Orig­i­nally an idea for “pro­fes­sional phil­an­thropic devel­op­ment”, Michael—a multi-millionaire who’s giv­ing away $78m over a 10 year period—lived with a home­less Chicago man for one week­end. Freako­nom­ics cov­ers the story in Michael, Meet Cur­tis: Phil­an­thropy Gets Per­sonal.

Cur­tis cooked another plate of chicken and beans. He was about to eat it, but once again he offered it to Michael. This time Michael accepted. Michael looked over­whelmed; his face was per­spir­ing. Cur­tis refilled his cof­fee and gave Michael one of his cig­a­rettes to calm him down.

“Not every­one lives like this,” I said. “And don’t feel bad for Curtis.”

“No!” Cur­tis exclaimed. “Don’t pity me,” he said, pour­ing some whiskey in Michael’s cof­fee. “This will help you sleep tonight…” Cur­tis lit a cig­a­rette and leaned back on his busted plas­tic chair. “Just under­stand that you got to be cre­ative. Even if you got a home, you still got to pay rent — so you take in some­body now and then. Maybe you let your friend stay in the house and they watch your kid, or clean up, or pay you…” Cur­tis kept on talk­ing. Michael kept on eating.