Lost money...for a good cause: the ninth annual found money charity report!

Cash. It makes the world go 'round. 

Even though the Federal Reserve reports that cash usage is on a steady decline, it's still the method for 26% of payments in total, 35% of in-person payments, and 49% of payments under $10.

Inevitably, when transacting with paper bills or coins--or just carrying them around--there are bits and pieces that end up on the floor, on the ground, or lost in the seams of your sofa.

For many years, I've made it my mission to reclaim this random moolah, set it aside, and tabulate it at the beginning of the new year so I can donate the total amount to my preferred charity.

This is the ninth year that I've been posting the results here, and encouraging friends and family to make a matching gift to the Sean McGrath Fund at Princeton Area Community Foundation, which I co-founded in memory of a dear friend and colleague, and which has given almost $50,000 in grants to a wonderful array of health and humanitarian nonprofits over the past fifteen years.

Let's start with the tally of good ol' American dollars and cents that I rescued from sidewalks, store floors, Amtrak stations, airports, subway cars, and taxi cabs throughout the year (209 separate pieces):

5.00 x 1 = $5.00

1.00 x 2 (paper) = $2.00
1.00 x 3 (coin) = $3.00

.25 x 11 = $2.75

.10 x 29 = $2.90

.05 x 12 = $0.60

.01 x 151 - $1.51

That comes to a very American $17.76 of U.S. currency!

But then there's also foreign currency, of which I found six different varieties last year, listed here alongside their U.S. exchange rates on New Year's Day:

11 Euro cents = $0.12

1 Israeli sheqel = $0.29

1 Barbados cent = $0.0049

50 UK pence = $0.665

5 Canadian dollars = $3.85

33.5 Turkish lira = $5.63

Since the Barbados penny is worth less than half a penny, but the 50p coin from the British isles is technically worth 66 and a half pennies, I'm combining them to throw a full $0.01 into the mix.

Now for a non-cash way to find money...

If you've been to New York City, you've probably purchased and used a MetroCard to pay for your subway rides...and noticed that the cards litter the train stations and nearby sidewalks once they've been discarded. 

Some of those discards still have a little bit of value, which is easily transferred to any other pay-as-you-go MetroCard, so I always check the balance on random cards I run across (especially if they're not actually near a subway station, which sometimes means somebody lost a full value card). 

This year's MetroCard value hunt was less fruitful than usual, with only two cards that had remaining value, contributing $1.42 to the tally...

...which brings the grand total for 2019 to $25.34, on par with 2017's number, but a steep decline from 2018's haul.

Here's a historical perspective, with links to each year's blog posts containing the requisite breakdowns:

2011 - $49.23       2012 - $45.65       2013 - $17.55       2014 - $63.13
2015 - $113.51     2016 - $43.38       2017 - $23.58       2018 - $69.31

While $25.34 is not an astounding number, I still think it's a pretty impressive sum, averaging almost fifty cents each week of the year (about seven cents per day). And for the nonprofits who receive grants from the Sean McGrath Fund, those twenty-five bucks will be very much appreciated!

Now here's where you come in: I hope you'll join me by pitching in some of your own dough with a matching donation of $25.34 (or more) to help the Fund continue giving grants to great organizations in the coming year. 

All you have to do to make your donation is click the fourth button on the PACF site ("Support a specific fund") and make sure you specify "Sean McGrath Fund" in the notes section.

I also welcome you to join me in tracking your own found money this year and donating it to your favorite charity at the dawn of 2020! I'd love to hear about your own results next year.

Thank you for reading, for donating, and for all the little things you do to help change the world!