Men's Group Report (cont'd)

9. Bob S- Mortgage Broker- Bob (and wife Nancy) have been our good friends for about 30 years! They have a summer cottage near Ken B on the wide Susquehanna R in upstate Peeay. Bob attends a small struggling church nearby @ West Pittston. He matched the 50 to provide $100 for their local outreach program for needy folks.

10. Maury L- Estate Attorney @ large Philly law firm- Maury surprised me as the only one who had done NOTHING yet. First, he gave the excuse that he was too busy....had no time to think of ideas. Soon: "I have no right to accept the gift from Jack. I don't need the money and will make my own donation. I'm thinking of giving the 50 back!" He went on to say that accepting charity is hard for him. Several folks lobbied him ( peer pressure ) that he was not accepting charity, but rather extending a gift to anyone/ anyplace that he wanted.....truly Passing It Forward His final determination may (or may not) be known in future weeks....

**End of Report**
I'm surprised that there has been no detailed critique of any ideas....

 

Well done by all. But did we miss what you decided?????

 

At the risk of being redundant and quoting myself. I think that in your report that Maury L (#10) is an example of what Jack was hoping to avoid. It also reflects some of the comments early on in this thread. I for one, thought that this was great idea from the "get go". Not everyone saw it that was for what ever reason.

I think that most people will agree that this concept benefitted more people in the end than if Jack would have just given $500 to his favorite charity? In almost every other case the "seed" money grew. As most of the people at least matched it and in a few cases made it grow by ten fold. I for one, think that Jack came up with a great idea, to follow the "Pay It Forward" model.

 

This is not really "Pay It Forward" but it is a concept that works great for me...

Each Christmas my (10) employee's would pool their money to buy me a gift. In turn I would buy each of them a small gift also. One day it dawned on me that if we "pooled" the money that was spent on these gifts we could make a bigger impact by helping someone in need, so I proposed this idea and told everyone I would at least match or better than match their entire contribution. The first few years we worked with the local Walmart to help needy kids. That worked out nice knowing we made a difference for at least one family at Christmas.

The next year we discussed helping someone at our work who has been dealing with some tough times due to health issues or financial situations. This is our sixth year doing this matching contribution thing and I can tell you it has truly blessed me. It feels so good to see my employees step up to the plate and to see how appreciative our recepients have been. It has truly been great. Many of my employees have limited resources themsleves yet each year they have increased their contributions!

 

He kept the money.

 

I think he invested in a tank of gas and a couple of Slim-Jims at the local 7-11.

 

^ I think he may still be

 

I think he's saving it for a rainy day!

 

All the guesses have been wrong so far

Keep trying....

PS to Jay: Great story....thanks for sharing

 

My guess. Jerry, matched the donation, (I HOPE) told his Habitat guys about the challenge and ended up raising a bit more $. Either that or donated it to a needy family at his church.