Random Acts of Kindness Ideas
4. Fill a basket with everything a new-born baby needs and drop it off at a nearby hospital for a woman of low income who just gave birth.
5. Leave the exact change for a soda in the change slot of a vending machine.
6. Take a box of donuts to your local firehouse or police station.
7. Put money in someone else’s parking meter if their time is about to expire.
8. Forgive someone a debt that they owe you if it becomes obvious that they can’t pay it.
9. Pay it forward with books. When you’re done reading a great book, leave it in a public place for someone else to find. Add a note saying something like the following: “This book belongs to whoever finds it. When you’re done reading it, pass it on.”
10. Over-tip a waiter or give the pizza delivery guy a really large tip.
11. Drop coins on the sidewalk for someone else to find.
12. Leave a tip in a street musician’s jar.
13. Visit a nursing home and help brighten the day of an elderly person who doesn’t get many visitors.
14. Send a soldier a care package.
15. Help an elderly neighbor with their yard, whether it’s raking the leaves or mowing their lawn.
16. When you’re done shoveling the snow off of your driveway, shovel your neighbor’s driveway. Here’s a sweet story that came out in the news this year of six teenagers who did this for their whole neighborhood.
19. Let someone who appears to be in a hurry cut ahead of you in line.
20. Buy a pack of Girl Scout cookies.
21. Help out at a soup kitchen.
22. Offer busy parents to babysit their kids so they can have some alone time.
23. Buy five extra cans of soup or vegetables at the store and drop them off at a local food bank.
24. Donate craft supplies for second graders at a school in need.
25. Purchase a few umbrellas and ponchos and keep them in your car. On a rainy day, find someone who needs them.
26. Send someone who’s feeling down a box of sunshine: fill it with yellow things. This can be yellow candy, lemon cake mix, a yellow mug with a smiley face on it, smiley face stickers, yellow slippers, a great book wrapped in yellow, and so on.
27. Send a friend an old photo of the two of you together and include a note recalling that time.
28. Cheer up a friend who needs it. Take them out to lunch and listen to them. Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to lend a sympathetic ear.
29. Give your spare laptop or desktop computer to an elderly person who you know is home-bound. Teach them to use the Internet.
30. Drop kindness bombs: leave small scraps of paper with positive messages on them in library books.
31. Purchase a couple of extra bags of dog food and drop them off at a local animal shelter — because dogs are also in need of some random kindness.
32. Do a chore for someone else in your family — take out the garbage, make dinner, wash the car, and so on.
33. Help victim’s of domestic violence — go to the women’s shelter closest to your home and drop off hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, razors, deodorant, toothbrushes and paste, tampons and pads, diapers, and wipes.
34. Bake cookies for your postman/postwoman.
35. Invite someone who’s alone to have dinner with your family for the holidays.
36. Let another car merge in front of you, or stop to let a pedestrian cross the street.
38. If someone close to you is going through a hard time, ask them: “What do you need?” or “How can I help?”
39. If you’re fortunate enough to have at least one grandparent who’s still alive, call them. Having grandparents is a gift.
40. Write a letter to each of your siblings letting them know how much they mean to you and all the reasons why you appreciate them.