To finance his good works, Taylor donates $500 a month from his $35,000 salary and collects thousands more in online donations. Bombarded with 500 e-mail requests a week, he chooses recipients whose needs are truly urgent, but who seem to have a real chance of getting back on their feet with a little boost. "Keith has always been a champion of the underdog," says his father, Toby, 63, a retired trucking executive. (Keith's mother, Hope, 60, is a nurse; sister Laura, 31, is a decorator in Birmingham, Ala.) Taylor hatched the idea for his charity because friends and family helped him out financially when he was a struggling grad student. "The most someone ever gave me was $300," he says. "But it was life-changing money at the time."
Divorced since 1999 (ex-wife Allison, a preschool teacher, and son Gabriel, 5, live in Texas), Taylor hopes to raise $5 million within five years and eventually open Modest Needs offices nationwide. "People really do want to help others," he says. "All it takes is willingness to act on the desire."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
