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.
323 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 241–270 of 323 ideas
Run an afternoon where things get fixed
Most broken things are thrown away for want of one person with a soldering iron and an hour.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Let a carer complain without fixing anything
Carers are not allowed to be resentful in public. Somewhere to say the unsayable is rarer than practical help.
Half an hourFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Name the person when the feedback is good
Complaints always name the individual. Praise almost always says 'the staff', which is unusable by a manager.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Take one night shift
Sleep deprivation is the part of caring that breaks people, and it is the hardest thing to ask anyone for.
OngoingFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Answer the question you just solved, publicly
You spent two hours fixing something. The forum thread that nearly helped you has no answer on it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Be the one who keeps the group chat going
Group chats die when everyone waits for someone else to post. Somebody has to be willing to look keen.
OngoingFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Let someone pay for you
Always insisting on paying can be a way of staying the one who gives. Accepting is its own kindness.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Read about it so they do not have to explain
People with a rare diagnosis spend their lives educating everyone around them. Arriving informed is a rest.
Half an hourFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Watch the empty house on your street
Probate and repossession leave houses empty for months. A neighbor noticing is usually the only security they have.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Find out who is not allowed to accept tips
Many of the people who help you most are barred from taking money. Something small they can accept works instead.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Tell someone their free thing was useful
People maintaining open resources get bug reports and complaints. They almost never hear that it worked.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Find the specific service, not the general advice
Telling someone to get help is useless. Finding the actual local service with opening hours is not.
Half an hourFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Say out loud that it is not their fault
Front-line staff absorb anger for decisions made by people the customer will never meet.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Keep visiting the widow after the first year
Attention to a bereaved spouse drops sharply after twelve months, which is roughly when the reality lands.
OngoingFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Write down who on the street owns what
A street already contains every tool anyone needs. What it lacks is a list of where they are.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Stand at the door of whatever you go to
Most people who try a group once and never return leave because nobody spoke to them in the first four minutes.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Clear the path next door before your own
Snow and ice are a broken hip for an older neighbor and an inconvenience for you. The order you clear in matters.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Cook for twelve, invite near-strangers
Adults stop making new friends largely because nobody hosts. A table is the cheapest social infrastructure there is.
An afternoonMore than $10A friend
Not rated yet
Stack it the way they would
Clearing your table is common. Stacking it the way the person collecting it actually needs is rarer and more useful.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Set up a standing childcare swap
Two families alternating one evening a month gives both of them something neither could otherwise afford.
OngoingFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Take the photograph nobody is taking
In the last months of an illness, families stop taking pictures. Afterwards those are the ones they want most.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Ask what stopped when the driving did
Giving up driving usually ends several activities at once, quietly, and nobody connects the two.
OngoingFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Commit to one lift a week for a year
A standing weekly lift is worth more than a dozen spontaneous offers, because it can be planned around.
OngoingFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Use the dead person's name
People avoid the name to protect the grieving. The effect is that the person disappears from every conversation.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Find out which house has the new baby
New parents are at home, awake at odd hours, and more isolated than anyone assumes. A knock is worth more at week six than week one.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Say whose idea it actually was
Ideas get repeated by louder people and absorbed by the room. Ten words of attribution puts it back where it belongs.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Ask the second question
Most conversations stop at the first answer. The interesting part is one question further in, and almost nobody goes.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Check the thing before you share the outrage
Thirty seconds of verification prevents you becoming the reason a false story reached another thousand people.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Volunteer for the boring part
Every group has people who want to plan and nobody who wants to do the accounts or stack the chairs.
OngoingFreeAn organization
Not rated yet
Send the job to the one person it suits
Broadcasting a vacancy reaches nobody in particular. Sending it to one person with a reason changes their year.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet