What is the Origami Enve­lope Project? 

What do peo­ple do when they find an enve­lope with a lit­tle extra cash if they can­not return it to the owner?  Does it help them out? Does it brighten their day?  I stayed up one night think­ing of how to go about this, and thus the Origami Enve­lope Project was born.

I folded 10 envelopes, placed a $10 bill inside, along with a short expla­na­tion and instruc­tion sheet.  Each enve­lope will be left some­where in Austin and maybe even a cou­ple in other parts of the coun­try as I travel dur­ing the end of May.  Shortly after leav­ing the enve­lope, I will post a pic­ture of the enve­lope and some detail on where I left it.

Who­ever finds the enve­lope will be asked to leave a com­ment or send an email say­ing where they found the enve­lope and what they plan to do with the $10.

A lit­tle social exper­i­ment to see how I can change someone’s day through a small gift.

Keep an eye on this page as it is updated with loca­tions of envelopes and the responses as I receive them.

Enve­lope #1 was left at Star­bucks on Oltorf and I-35, Austin on May 7, 2012.  Found by Mar­cus who doesn’t know what he will do with it, but was dis­cussing keep­ing a pos­i­tive out­look when it was found.

Enve­lope #2 was left at Pan­era Bread on William Can­non just off MoPac on May 8, 2012.  Found by David, 52, who is unde­cided on his use of the money, but is con­sid­er­ing putting Enve­lope #2 back into the wild for another per­son to find.

Enve­lope #3 was left at the Austin Mini Maker Faire on May 12, 2012.  It was found by a father and son attend­ing the faire.  The father gave the $10 to his son to pay the bar­ber to cut his hair which he has been grow­ing out for two years.  He plans to donate his hair to Locks of Love.

Enve­lope #4 was left at Star­bucks on William Can­non and MoPac on May 14, 2012. Nicole, a barista, shared the $10 with her co-workers in the tip jar.  Nicole decided to put Enve­lope #4 back into the world her­self, so keep an eye out for fur­ther updates on this one.

Ahh the envelopes have gone out and I have not updated in a while.  Here’s what’s been happening:

Enve­lope #5: I can’t for the life of me remem­ber where I left it, and so far no one has claimed it online.

Enve­lope #6 was left at Squeeze In when I vis­ited Reno for my Aunt’s wed­ding a cou­ple of weeks ago.  It was found by Heidi, who sent this lovely email and is also going to put the enve­lope back into the wild.

Hello, My name is Heidi and I am 51 years old and I found enve­lope #6. I found it on Wednes­day 23rd of May 2012.

I found the enve­lope at my work. I work at the Squeeze In (Best Omelet’s on the Planet) located at 5020 Las Brisas Blvd, Reno, NV 89523. It almost got thrown away, it was in a stack of news­pa­pers that I was straight­en­ing, and the beau­ti­ful enve­lope caught my eye. The “Please Open Me” is what saved it from the trash. 

This is such an awe­some idea. At first I had decided to give the money to a home­less per­son but I have now decided I will give  $10 of my own to a home­less per­son and put this enve­lope back into cir­cu­la­tion. I will be trav­el­ing to Maui next week for my daugh­ters wed­ding and have decided to drop it off there for some­one else to find.

I really like the whole idea of mak­ing some­ones day brighter by find­ing this beau­ti­ful enve­lope. Whether is it because they need the money or just enjoyed the process like me..

What brought you to Reno and what day did you drop it off?  

Thanks, Heidi Davis Reno NV