NEED TO KNOW
Connie, an 86-year-old Navajo woman in Phoenix, did not hesitate to pull out some cash from her wallet when she was approached by what she believed to be a man who couldn’t afford his medication.
“Excuse me, ma’am, I’m so sorry, I’m in a lot of pain right now,” content creator Jimmy Darts says to the unsuspecting woman, holding a pain-relieving medication, in a video he later uploaded to Instagram. “Do you have a dollar?”
Connie opened her purse, handing him a $20 bill. But anyone familiar with Darts’s social media accounts knows that wasn’t where the video would end. Standing in the store’s aisle, Darts continued to learn Connie’s story: that she was struggling to put food on her table and afford her rent and had recently been hospitalized for her anxiety.
At the culmination of the clip, Darts instead gave the box of medication to Connie, inside of which there was $500 in cash for her to keep.
Jimmy Darts/Instagram
“I’m so happy — you made my day,” Connie tells him, her voice breaking. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Darts — who has a combined following of over 25 million people across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube — has been making videos like his latest with Connie for the last five years. He travels the country with his crew in search of those who need a bit of extra cash, first posing as someone in need of financial assistance, and then, after they demonstrate their generosity, flipping the script and giving the generous donor the money instead.
It began in 2020, he says in an interview with PEOPLE, after his life “got pretty wrecked” and he turned to his faith in search of an answer. “The Lord said, ‘Ask people for help, and when they help you, change their life,’ ” recounts Darts. “And so that’s when I started doing these videos.”
His relationship with Connie — like many he opens for the recipients of his generosity — only begins with his initial video. When he posted the clip, he also shared a link to a GoFundMe page, asking his followers if they could help pitch in for Connie during the holiday season, and the fundraiser quickly amassed thousands of dollars, currently sitting at over $78,000.
Jimmy Darts/Instagram
“Every time, there are just so many amazing and generous people in our country and around the world that watch and donate to these videos,” he says. “And the coolest part about it is that 80,000 different people have donated — so it’s not like some really rich guy sending money, it’s the microdonations of people coming together.”
Darts says, especially during a time of explosive negativity on social media platforms, it’s been heartening to see such high engagement on his fundraisers and videos.
“A lot of people click on bad stuff, and algorithms even feed you bad stuff because it gets a reaction out of you,” he says. “If we can put out stuff that can bring families together, it’s just so encouraging.”
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Continues Darts: “People don’t want to just write a $50 check to an organization and have no clue where it goes. They want to give to a GoFundMe where they know it goes right to the person.”
Jimmy Darts/Instagram
The day after he posted his video, he met up with Connie again — this time to tell her that people online had raised thousands of dollars to help her afford her rent and fix her broken car.
“She was absolutely blown away,” he says.
While Darts has since left the Phoenix area, he says he certainly intends to reconnect with Connie if he ever finds himself back. “She’s just a really awesome lady,” he tells PEOPLE. “She was like, ‘You can call me grandma now.’ I will definitely be doing that.”
