Check out this article from USA TODAY about a bank in Fargo, North Dakota that gave $1,000 holiday bonuses to employees.

This bonus was not like any other $1,000 Christmas bonus you might receive from your business. The bank put a stipulation on this bonus. You had to “pay it forward” to someone else. The concept is that you give someone $1,000, and they give it to someone else. Employees are not allowed to give the money to their family members or other employees, and they must document how they gave it away by videotaping it, or I’m assuming they must give the money back. At first glance I thought to myself, “I hope the employees knew about this beforehand”, because some people count on those bonuses to buy their family gifts. But, then I thought about how awesome it will be to watch all of those videos and see all of the creative ways that people came up with giving away $1,000.00. That excites me so much, and now I kind of wish my company had done that! That bank will be giving away $500,000 to people who will need it most, and that is what Christmas and the holidays are all about.

What would you do if you were given $1,000.00 to give away? Who would you give it to, and how would you do it? I’m going to think about my answer and post it later.

A reader, Robert, made a good point. The employees still received their normal 4.5% bonus, but this was on top of that.