What happens if you give people money for the express purpose of being generous? A project called Drop Dead Generous is finding out, handing 1,000 people $500 each and asking them to spend it on helping others however they see fit.

The result is a sprawling, improvised experiment in kindness — strangers paying off debts, stocking pantries, and dreaming up small acts of care, all to test a simple idea: that generosity, given room, tends to multiply.