpkins, and frostbite cream to Rwanda, and used teabags, 'cause you can always get another cup of tea."

Following 1998's Hurricane Mitch, Rilling recalls finding loads of boxes on an air strip that were filled with winter coats (it was summertime in Honduras). Likewise, after the disastrous tsunami of 2004, beaches in Indonesia were so filled with donated clothes that the donations were eventually set on fire due to oncoming rot. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, American mothers donated breast milk, not thinking of the challenges of keeping it fresh.

Possible Preaching Angles: Poverty; Poor People; Social Justice; Injustice; Missions—This story serves as a perfect example of "when helping hurts." The intentions may be good, but the strategy is not effective because the donors have not listened to what the recipients really need.

Many people don't realize that Santa Claus, based on the real historical person of Saint Nicholas, a leader in the early church from the city of Myra, also has another less-known title—the patron saint of pawnshops. How could this jolly old fellow be known as the patron saint of such a seedy business? In the Middle Ages, montes pietatius were charities similar to urban food banks. They were created as an alternative to loan sharks. These charities provided low-interest loans to poor families. Started by Franciscans, they became widespread throughout Europe.

In a traditional story, which is probably based on real events, Saint Nicholas generously provided a poor man dowries for his three daughters, gold coins in three purses. The symbol of gold coins in three purses became the symbol of pawnshops and fit with his title of patron saint. In the 1300s, people in poverty met caring friars when they entered the doors of pawnshops. The shops existed to help the poor get back on their feet. These friars had their best interests in mind.

Today, often the opposite is true. Over time, pawnshop owners lost sight of their identity. Created for good, pawnshops have drifted away from their purpose. From caring for the needy to an instrument often preying on families in distress, pawnshops have lost their original intent.

We're all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A despised Samaritan stops to help a man who has been beaten by robbers. One of the main lessons is: your neighbor is anyone in need. Now, go about the world looking to meet needs.

With this in mind, in his book Generous Justice, Tim Keller encourages us to consider a "sequel" to the parable. Imagine that the next day the Samaritan is traveling the road again, and comes across another person bleeding on the side of the road. A few weeks later, this happens again. And then again. As it turns out, every time he makes the trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, he comes across another person laying in the road. Then he looks up, and sees hundreds of people likewise lying along the road, beaten and robbed. What should he do? This is the question of social transformation.

When you see one person in need, you help. When you see multitudes in need, you of course still give whatever direct help you can, but if you are truly to love your neighbor as yourself, you also need to give thought to how you can address the underlying conditions that are causing so many people to fall into that situation in the first place.

Ancient Hebrew wisdom describes four levels of charity. The highest level is to provide a job for one in need without his knowledge that you provided it. The next, lower level is to provide work that the needy one knows you provided. The third level is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need. The lowest level of charity, to be avoided if at all possible, is to give a poor person a gift with his full knowledge that you are the donor.

Ambrose (theologian and church leader, 4th century) wrote: "There is your brother, naked and crying! And you stand confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering."

Basil the Great (theologian and bishop in modern-day Turkey, 4th century) wrote, "The bread you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the person who is naked. The shoes you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor."

John Chrysostom (theologian and pastor, 4th century) said, "The almsgiver is a harbour for those in necessity: a harbour receives all who have encountered shipwreck, and frees them from danger; whether they are bad or good. … t escorts them into his own shelter. So you likewise, when you see onearth the man who has encountered the shipwreck of poverty, do not judge him, do not seek an account of his life, but free him from his misfortune."

Many use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances, but others use it to play games that involve virtual farms, virtual pets, and virtual mob wars. What's fascinating is that in some of these games, a person can buy virtual goods—fertilizer or additional pets or guns. But these items don't actually exist, of course. They are just little computer pictures from little pixilated stores. Nonetheless, if a person wants to have these virtual guns or virtual tools for their virtual farms or virtual pets, they actually pay real money!

Newsweek magazine's Daniel Lyons wrote about this bizarre phenomenon in a column titled, "Money for Nothing." When researching virtual games, he discovered that the total U.S. market for virtual goods was:

500 million in 2008

$1 billion in 2009

[Following updated as of 2/2024]

$19.61 billion as of 2022

$20 billion as of 2023

Kristian Segerstrale, a Finnish economist who has studied this phenomenon, says, “You can learn a lot about human behavior and how people inter-operate in an economic environment. There are a lot of valuable lessons.” One of those lessons, of course, is that people will spend real money for something that isn't really there at all.

In Portland magazine, a priest at a Catholic church in Portland, Oregon, tells a story about a street person named Big Ben who came daily to the church. He writes:

One Christmas Eve we decided to have a special café evening [to minister to the homeless]. An unusually large number of people came. At 9:00 we were down to the last pot of soup, though the hungry line still wove around the block. By 9:30 we were down to the last bowl, and there was Big Ben, face alight with his toothless grin. We filled his bowl to the brim, much to his delight, and that was the last of the last of the soup.

As Ben made his way to the table in the corner, a tiny teenage boy whom none of us had seen before appeared. He looked like he had slept in mud. He was shivering for lack of a coat and his left eye sported a nasty bruise. Seeing that the last of the soup was served, his eyes grew large and it seemed he was going to cry, but he didn't. God knows how long he had waited in line only to find no soup. Some of us were reaching for our wallets when Big Ben appeared with his bowl and handed it to the boy. He then put his hand on the boy's cheek and caressed it as a father would caress his son's, and then mussed the boy's hair, giggled, and wandered off.

It was a tender moment that stood in contrast to the steel, concrete, and cold that too often embrace those without hearth and home. It was a moment that knitted us together a little more tightly, and made me proud of my species. And it made me see, maybe for the first time, why God wanted to be human.

O Jesus … grant that, even if you are hidden under the unattractive disguise of anger, of crime, or of madness, I may recognize you and say, "Jesus, you who suffer, how sweet it is to serve you."

—Mother Teresa

Author Ed Dobson wrote a book titled The Year of Living Like Jesus, in which he tells the story in diary form of how he tried to live as Jesus lived and as Jesus taught for a year. On day thirteen of month one, he records this story:

My wife and I drove to Key West. I decided to take a day off from reading. As we walked past a restaurant on Duvall Street, a man, who'd obviously been drinking, called from the steps: "Hey, could spare some change so I can get something to eat?"

I've heard that line a lot, and I know a number of responses. First, you can simply ignore such people. After all, he will most likely use whatever money you give him to buy more alcohol, and, therefore, you'd be enabling his habit. Second, you can offer to take him to a restaurant to buy him something to eat. In most cases the person will not go because he mainly wants the money to buy alcohol. Third, you can point him to an organization that provides meals for the homeless. Many such organizations exist in most cities.

What did my wife and I do? We walked past the man without doing anything, as we have done with so many other people over the years. After all, it's not our fault that he is where he is.

But after we'd walked on a little farther, he called after us, "Can you help a Vietnam vet?" My youngest son is a veteran, and I deeply respect those who have served their country in that way. So I stopped, walked back to him, and gave him a dollar. At that moment I remembered the words of Jesus: "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." It's as simple as that—give to the one who asks. He asked. I had an obligation to give.

As I walked down the street, a wonderful peace came over me because I felt I'd actually obeyed one of Jesus' teachings. I knew he'd probably use it to buy more alcohol and that I probably hadn't made the wisest choice. And I also knew that a dollar wasn't really going to help him. But I had no other choice. He asked and I was obligated.

Still, what caused me to give him the money was not really my responsibility to follow Jesus, but the fact that he was a veteran. So after my initial euphoria, I realized I had done the Jesus thing for the wrong reasons.

While waiting at a traffic light with her parents in Atlanta, Georgia, Kevin and Joan Salwen's 14-year-old daughter, Hannah, saw a black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other. Hannah turned to her father and said, "Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal."

Even as they pulled away, Hannah insisted she wanted to do something about the inequity. "What do you want to do?" her mother asked.

"Sell our house," Hannah replied.

Eventually, that's what the Salwen's did. They sold their luxurious home, donated half the proceeds to charity, and bought a modest replacement home. Though the sacrifice was great, the benefits have been greater still. A smaller house has meant a more family-friendly house. "We essentially traded stuff for togetherness and connectedness," Kevin says. "I can't figure out why everybody wouldn't want that deal."

The entire project is chronicled in an upcoming book by Kevin and his daughter, entitled The Power of Half. The aim of the book isn't to get people to sell their houses, but simply to encourage them to step off the "treadmill of accumulation"—to define themselves by what they give, and not just by what they possess. Hannah says, "For us, the house was just something we could live without. It was too big for us. Everyone has too much of something, whether it's time, talent, or treasure. Everyone does have their own half; you just have to find it."