What Would You Do With a $4,185 Windfall?

By Mike Dang November 30, 2015

On Friday, the team behind Cards Against Humanity offered a deal wherein people would give them $5 for nothing in return. “On Black Friday, everybody is selling something,” they wrote. “We’re the only company to offer the Superior Black Friday experience of buying nothing.” They wrote that they were going to announce what they did with the money soon after. In the end, the Cards Against Humanity team raised $71,145 from 11,248 people, some of whom gave more than $5.

If you’re thinking that all that money was donated to charity, you’d be just partially correct. In their update, they listed 17 members who each received $4,185 and donated $22,135.37 — or a little over a third of the money — to the charitable organizations below:

• Tree House Humane Society: $803 • The National Alliance on Mental Illness: $803 • The Wilderness Society: $200 • Greater Chicago Food Depository: $500 • Batworld Sanctuary: $40 • American Refugee Committee — Syrian Refugee Response: $1,248 • DonorsChoose.org: $865 • Planned Parenthood: $1,008 • Mujeres Latinas en Acción: $1,200 • Love of Labs Animal Rescue: $798 • Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains: $798 • Charity:Water: $1,585 • The House Theater: $500 • Lincoln Park Community Shelter: $960 • Planned Parenthood: $1,027 • Chicago Planned Parenthood: 787.71 • PAWS Chicago: $1,153 • Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains: $2,522 • Living Beyond Breast Cancer: $100 • Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: $100 • Intonation Music Workshop: $642 • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: $100 • Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: $1,839.66 • International Wolf Center: $1,971 • Marine Mammal Center: 585

The rest of the money was spent on range of personal items; some of the more unexpected times included:

• Paying Divorce Attorney: $3,524 • Custom Men’s Suit of Armor: $1,500 • LASIK corrective eye surgery: $1,500 • YVA Vibrating Massager in 24-karat gold: $3,120 • A 3-gallon bucket of Tahini: $80

A handful of people also used the money on student loan payments and a Roth IRA contribution, which is what I would have done in this situation if not donated all of my share out of guilt.

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