The holiday season is the favorite time of year for many people. But for those who are financially struggling, it can be a time of great stress, trepidation, and even sadness. For many years, the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County has recognized these harsh realities and, through its annual Pay It Forward campaign, has raised thousands of dollars from the local community during the holiday season to make a significant impact for those who need it the most in Madison and beyond.
“Every year, we have so many different things that we do. I don’t even keep up with all of it now,” Michael Johnson, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County (BGCDC), tells Madison365. “What I love about this program is that we start from zero [dollars] every year, and we utilize the power of social media to ask people to step up. And the people really step up.
“I’ve seen one little kid who donated 50 cents, and I’ve seen another person give us $25,000 to buy a car for somebody,” Johnson adds.
BGCDC is kicking off its Pay It Forward campaign with “25 Days of Giving” on December 1 and will spend the month of December surprising people with money and gifts in various ways. BGCDC has been known to give out large tips to servers at restaurants during the Christmas season, for example. “The largest one we gave out was $4,000 for the one person who received the tip,” Johnson says. “Last year — and I just posted this video on my social media page — we gave $1,000 to a maintenance guy who was mopping the floors at the mall. Somebody told me about him, and we learned about his story, about him being a single dad and taking care of his kids and having some medical issues, and we surprised him with $1,000.”
On Christmas Eve 2021, Dwayne and Tia Malone were presented with the keys to their new home in Madison, thanks to funds raised by the BGCDC Pay It Forward campaign. There are years when BGCDC surprises people with cars and takes care of people’s bills.
“There are years where we go into nursing homes and give gifts to both the workers and the residents there,” Johnson remembers. “There are years we’ve renovated people’s houses. There are years that we bought houses or put significant down payments on one particular house. So it kind of depends on what we are given of our community, and we take 100 percent of those funds in real time and distribute them right back out to the community.”
BGCDC utilizes a panel of community and business people, along with grassroots leaders, who review the submissions and the nominations. They then prioritize who receives the money and support based on the amount of funding raised.
“None of these dollars come from Boys and Girls Clubs,” Johnson says. “We post on social media, and we ask people to step up … and people step up in a huge way.”
On Day 1 of this year’s Pay It Forward campaign, BGCDC will partner with a local company to give away 150 computers to local high school students, and they’re also making a $30,000 donation to help launch the holiday season in a big way.
On other days, Johnson says, BGCDC aims to raise enough funds to give away tips, gift cards, shopping sprees, and gifts, while hosting community parties and paying the bills of families in need.
(Photo: BGCDC)
Johnson says that this is the first time they’ve actually started this early to raise money.
“I usually just wait until Dec. 1 to start. But I was like, You know what? It’s tough out here right now. Let me get ahead of this,” Johnson says. “So I’m doing at least the outreach a little earlier, so we can have a good year, given that you know the whole issue around affordability and SNAP, and the challenges that non-profits are facing with some of the federal cuts.”.
BGCDC has put out a calendar (below) on social media, letting everyone in the community know what type of Pay It Forward activity they have planned for the day. However, Johnson is inviting community members, as he has done in years past, to submit their own ideas. Donations are always welcome.
“Even though we may have one big thing planned every day, if somebody wants to step up and say, ‘Hey, I want to do this,’ that is great because we often have multiple things planned every single day,” Johnson says. “For example, I had somebody who came to me and said, ‘You know what, I got $5,000 that’s been sitting in my safe for three years. I’ve been watching what you’ve been doing, and I’d like to go to different fast food restaurants, and for the folks working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and give everybody $100 until it runs out.’
“The good news is when that donor told us that we already had submissions of people who had nominated restaurant workers, we were able to go to every last one of those restaurants last year and give folks tips,” Johnson adds.
One year, Johnson remembers, he was working out at his gym, and a woman sent him a message on Facebook saying, “I would love to give you $25,000-$30,000… would you be interested in buying a car from somebody?”
“And it happened just like that!” Johnson exclaims. “And then another year, we had people who told us that they just had a parent who died, and we ended up getting a Cadillac, and the car only had like 14,000 miles on it, and they brought me the car. We ended up giving it away to somebody. Each year, it’s just kind of depends on how and who steps up, and we proceed accordingly.”
(Photo: BGCDC)
Year after year, BGCDC has seen the kindness and generosity of people have a snowball effect leading up to Christmas.
“Some people always ask me, ‘Why can’t you do this quietly?’ First, we never put anybody out there unless they give us permission. But, also, when you’re raising money publicly, you also have to show that you are giving people the return on their investment, right? And so we strategically figure out how we communicate with the public, who we’re helping, how we’re helping people, and that inspires giving,” Johnson says.
It has inspired so much giving that Johnson says he’s worked on Christmas Day and many Christmas Eves for the last 16 years.
“There have been some Christmas Eves where I wasn’t done until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning and some Christmases where we don’t wrap up until two or three o’clock in the afternoon,” he says. “We try to make sure those funds come in real time. I get those alerts on my cell phone, and so I always try to make sure every dollar is spent.
“And I remember one year there was so much money coming in, my wife got on a Facebook post and said, ‘OK, my husband has got to come home for Christmas … giving is over, this is it,’” Johnson adds, laughing.
BGCDC is actually starting its Pay It Forward campaign a little early this year with the Pay it Forward: Christmas Tree Campaign. Each purchase of a locally grown Christmas tree, festive wreath, or winter décor item will help spread joy while giving back to the community, and 15 percent of every purchase will go directly to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, helping provide youth with the resources, mentorship, and opportunities. People can also gift a Christmas tree to a family in need.
For Johnson, the whole Pay It Forward campaign is deeply personal.
“I can’t enjoy Christmas without doing the Pay It Forward campaign because I was a kid who grew up in poverty, and as a kid, I didn’t get much for Christmas. Early in my life, Christmas was hard for me because, although I had a phenomenal mother, she had very limited resources,” Johnson remembers. “Over the years, as I matured into my leadership roles, I said if I was ever in a position to be a blessing for others, not just during the holidays, but throughout the year, I would utilize my leadership to be of service to others, and that’s one of my core values. To me, that’s what the holidays represent, and it’s so very fulfilling to be able to do this type of work for other people.”
To donate to the BGCDC Pay It Forward campaign, click here.
