History Main / InvoluntaryCharityDonation

* ''PowerRangersTimeForce'' plays with this trope between Red Ranger Wes and his RichSnob father in the episode "A Parting of Ways". After the MonsterOfTheWeek captures a bus load of children and holds them for a ransom of 10 million dollars, Wes goes to his 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 being 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.

* As payback for an attempted double-cross by [[EnemyMine Benedict]] in ''[[OceansEleven Ocean's Thirteen]]'', the crew donates his entire share of the profits to charity in his name. Shortly afterward, Danny, Rusty, and Linus watch Benedict talk to [[TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah]] about his "sudden burst of generosity".
** He (somewhat) willingly goes along with it, recognizing both the bad publicity of taking it back, and the good publicity of saying he did it.
* The movie ''RatRace'', with the twist that the winners are giving the money they won; they just also made a huge public statement that the multimillionaire who had been using them as human playthings throughout the film would match the donations made in the whole charity event.

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 tarnishing his public image. Bonus irony is accrued if the charity in some way makes up for the villain's misdeeds.

* Regularly done in the Saint books by Leslie Charteris. If Simon Templar was not retrieving money that had been stolen from someone, he would keep 10% and donate the rest to an appropriat charity.

* After Tommy Elliot, AKA Hush, nearly killed her in an attempt to get to {{Batman}}, a recuperating Selina Kyle took every dime the MadDoctor had and dispersed it amongst charities. "Not bad for a gutter slut", indeed!

* ''VeronicaMars'': Logan tells a news crew that his father Aaron will be donating five percent (or less - we're never told his income exactly) of his next paycheck to a homeless shelter. His father severely beats him for this.

* ''VeronicaMars'': Logan tells a news crew that his father Aaron will be donating [[strike:the majority]] five percent (or less - we're never told his income exactly) of his next paycheck to a homeless shelter. His father severely beats him for this.

* ''VeronicaMars'': Logan tells a news crew that his father will be donating [[strike:the majority]] five percent (or less - we're never told his income exactly) of his next paycheck to a homeless shelter. He is not rewarded for this.

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 tarnishing his public image. Bonus irony is accrued if the charity in some way makes up for the villain's misdeeds.

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* The movie ''RatRace'', with the twist that the winners are giving the money they won; they just also made a huge public statement that the multimillionaire who had been using them as human playthings throughout the film would match the donations made in the whole charity event.

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* Regularly done in the Saint books by Leslie Charteris. If Simon Templar was not retrieving money that had been stolen from someone, he would keep 10% and donate the rest to an appropriat charity.

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* The rationale of the hackers behind the STRATFOR breach was supposedly this.

* The movie ''RatRace'', with the twist that the winners are giving the money they won; they just also made a huge public statement that the guys who set them up would match the donations made in the whole charity event. This causes a slightly surprising amount of chagrin, considering they had so much money they were desperately looking for something to do with it anyway.
** He was intending to make the money several times over with the multi-dollar bets placed on the race.

* A villain in the ''Anime/LupinIII'' 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.

* A villain in the ''LupinIII'' 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.

* At the end of the remake of ''{{Fun with Dick and Jane}}'' [[spoiler: Dick and Jane forge Jack's signature to set up a relief fund for former Globodyne employees using the money Jack stole from the company.]]

* As payback for an attempted double-cross by [[EnemyMine Benedict]] in ''[[OceansEleven Ocean's Thirteen]]'', the crew donates his entire share of the profits to charity. Shortly afterward, Danny, Rusty, and Linus watch Benedict talk to [[TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah]] about his sudden burst of generosity.

* As payback for an attempted double-cross by [[EnemyMine Benedict]] in ''[[OceansEleven Ocean's Thirteen]]'', the crew donates his entire share of the profits to charity. The film ends with Danny, Rusty, and Linus watching Benedict talk to {{Oprah}} about his sudden burst of generosity.

* This is Moriarty's final humiliation in the 2011 ''[[Film/SherlockHolmes Sherlock Holmes]]'' movie--the money he'd raised from WarForFunAndProfit goes to a fund for war orphans.

* Happens to [[spoiler:Jon Spiro]] in ''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.)

* Happens to [[spoiler:Jon Spiro]] in ''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" (Spiro is already going to jail, so this is just salt in the wound.)

* A villain in a ''LupinIII'' episode 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.

* A variation. Whoopi Goldberg's character, the psychic Oda Mae Brown, does to the villain in ''{{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.

-->''You're a hero, Jack - now go to hell!''
-->-'''Dick''', ''Fun with Dick and Jane''.

The BigBad or CorruptCorporateExecutive is rolling in dough and has seriously pissed off the hero. Any action the Hero does to get back at him will just be undone. So what's a hero to do? Simple: Hack into the villain's bank account and donate the money to charity! Or an [[HeartWarmingOrphan orphanage]] or something. The Big Bad loses his money. Sure, he could get it back, but he would look like a complete fool in the process.

Compare JustLikeRobinHood, a slightly less direct (and frequently more violent) style of wealth redistribution.

A person who does this on regular basis is said to be JustLikeRobinHood.