The library
Kind things you can actually do
Every one of these is specific enough to do today. No grand gestures, no fundraising page, nothing that needs a free weekend.
293 ideas. Try a situation — grief, new baby, neighbor, hospital.
Know roughly what is going on but not what to search for? Start from a situation — fourteen short lists of what actually helps, from somebody new on the street to somebody having the worst year of their life.
Showing 91–120 of 293 ideas
Scan the box of photographs
Boxes of prints are one house fire or one house clearance from being gone. Scanning them takes an afternoon.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Offer to be the one who tells everyone
After a diagnosis or a death, repeating the news to each person in turn is its own exhausting job.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Let the car out
Someone has been waiting at that junction for four minutes. It costs you eight seconds and they remember it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Notice the teenager who is doing the caring
Hundreds of thousands of children care for a parent or sibling, and most are invisible to their school and neighbors.
OngoingFreeA caregiver
Be the person who holds a spare key
Almost nobody has a local key-holder any more, which turns a lost key into a locksmith call and a few hundred pounds.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Hand in the thing you found, properly
A dropped wallet or phone handed to the right place is the difference between a bad afternoon and a ruined month.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Sit in the waiting room with someone
Waiting rooms are where people rehearse the worst version of the news. Company changes the hour entirely.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Do the garden of a house that has stopped managing it
An overgrown garden is usually a signal — illness, age, or a household with no spare capacity at all.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Ring at the same time every week
A call that arrives predictably becomes something to look forward to. A random one is just a call.
OngoingFreeA neighbor
Send the message that needs no reply
People in crisis stop answering because every message is a task. One that closes itself is a gift.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Answer the question that has been sitting unanswered
Someone asked in a channel two days ago and nobody replied. The silence is worse than a no.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Invite the child everyone stops inviting
Parents of disabled children describe the birthday party invitations drying up as the loneliest part.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Write down the thing only you know
Every job has undocumented knowledge living in one head. Writing it down is a gift to a person you will never meet.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Fill in the benefits form with them
Carer's and disability forms run to dozens of pages and are refused on technicalities. Help with one is worth real money.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Reply to the post with nothing under it
Posting something you made and getting silence is worse than not posting. One reply changes the whole experience.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Visit the resident nobody comes for
Every care home has people who receive no visitors at all. Staff know exactly who they are.
OngoingFreeA stranger
Do the bins for the house where it is getting hard
Wheeling a heavy bin down an icy path is one of the small tasks that quietly becomes dangerous with age.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Buy the last of it at the end of market day
Unsold fresh produce at four o'clock is a loss the trader eats. Buying it is a favor disguised as a bargain.
Half an hourUnder $10A stranger
Review the tradesperson who did it properly
For a small trade, online reviews are most of the marketing budget. One honest paragraph is worth real money to them.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Take back two trolleys instead of one
Collecting trolleys in the rain is somebody's whole shift. Two at a time halves a specific, miserable job.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Take the other child out
When one child is seriously ill or disabled, their brothers and sisters become invisible to every adult around them.
An afternoonUnder $10A caregiver
Fix the wrong thing on the map
Wrong opening hours send someone across town for nothing. Anyone can correct them and almost nobody does.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Learn the name of whoever cleans your office
They are in the building every day and structurally invisible, often working before anyone arrives or after everyone leaves.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Send the carer the card, not the household
Cards and gifts go to the patient or to the family. The carer receives almost nothing addressed to them alone.
5 minutesUnder $10A caregiver
Take the paperwork pile away for an afternoon
There is a pile of unopened post in most overwhelmed households, and it grows more frightening the longer it sits.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Stand up before anyone has to ask
Asking for a seat means announcing a pregnancy, an illness or a disability to a carriage of strangers.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Talk to the person, not over them
People who are ill or disabled are routinely discussed in the third person while sitting in the room.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Start the street group, and keep it about the street
A neighborhood group is genuinely useful for about six months and then becomes a place people argue about parking.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Stand next to someone being harassed
Intervening directly can escalate. Standing beside the person and talking to them usually does not.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Write an actual letter
A letter can be reread, shown to visitors and kept on the mantelpiece. A text cannot do any of those things.
Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor