110 Ideas for Random Acts of Kindness

Part of my 30 Before 30 challenge that I set for myself was to do 30 Random Acts of Kindness. My birthday isn’t for another 4 months, but I wanted to start now so I have time to make them meaningful!

As I was trying to think of my 30 random acts of kindness, I came across SO many great ideas. Lots of you shared great ideas with me on Instagram as well! I wanted to compile a huge list for anyone to use as inspiration. I hope you will join me in making the world a little happier of a place! 🙂

The first section of ideas are random, but if you scroll down you will see the acts of kindness categorized (mainly by location). I thought of all the different places that I frequent and how I could spread kindness there! If you think of an idea that isn’t on the list, please share it with me by leaving a comment! The more ideas the better!

Random Acts of Kindness Ideas:

• Pay for the person behind you in the drive through
• Carry a garbage bag with you on walks and fill it with litter
• Leave $5 at a Redbox rental kiosk for someone to use for movie snacks!
• Leave a bag of popcorn and some candy at a Redbox kiosk
• Send a friend a thinking of you card in the mail
• Leave laundry soap or change at the laundromat
• Have a pizza delivered to a friend’s house
• Hold the door open for others
• Smile at everyone you see
• Give genuine compliments as often as you can (both in person and online!)
• Babysit a friend’s children for free so they can have date night
• Leave positive notes, a flower or a car wash coupon on cars in a parking lot
• Give away an item (instead of selling it)
• Make a “take what you need” sign

Random Acts of Kindness at the Park

• Leave bubbles or outside toys for kids to find
• Hide kindness rocks with positive messages
• Hide filled Easter eggs
• Bury “treasure” in a sandbox
• Write a positive message in chalk
• Pick up litter
• Bring a towel and dry off the swings and slide if they’re wet

Random Acts of Kindness in the Community

• Leave a treat or thank you note for your mail carrier
• Deliver treats to your local fire station
• Deliver a treat to your local police station
• Donate needed supplies to your neighborhood’s school
• Donate gently loved books to a school
• Give a cold drink to an outside worker
• Volunteer in your community
• Send a care package to a military serviceperson
• Leave coins on a parking meeter
• Leave a thank you note on a veteran’s car

Random Acts of Kindness at Work

• Buy coffee or tea for your team
• Clean the office refrigerator or microwave
• Bring in a homemade treat to share
• Learn everyone’s name; smile and greet them by name everyday
• Leave positive notes on coworkers’ desks

Random Acts of Kindness at Restaurants

• Pay for another table
• Leave a generous tip
• Give a small toy or coloring book to a child who looks restless
• Pay for the person behind you in the drive through
• Leave a nice note or small gift for the wait staff
• Tell the manager how great your service was

Random Acts of Kindness for People in Need

• Donate your hair
• Donate blood
• Give blessing bags to homeless
• Fill a purse with items for a homeless woman
• Leave a pack of baby wipes and a note of encouragement for a mom on the changing table in the bathroom
• Donate essential baby items to a pregnancy center
• Donate items to a women’s shelter or other nonprofit organization
• Donate to a food bank

Random Acts of Kindness for Animals

• Pay an adoption fee of an animal at a shelter that has been there a long time
• Give to an animal shelter in need
• Volunteer at an animal shelter
• Foster an animal if you are able
• If you find a lost dog, find it’s owner instead of taking it to the shelter
• Leave tennis balls or dog toys at the dog park
• Leave some treats at a dog park

Random Acts of Kindness at the Library

• Leave money in random library books
• Leave encouraging notes in library books
• Donate gently used books to the library
• Bring the librarians a treat or write them a thank you note
• Leave homemade bookmarks in library books
• Donate toys to your library (if they use toys at story time like ours does!)

Random Acts of Kindness at the Store

• Pay for a birthday cake at the bakery
• Buy a grocery store gift card and give it to someone you pass in the aisle
• Pay for groceries for the person behind you
• Leave coupon’s near the products that they are for
• Put away all of the stray carts in the parking lot
• Leave $1 bills in the toy section at the dollar store
• Leave a gift card hidden at the store
• Write encouraging notes to leave in the dressing room
• Put quarters in the candy machine
• Leave extra stamps in the greeting card section
• Leave a positive review for your favorite business
• Ask to speak to a manager and give an employee a compliment for a job well done (or fill out a survey if they have one!)
• Buy your cashier a drink or candy bar
• If a store has layaway, pay off someone’s purchase

Random Acts of Kindness at a Hopital

• Bring treats for doctors or nurses
• Donate coloring books and crayons to the waiting rooms
• Donate magazines or leave books in the waiting rooms
• Ask what is needed in the pediatric unit and donate those items
• Write positive messages on cards for patients
• Buy flowers for a patient who doesn’t get many visitors
• Buy coffee for parents who have a baby in the NICU (or any parent with a child in the hospital!)
• Leave positive messages hidden throughout the hospital
• Leave coins at the vending machine so someone can get a snack

Random Acts of Kindness for Seniors

• Give flowers to seniors
• Visit a nursing home or assisted living facility and visit
• Help with yard work or other household chores
• Deliver dinner for an elderly neighbor or invite them to your home for dinner
• Donate needed supplies to an assisted living facility
• Write & deliver cards to seniors
• Donate dolls or stuffed animals to patients with Alzheimer’s
• Donate activities (arts and crafts, books, games, etc) to an assisted living facility

Random Acts of Kindness in your Neighborhood

• Wheel in your neighbor’s garbage can
• Rake a neighbor’s yard or shovel their driveway
• Mow a neighbor’s lawn
• Weed their flowerbeds when they aren’t home
• Offer to babysit
• Bring over vegetables from your garden
• Leave an anonymous note complimenting their yard, holiday decor, etc
• Do a nice “ding dong ditch” and leave them a treat on their doorstep
• Leave ingredients for a full dinner on a neighbor’s doorstep!
• Stop at a lemonade stand and make a donation

Random Acts of Kindness you can do Online

• Fund a loan on Kiva (loans have a 96.7% repayment rate!)
• Support a small business or artist (can also be done in person 🙂
• Make a donation to a teacher’s request on Donor’s Choose
• Join Soldiers’ Angels
• Or send a care package to a soldier via Any Soldier
• Sponsor a child in need (lots of options available if you google that phrase!)

Again, please let me know if you have any other ideas to add to the list!

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