History Main / InvoluntaryCharityDonation

* The Yes Men, two anti-corporate activists known for pulling off pranks that satirise typical corporate culture, had a prank where they impersonated a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men#Dow_Chemical chemical company]] and promised they would clean up the site of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster the Bhopal disaster]] and donate their earnings to medical research; while they never actually had control of the funds, the resulting prank resulted in the company's shares dropping

* The Yes Men are a pair of activists who are known for pulling pranks like this in order to draw attention to various issues. A full list can be seen on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men their Wikipedia page]].

* In the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI comic, ''Charley's War,'' when Charley Bourne returns to London after being injured in the Western Front, he discovers that his no-good brother-in-law stole jewelry from the victims of a Zeppelin air raid. As punishment, Charley forces him to donate every penny he's made from fencing his ill-gotten gain, to a soldier's relief charity.

* In ''Series/ILoveLucy,'' Ricky tells Lucy he'll take her and Ethel if they can raise the money for tickets to Europe. Lucy then comes up with two fictitious women that need to make their way to Europe and raises money for them. Lucy orders Ethel to give the two women their ticket money after a detective told Lucy they would go to jail for running a charity scam.

* ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'''s "A Parting of Ways": After the MonsterOfTheWeek captures a bus load of children and holds them for a ransom of 10 million dollars, Wes (the Red Ranger) goes to his RichSnob father to ask for the money. His father refuses, so Wes tricks a business client of his father into giving him a check. Eventually the Rangers manage to save the children without giving the ransom, but Wes' father is angry with Wes for what he did. Then the press finds out about the money and thinks Mr Collins has donated it willingly to free the hostages. Wes, who by now is fed up with his father, tells the press it was Mr. Collins' idea that he is going to donate the money to charity before packing his stuff and leaving the house.

* This is the basis of a mission on the ''Literature/{{Outernet}}'' official site; As an agent of the Friends, you must hack into the Tyrant's bank account and transfer his money to an ET Save The Whales group, not only crippling his operations, but adding insult to injury by supporting a good cause in his name!

* In the game ''VideoGame/{{Headhunter}}'' halfway through the [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Evil Syndicate]] break into a bank is about to transfer all the money from all accounts of the customers to the Syndicate's account. However Jack ''hero'' Wade manages to reverse the process and the Syndicate's account gets drained.

* In ''Series/{{Stargirl}}'', during a DuelingHackers scene between Dr Mid-Nite and the Gambler, Beth distracts the villain by instead hacking his bank account and giving the money to charities.

->''"The most formidable criminal mind in Europe has just had all his money stolen by perhaps the most inept inspector in the history of Scotland Yard. You will be making an anonymous donation to the Widows and Orphans of War Fund. Bishop to Bishop Eight, [[SurpriseCheckmate Discovered Check]], and incidentally.... '''''Mate'''''.''"

Contrast FakeCharity, which is when a ConMan creates a phony organization to [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted fleece gullible people into making voluntary donations]]. Or LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub, when a charity is simply used as a front to conceal criminal activity.

* Creator/WhoopiGoldberg's character, the psychic Oda Mae Brown, does to the villain in ''Film/Ghost1990'': With Sam's help, she's able to steal the money from its special account, turn it into a check and donate it to a nuns' charity.

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl remembers a list item: conning an old man out of money by making him think he was donating to a charity helping starving children in Africa. He then finds out that Joy had kept the con going throughout their marriage, and after their divorce, and had gotten a couple of other trailer-park women in on it, too. To get the old man his money back, Earl plants a fake will in the man's house (and sends him on a vacation for a week) and sets up a phony lawyer (actually a homeless man that Joy had humiliated in front of the entire Crab Shack) to ask for the $5000 total from the women that the old man had been conned out of.

* WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch corners Mr. Peevly who had just won $500 at a wrestling contest (where Botch filled in for an ill star grappler) when the superintendent arrives. The bears tell the super that Peevly is donating the $500 to the society for orphaned zoo animals.

* A 2020 [[https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-gang-donates-part-of-ransom-demands-to-charity-organizations/ ransomware campaign]] donated part of the illicit proceeds to charities. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Predictably]], the charities wanted nothing to with the money.

* This is Moriarty's final humiliation in ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows''--the money he'd raised from WarForFunAndProfit gets pilfered by Sherlock's own machinations and paid to a fund for widows and orphans of war. Since Moriarty is a diabolically intelligent sociopath, he doesn't really have any one person he cherishes (like [[spoiler:[[StuffedInTheFridge Irene Adler]] for Sherlock]], so Holmes instead targets the ''thing'' he cherishes: his fortune. Sherlock details meticulously how Moriarty lost his fortune all while scoring a SurpriseCheckMate against Moriarty in a game of [[SmartPeoplePlayChess chess]], the last plays of which were done in their heads.

* This concept is more or less the entire point of ''Myth/RobinHood,'' who in a time of crisis and unlawful taxation stole from the rich to distribute their wealth among the downtrodden.

* Happens to [[spoiler:Jon Spiro]] in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', who gets 90% of his billions donated to Amnesty International. Artemis ''had'' intended to keep the lot for himself, but got hit by a [[CharacterDevelopment sudden attack of conscience]] and satisfied himself with a 10% "Finder's Fee" ([[spoiler:Spiro]] is already going to jail, so this is just salt in the wound.)

* In the game ''VideoGame/{{Headhunter}}'' half way through the [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Evil Syndicate]] break into a bank is about to transfer all the money from all accounts of the customers to the Syndicate's account. However Jack ''hero'' Wade manages to reverse the process and the Syndicate's account gets drained.

* At the end of the ''Film/DoubleDragon'' movie, the heroes use the Dragons to possess the defeated villain. The "villain" then donates all of his money to the police department and allows himself to be arrested.

* Creator/WhoopiGoldberg's character, the psychic Oda Mae Brown, does to the villain in ''Film/{{Ghost}}'': With Sam's help, she's able to steal the money from its special account, turn it into a check and donate it to a nuns' charity.

* In UsefulNotes/VichyFrance, some restaurants had their patrons pay 10% of the bill to the ''Secours national''.

* In 2007, the UK's Revenue and Customs misplaced two [=CDs=] containing the personal details of all families claiming child benefit in the country, leading to concerns that the information could be used to commit fraud. [[Series/TopGear Jeremy Clarkson]] responded to this by [[WhatAnIdiot publishing his own details]] in his column in ''The Sun'', insisting that any thief would need more information to take any money out of his account and that all the fuss was over nothing. Somebody set up a £500 direct debit from his account to a diabetes charity.

* A 2020 [[https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-gang-donates-part-of-ransom-demands-to-charity-organizations/ ransomware campaign]] donated part of the illicit proceeds to charities. Predictably, the charities wanted nothing to with the money.

Steal a villain's money for yourself, and it may be easy for him to take it back (particularly if he has no compunctions about killing you). But what if you steal it and donate it to charity? Even if he can get it back, there'll probably be no way for him to do so without [[VillainWithGoodPublicity tarnishing his public image]]. Bonus irony is accrued if the charity in some way makes up for the villain's misdeeds, or if the charity happens to be something contrary to the villain's values; e.g. the villain is pro-choice and endorses abortions, and in an ironic twist, the money is donated to a pro-life, right-to-live, anti-abortion organization.

* The main character of ''Film/{{Sneakers}}'' does this to the ''Republican National Committee'', sending all their money to Greenpeace. This was also done in the prologue, where the hero and the eventual BigBad robbed then-President Nixon and donated the money to a PAC dedicated to legalizing marijuana (This might explain why the FBI was so upset with them).

* A villain in the ''Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket'' episode "[[Recap/LupinIIIS2E63 Charity Begins at Home]]" decided to donate all his money to charity when he was told he was about to die. When he discovered he'd been misdiagnosed, he hatched a plot to pretend Lupin had stolen his money, so he could keep it all to himself. In retaliation, Lupin tricked him into ''really'' donating his money.