Here’s a thought experiment: suppose your church was given $10,000 to distribute to the poor. How would the church spend it?

Severna Park United Methodist Church located in Severna Park, Maryland, received a $10,000 charitable anonymous donation—on the condition that a hundred members of the congregation each get a hundred-dollar bill, and decide how to give it away to help the poor.

Now there’s a lot of academic research suggesting that the best way to help the poor is to give them money, either through nonprofits like Give Directly or by handing them cash.  But the congregants of Severna Park United Methodist had a lot of variety in their giving. Some donors, it seemed, did indeed pass on cash, such as giving servers hundred-dollar tips. But others put a lot of thought into their gifts. One woman went to a local pet supply store and loaded a shopping cart with $275 of pet food, which she donated to a local animal shelter. Another donor added a hundred dollars to the kitty, and went to a K-Mart to spend the $200 paying off layaways for strangers.

The lesson we all can learn from this experiment is that the best way to give is to spend more time thinking about how to give—and then make sure your gift is something the recipient truly needs.

Read the full article about this church philanthropy efforts by Martin Morse Wooster at Philanthropy Daily.