Secret Santa Pays It Forward with Cash to Strangers—$20,000 Worth

Ruth McCambridge

December 1, 2011

November 30, 2011; Source: MSNBC | How to encourage community and philanthropy. . . . Reading, PA, has been designated the poorest city in America, and the day before yesterday it was where a man calling himself “Secret Santa” distributed $20,000 in one hundred dollar bills to strangers. The man, whose name is not available but who appears to be a successful businessman, is apparently carrying on the tradition of Larry Stewart, who, as his own version of Secret Santa, gave away $1.3 million to pay forward a handout that had been given to him in the past.

Secret Santa only asks that those he gave to pay it forward, and he plans to head to other cities in the coming weeks.—Ruth McCambridge

About the author

Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

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