What is the most and least you give to someone with their hand out?

I usually give whatever change I have, plus a one dollar bill.

If I see a homeless/needy person caring for animals I will give them more. Up to $20.00.

Rarely do I give out money on the street. However, I willingly give for a specific purpose. I have paid for another person’s gas because I saw his car dead in the road and he was walking with a can. I have given my spare gas to cars on the side of the road.
I will pay for a mother buying clothes for her kids at Goodwill. I’ve paid for countless restaurant meals if there was a single parent, they were eating conservatively, and the kids were well behaved.
But if I am approached on the street, my wallet does not come out.
Depending upon the time of day and neighborhood, I might silently slide the safety to “F”.

We don’t get many people with their hands out around here. Don’t know why. I have given an elderly man $20 in the grocery store. His bill came to more than he had and he seemed mildly confused. I also drop at least $10 and sometimes $20 in the collection plate of volunteer fire departments when they have their donate your change drives. If I need their services that’s pretty cheap insurance.

I never give money to street beggars. I’ve known too many people who beg for a living, not out of necessity.

@Adirondackwannabe We don’t get many either. Why? Is it because it’s cold? Or we are not in the practice of giving to anyone who asks? Fire Department and Ambulance service “boot drives” do well. But a person asking for cash will most likely not get it.

I am usually reluctant to give money, but will donate food and blankets to shelters.
A young woman approached me at the gas station yesterday, saying she tried to use her debit card for a gas purchase but apparently had nothing in her account. I had seen her at a pump, getting out of her car and swiping her card. Could be I was duped but I had 5 bucks in my pocket and gave it to her. I stubbornly didn’t look to see what she did with the money. I want to believe it went into the gas tank!

How do you separate the scammers, alkies and/or druggies from those who have fallen on hard times and really need help? For that matter, for those who really need help is your loose change really helpful, or just enough to perpetuate the cycle of believing that panhandling is somehow a ticket to a better tomorrow?

Very rarely do I hand out cash. However, on those days when I opt to go out for lunch or otherwise don’t get a chance to eat the lunch I bring to work I will give it to somebody who looks like they could use a meal.

My wife will sometimes get an extra bag of socks when she picks some up for the family and keeps them at hand in the car so she can hand out a clean pair to somebody that looks like they would appreciate them.

I usually give whatever change I have in my pocket. There was a while when I saw the same pregnant woman every day at my subway stop. I made sure I had some change for her every day. I never give paper. Once, though, when I had no change and this old guy looked really in need, I bought him a hotdog and juice. Another time I saw a guy guzzling a pint of vodka in Madison Square park. I gave him my lunch. I feel much better about giving food than money.

I have always said “it’s the condition of MY heart that matters not there’s.”.
My mom used to put together packets with a bus token, McDonalds gift certificates and a list of all the places in town where you could get a bed, a meal and/or a shower.
Even after she was blind and could no longer drive she would put the packets together and take them to her Church Women United meetings and sell them for what it cost her so that people could keep them in their car and hand them out. Now that moms gone, I’m thinking about doing the same thing in MY community.
The most rewarding times are when I take the time to sit and chat, and get to know someones story. I had one old guy who said he was getting ready to go turn himself into jail because he refused to go into a rehab program singing me songs he had written. Sometimes its nice just not to be invisible, and be listened to.

If I have change on me, I’ll give them what I’ve got. If I have bills on me, I’ll give them a few bills.

Nothing.

I give based on what I have. Sometimes change, sometimes bills. I also keep up on who is and is not legitimate. I have always had friends who work in emergency rooms, and they typically have enough information to know who is on the streets out of necessity. They can’t say what they know, of course, but they are free to share their opinions about someone’s ability to get off the streets.

I’m also lucky enough to have seen collective generosity yield results. A man who used to be a beggar in the town where I grew up saved as much of the money he received as possible and is now a productive member of society by any measure. I know this isn’t typical, but it’s nice to see every once in a while.

I usually just pass by but this one time I was walking downtown Seattle and there was a guy was asking for money… he didn’t look homeless or like he was on drugs so I walked by as usual saying to myself.. exactly that “This guys clothes are to fresh looking there is no way he’s homeless”.... I kept walking and went around the corner and I had an epiphany: If I were to lose my job I and lose everything, I wouldn’t suddenly spring on the streets in ratty old clothes.. I would be wearing the things that I have now, and those are pretty fresh and clean.

So I went back to the ATM and I got 20.00 and gave it to him.

I can only hope that if I am someday homeless people will look out for me.

5 cents to $25 bucks.

I have on several occasions gone to a store and come back to someone I’ve just passed on the street corner and given them bags of groceries (that are easy to open and eat for someone living on the street (and less likely to spoil) such as a bag of apples, some bananas, cans of nuts, single servings of applesauce, cans of beans and tuna and spaghetti with pop tops so there is no need for a can opener, along with pet food if they have a dog with them, a big re-fillable water bottle and some plastic utensils and a container of hand sanitizer and a big chocolate bar and a blue tarp that can be set down upon the wet ground).

Sometimes nothing; sometimes change; sometimes 20 bucks. It’s random. I give out more since I’ve been sick, and I realize that I am a lot like many of them.

I don’t give money to the gutter punks.

I do not give out money. I occasionally give food, unless I see them with a dog, but usually I give out cards that have the names and phone numbers of public assistance.

Least, nothing; most, $20.

Factors: most of all, the presence or absence of some nameless impulse. Then, my on-the-spot assessment of them, how much of a hurry I’m in, what I feel free to spare at the time, and my mood.

If I feel pressured, it’ll be zero.

Giving items of use it okay with me. No money though, too suspicious its going to fund their drinking habit or the like.

On the subject of homelessness and getting off the streets, I still love this question from 2009 and the OP’s own answer to it.

I give the change in my change drawer from my car. I give the crack ho mother of a kid I used to work with money everytime she asks. I also say no when I know its coming from other crackheads.

I rarely have cash on me and have not been asked for a handout often. I have on occassion given whatever one dollar bills I have on me. It’s happened more than once that I’m approached for a handout for “gas money” in a shopping center parking lot with an ABC store and no gas station. I refuse to give money then. These people are driving around the parking lot asking for cash, so as far as I’m concerned they’re not in that much of a need for gas money – more like liquor money. Sometimes I just don’t feel safe pulling out my wallet either – especially when people get too close too quickly. “Sorry, I don’t carry cash.”

Least- zero
Most- $20.
Usually- nothing.

I’ve given food more often than money or like others have mentioned, I’ve given some money to people in lines when it was obvious they were short.

I rarely give beggars anything but when I was in India I saw a young woman begging at the side of the road. She had two young children with her playing quietly in the dirt. I gave her what to me was a modest amount but which to her was a lot. I think she had lost her husband, perhaps he had walked out, perhaps he had died but it was her dignity and the good behaviour of her two children that I could not ignore.

Easy to answer..

Zero minimum

Zero maximum