Skip to footer

$500,000 donation to Salvation Army by Minnesota couple

$500,000 donation: An anonymous Salvation Army red kettle donation offers a warm start to a generous holiday season.

|
Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor/File
A Salvation Army donation kettle sits outside a shop on 5th Avenue in New York, Dec. 19, 2013.
  • By Lonnie Shekhtman Staff

More than Black Friday or Cyber Monday, The Salvation Army’s iconic and ubiquitous red donation kettles, accompanied by bell-ringing volunteers, signify that the holiday season is upon us.

This year, the century-old tradition got a major boost by an anonymous and unprecedented donation: a $500,000 check slipped into a kettle over the weekend that was stationed in front of a grocery store in Rosemount, Minn.

“We are simply stunned and honored to have received such a generous gift,” Maj. Jeff Strickler, the Salvation Army’s commander for the Twin Cities, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

“This is a true blessing and it could not come at a better time for the Salvation Army and the people we serve,” he said.

This was the biggest single kettle donation ever deposited in a Salvation Army kettle in the Twin Cities, reported the Tribune, twenty times greater than the previous record of $25,000.

On a typical day, the kettle takes in about $30 an hour, says the charity, which raised $2 billion in donations worldwide last year and spent 81 percent of its expenses on programs, according to The Christian Science Monitor rankings.

The Salvation Army – an international Christian organization that provides meals and shelter to the homeless, humanitarian relief around the world, and other social services – said Monday that the couple that dropped off the check wants to remain anonymous.

But in a statement from the donors the charity provided to the Tribune, the couple said they made the generous donation in honor of their father, who served in World War I and was grateful to Salvation Army volunteers who brought soldiers free coffee and doughnuts.

The two also said they were inspired by challenges earlier in their lives that forced them to collect food discarded at a grocery store to feed themselves.

“You get to a point in life where it’s time to take care of others, the way you were taken care of,” the donors said in a statement to the Tribune.

This was the same spirit that inspired Manhattan philanthropist Carol Suchman to buy an entire toy store and donate its contents to underprivileged children earlier this month.

The mother of three has preferred to donate anonymously in the past, but this year agreed to go public to inspire generosity in others.

"I know everyone can use a gift around the holidays,"Ms. Suchman told the NY 1 News.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to $500,000 donation to Salvation Army by Minnesota couple
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2015/1130/500-000-donation-to-Salvation-Army-by-Minnesota-couple
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe