More than $7 million was raised for charity during the 1990s thanks to a creative response to a perennial problem by the youth minister of a South Carolina church. Brad Smith, associate pastor of the Spring Valley Presbyterian Church and founder of the Souper Bowl of Caring, came up with the simple plan in 1989 of having members of his youth group stand at the exits of the church with pots arid pans on Super Bowl Sunday to collect $1 from each person. On a day of excess and extravagance, he reasoned, surely churchgoers could manage to give $1 each so that a hungry per-son could eat. The idea was so well received that it was shared with other churches in the area, then around the state, and then nationwide. The money was used in the village or city where it was collected. It was not...