You Tube Philanthropy

In some neighborhood of San Francisco or LA, affixed to the underside of a park bench or taped to a telephone pole, there may be an envelope stuffed with a few $20 bills – a secret gift from a real estate entrepreneur with a little too much ego, cash and time on his hands.

This Mystery Millionaire and his Scavenger Hunt for 20-somethings (bills, mostly) has taken the internet and indeed the world by storm.  And I say:  Why?

For one thing, this is not “lotto” money:  No multi-mega-millions  to be won and taxed; only denominations of 20, enough to buy the finder and a friend a glass of wine or 2 at a bar in Santa Monica.

For another thing, this money isn’t targeted to the needy; rather, the reporting about it has focused on more than a few mid-career professionals scouring the city for cash in envelopes.  Please.

But what should this man do with his cash?  Does he want to be discovered taping it to a tree? 

Why not give the money to a food bank, a homeless shelter, a children’s hospice…or a charter school in an impoverished neighborhood?  Wouldn’t that be more rewarding if you had money to throw around or away?

But then:  What would I do if I found an envelope with some cash?

It depends.

When I was 29 years old, I treated my 24 year-old starving grad student sister to a late Sunday afternoon matinee.  (Spoiler alert: We saw “The Right Stuff,” based on Tom Wolff’s book, which remains one of my favorite films to this day).  We stayed to watch the credits and were the last people in the theatre.  Edging our way down the row of seats, I noticed something on the floor that looked like…money.  

About $300 in cash.

In those days, I was making about $30K (not much then, and even less now) and my sister was making nothing (she was starving, remember?).  We looked at each other and shook our heads.  We knew we needed to do the right thing.  Or at least we needed to try to do the right thing.

We went to the box office and asked the cashier if anyone had inquired about losing something in the theatre.  Nope.  We waited outside the box office for about 20 minutes.  No one came by asking for their $300. 

I asked my sister if we should give the money to the cashier, but I answered my own question:  No.  Finder’s keepers.  If we gave it to the cashier, she'd just keep it....

I said, “Let’s go out to dinner.”  My sister was hungry (of course).  I was always hungry (of course).  So off we went to a lovely little Italian restaurant on Connecticut Avenue near Woodley Park, with a lovely bottle of modestly-priced Chianti and some very good spaghetti and meatballs.  We spent about $70 (including tip) for the meal and my younger sister took possession of the rest.  I figured it would buy her nearly a month of groceries.

I’m no longer 29, of course, and today I’d probably manage my “find” differently – at least, I’d like to think so.   But if I had the cash to give away?  I hope that I'd try to be a little bit “intentional” about it.

So, for the elusive millionaire whose playful desire to give away money has become the sport de jour? Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame – but know, too, that you might have earned 30 minutes of well-deserved recognition if you’d been just a tiny bit nobler about your You Tube philanthropy.

Then again, we can always hope that some starving grad student finds a little bit of your cash and puts it to good use…say, dinner.