Better Off

Hazel and Nazih Zebian read the story of an Egyptian farmer who was forced by the government to give up his herd of pigs, which was his main source of income. That got them to thinking that perhaps they were still quite blessed, even though their own family's furniture business was struggling in the current economy. They decided that they would donate the money to the farmer to help replace what he had lost. Abu Sayed, the farmer, plans to buy a flock of sheep as a new source of income for his family.

MSNBC blog

One for the Books

A generous donor (or potentially a group of donors) has contributed a total of over $45 million dollars to 9 universities. The lucky recipients are the University of North Carolina at Asheville, the University of Iowa, the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Maryland University College, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and Penn State-Harrisburg. The only stipulation was that the schools could not try to figure out who the giver is.

AP story

Mystery Samaritan

Apparently, Philadelphia is not the only Pennsylvania city that can boast of brotherly love. So can Pittsburgh, the home of an anonymous samaritan who drove to Chicago one recent weekend, with the express purpose of performing acts of kindness for strangers he found on Craigslist. He posted a video diary of his adventure on YouTube, but he remains anonymous.

The Windy Citizen story

Giving It Away

Jim Dancy was lucky enough to win $10,000 in a Michigan lottery. And then he was generous enough to give it away. He donated his winning ticket to his local United Way, saying "I know the needs in the community are great right now, so for me it was the right thing to do.'' So he is a winner in more ways than one.

Kalamazoo Gazette story

Full Circle

It started with Kreg Graham. He managed to get a job but did not have money for the dress clothes he needed to go along with it. He made the decision to ask for help, and his Facebook friend, Stephanie Steiner, responded. She sent out emails to her friends and soon, Kreg received clothes and cash donations for dry cleaning and alterations. Moved by the response, he set up an email address, suitsforothers@gmail.com, to pair up other willing donors with those in need.

KING story

Embedded video from CNN Video

Bonus

In these times, "Bonus" has become the new "B" word. But at Bollinger Insurance Solutions, they see it a little differently. Last year, CEO Jack Windolf received $500,000 in deferred compensation when part of the company was sold, and he reserved the right to redirect it. Last month, he used the money to give a $1,000 bonus to all 434 employees and encouraged them to spend it as a mini-stimulus package.

WPVI video
The Daily Journal story

About Face

Jim Polette underwent surgery to treat a cancer on his nose. While this addressed his cancer, it left him with a large hole where his nose and left eye used to be. This had understandably devastating consequences on his ability to lead his life and go out in public. When he was profiled on television, Matt Singer contacted him. Singer used to work for the movie industry as a special effects artist, but he gave that up to study maxillofacial prosthetics. With the help of an ocularist, Stephen Haddad, Singer volunteered to construct a facial prosthesis for Polette.

Fox News video

Fountain of Generosity

Comerica Park is the home of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. There are large fountains behind center field that are set off as fanfare whenever the home team scores and as entertainment before and after the games. For years, General Motors paid for their logo to be in the middle of that fountain. This year, though, with the current economic picture...GM decided it could no longer do that. The Tigers' owner, Mike Ilitch received bids from other companies willing to pay between $1.5 to $2 million for advertising rights over the next 3 years. That is no small amount of pocket change, but Ilitch decided to turn those bids down. Instead, he is offering the space up for free to all 3 American automakers. The fountain is featuring logos from the General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, with the words "The Detroit Tigers support our automakers."

Detroit Free Press story

(thank you, Joanna)

Kindness of Strangers

Lisa Brown had been faithful in her rental payments on her Long Island, New York, house. Unfortunately, the landlord was not. The house went into foreclosure, and Brown and her three children are being evicted. She had no legal recourse to be able to stay in the home, or even to get the upfront costs, such as the security deposit and broker's fee, back. When her story was featured on CNN, some stranger were touched by her situation and sent money. One even helped her set up a retirement savings account and provided the seed money.

CNN story

Taken to the Cleaners

The adage that "it takes money to make money" is often true. If you are looking for a job, you need to invest in making a good first impression, but that can be hard to do when times are tight. Carlos Vasquez is doing his part to help out. He and his wife own First Professional Cleaners on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He posted a sign: "If you are unemployed and need an outfit clean for a interview, we will clean it for free." It is his way of giving back to his community. Vasquez originally made the offer after the 9/11 attack, and the sign had remained up in the window without anyone really noticing. He had actually taken it back down last year, but then he put it up again 2 months ago. Some people have taken up the offer, and at least 2 of his customers landed their jobs.

New York Daily News story
NPR story

Giving Back

Dr. Gary Turpin has been in practice for 45 years. And in that time, he feels that his patients have been good to him. In the small town of Greenville, IL, near St. Louis, he is doing his part to be especially good to them. Dr. Turpin placed a small ad in the local weekly paper that read:

"For the duration of this calendar year, I will treat, free of charge, my regular patients who have lost their jobs or health insurance due to the current recession."

The Telegraph story

(thank you, Patti)

No Work and All Pay

The website for the small town of Humboldt, Kansas, boasts the motto "little town, big heart." They're not kidding. The town is the home of B&W Trailer Hitches, which makes truck beds and trailer hitches. Although the company's business has been affected by the economy and there is not enough work for the employees, the owner, Joe Works, has avoided laying off workers. After he tripped on an old metal grate in the center of town, he sent out a few workers to repair the grate with scrap metal from his factory. And eventually he started sending them out to paint the church, spruce up the baseball field, prune trees, and to otherwise repair the town--all at the workers' full pay. Essentially, then, he is donating labor to help improve their community.

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Shared Sacrifice

Kudos to the folks at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and to their President and CEO, Paul Levy! In many companies, when the financial picture is looking bleak, it's often the lower-wage earners who suffer the most. But at Beth Isreal, Mr. Levy proposed at a "town hall" meeting an idea that they would try to commit to protecting these jobs. And he received an overwhelming positive response from higher-earning employees, even though they understood that the housekeepers, food service personnel, and transporters could only be helped if others were willing to forego some pay and benefits.

The Boston Globe article

Helping a Stranger

KTRK, the local ABC affiliate in Houston, ran a story about how Ramona Hernandez was about to lose her home to foreclosure. Ms. Hernandez had lived in her modest home for 20 years and had paid down her mortgage to less than $6,000. Unfortunately, her son became ill. His loss of income, along with the pressures of medical bills, meant that she was just a few weeks away from foreclosure. After the story ran, generous offers of help poured into the station from viewers. A few days afterwards, the station was able to report that with the commitments of help, Ms. Hernandez would be able to keep her home.

KTRK original story
KTRK follow-up story

(thank you Patti)

Food for All

Everyone is craving good news these days, and NBC has heard the outcry. This week, they are doing a series on good news.

In Denver, the So All May Eat (SAME) cafe has a pay-what-you-can policy. Everyone gets a healthy meal made with fresh, organic ingredients. People leave what money they want to in the donation box. Some more fortunate folks leave extra, and those who are less fortunate can pay what they can afford or maybe volunteer to help out. The couple behind the restaurant, Brad and Libby Birky, had volunteer experience, but they wanted something different from a traditional soup kitchen. They wanted to be able to serve food that was good enough to attract paying customers, and they wanted to preserve the dignity of paying for your meal, even if you pay by doing the dishes.

SAME Cafe
Denver Westword News in-depth story ( a must-read)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Banker Gives Away Millions

What would you do with $60 million? Would you give it away? Leonard Abess, Jr. did. He is the Miami banker mentioned in President Obama's recent address to Congress. After receiving a large sum from selling off the majority stake in the bank he owned, he quietly distributed some of that money to nearly 500 employees. He even tracked down people who used to work for the bank!

Miami Herald article

AP article