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Kind things you can do on your own

No coordinating, no asking anyone, no waiting for a group. You can do every one of these today without telling a single person you are doing it.

Showing 31–60 of 244 ideas

• Say what you are pointing at

  'It's over there' is useless to someone who cannot see you gesturing. Words cost nothing extra.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Buy the work rather than praising it

  Artists, writers and makers get a great deal of encouragement and very little income. One is a great deal more useful.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Ask before you help, then do what they say

  Grabbing a wheelchair or an arm without asking is both dangerous and startlingly common.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Move your bin off the pavement

  Bins, bikes and parked cars narrow pavements to the point where a wheelchair has to go into the road.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Say keep the change before they count it

  A small overpayment is worth more as a decision you announce than as coins you leave behind.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Learn five signs and use them

  Hello, thank you, sorry, please, your name. Five signs is enough to change an encounter completely.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Quietly pay for a child's kit

  The boots, the instrument, the trip. Children drop out of things because of cost, and nobody is told why.

  5 minutesMore than $10A neighbor

• Move your trolley out of the aisle

  A blocked aisle is an inconvenience to most people and an impassable wall to a wheelchair or a scooter.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tell someone about money they are entitled to

  Billions in benefits, reliefs and refunds go unclaimed every year, mostly by people who do not know they qualify.

  Half an hourFreeA friend

• Tell a teacher what they did for your child

  Teachers hear from parents almost exclusively about problems. Specific praise is rare enough to be kept for years.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Return it better than you got it

  The borrowed car with a full tank, the returned dish with something in it. The margin is what people remember.

  Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor

• Help with the deposit, not the rent

  A one-off lump unlocks a situation. Ongoing help postpones one, and is far harder to stop.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Turn the one-off donation into a standing order

  Charities can plan against regular income and cannot plan against appeals. Five pounds monthly beats sixty at Christmas.

  5 minutesMore than $10A stranger

• Hand over your good tradesperson

  The reliable plumber, the honest garage, the dentist taking patients. Newcomers pay a premium for not knowing.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Leave credit on the machine behind you

  A parking meter, a laundry card, a photo booth. The next person gets a small unearned piece of luck.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Put it back exactly where it was

  In the home of a blind or partially sighted person, a tidied object is a lost object.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Be the reference someone has no way of getting

  Renting, banking and jobs all require a history that anyone newly arrived by definition does not have.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Give one instruction at a time

  Stacked instructions fail for anyone tired, anxious, learning the language or processing differently.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Believe someone about their own symptoms

  People with invisible illness spend years being doubted, most often by people who mean well.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Tell someone how you got in

  Careers look like merit from outside and like luck and contacts from inside. Saying so out loud helps someone enormously.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Say plainly that you are glad they came

  Anyone new spends months privately unsure whether they are wanted or merely tolerated. One sentence settles it.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Explain how the system here actually works

  Registering with a doctor, council tax, school places. Obvious to you, opaque and consequential to a newcomer.

  An afternoonFreeA neighbor

• Pay a bit more at the place that employs people

  The difference between the independent and the chain is usually small per item and decisive per year.

  Half an hourUnder $10A stranger

• Tell someone what you actually earn

  Pay secrecy is maintained by people like you staying quiet, and it costs the people with least information the most.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Ask what the hardest part actually is

  We assume we know which part of someone's situation is worst, and we are usually wrong.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Tell a carer what you noticed

  Carers watch someone decline daily and lose sight of who they were. An outsider's observation gives that back.

  5 minutesFreeA caregiver

• Add alt text to your images

  An image without a description is a blank space to anyone using a screen reader. Writing one takes twenty seconds.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Ask again the person who always says no

  People who decline every invitation are usually not uninterested. Often they are waiting to be asked a fourth time.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Notice the deadline someone is drowning in

  People rarely ask for help at work because asking reads as not coping. Offering removes the admission.

  An afternoonFreeA friend

• Return the thing you have had for two years

  Everybody is holding something borrowed and mildly embarrassing. Giving it back is easier than the story you have built around it.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor