Anonymous donor will pay you $100 - if you pay it forward
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are history, but this sweet deal remains available for the rest of the year. A suburban entrepreneur is willing to give you a crisp $100 bill, and the Daily Herald will help make that happen.
But there is a catch.
You must give that $100 to somebody who needs it more than you.
Sponsored by the Daily Herald and funded by our anonymous benefactor, "The Believe Project" will award a $100 bill to a worthy reader every day through the end of December. To enter, visit Facebook.com/DailyHeraldFans, click on the contest link, fill out the form and tell us in fewer than 100 words what good you would do with that $100 bill. You must live within the Daily Herald readership area and be 18 or older to win. For all the rules and regulations, visit the Daily Herald Fans page on Facebook.
If you're not on Facebook, you can mail us your pitch at specialevents@dailyherald.com.
The benefactor will read the entries and dub the contest winners "Stewards of Love." Anyone chosen as a steward will be given an envelope stuffed with small cards featuring motivational messages, and a crisp $100 bill.
The benefactor, who asked to remain anonymous, says the idea grew out of a couple of awkward personal moments where fear trumped the desire to help strangers who couldn't afford to buy things for children.
"I wanted to help, but I didn't have the courage," the donor remembers. "What is it about human nature that we have this trepidation about giving?"
A longtime philanthropist who has won awards for other charitable endeavors, this person says "The Believe Project" gives people the tools as well as the inspiration to step forward and help those who need it.
A sign proclaiming "It's a Wonderful Life" hangs above the benefactor's office door. A placard inside reminds the person to "Pray Big." The walls throughout the business owner's office building feature hand-painted murals offering a diverse collection of inspirational quotations. A passage from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech shares space with a comment about effort and winning from NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. A biblical passage from the book of Mark isn't too far from a quotation from Mark Twain. Wisdom from Gandhi and Buddha, and Oprah and Tony Robbins all make the wall.
Having run "The Believe Project" privately for the last couple of years with friends, employees and relatives, the benefactor says the effort hasn't taken off as envisioned. One person who took an envelope still had it in his wallet a year later, the donor says, adding that the hope is that the Daily Herald's involvement might push the giving envelope.
"It's totally all fallen into place. It's divine intervention," the donor says. "I'm so excited."
The benefactor will choose worthy recipients but says the goal is to inspire others to do good things on his or her own.
"The whole idea is to do it bigger than yourself," the person says. "I don't have any expectations. I just know I'm going to be blown away by it."
That enthusiasm is reflected in another inspirational message displayed in the donor's office building's walls: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."
You can read about the winners every day this month in the Daily Herald.