A Random Acts of Kindness Guide: Sharing My Favorite Kindness Resources

Thank you for all of your kind responses to my post about giving away 1 million flowers! In line with that post, I wanted to share my favorite kindness ideas and resources with you. It’s almost Random Acts of Kindness Day (February 17th!), so hopefully this will inspire you to get out there and help out a friend or stranger 😊

Top Kindness Charities & Organizations:

• Channel Kindness: A Project of Born this Way Foundation
  • Channel Kindness is a digital platform created by Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. It is a safe space for young people to tell their stories of kindness, resilience, and community. By highlighting the people and organizations that are doing good in their communities, Channel Kindness’ audience is inspired to create a kinder and braver world, one story at a time.

• Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
  • The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a small nonprofit that invests their resources into making kindness the norm. They are rooted in the belief that all people can connect through kindness and that kindness can be taught. They follow a simple framework for everything we do. Inspire -> Empower -> Act -> Reflect -> Share. Their evidence-based Kindness in the Classroom® curriculum gives students the social and emotional skills needed to live more successful lives. Their workplace kindness calendar shows companies how easy it is to change workplace culture through simple kind gestures. They create a common language between schools, work and home with all their resources.

• Kindspring
  • KindSpring is a place to practice small acts of kindness. For over a decade the KindSpring user community has focused on inner transformation, while collectively changing the world with generosity, gratitude, and trust. The site is 100% volunteer-run and totally non-commercial. It is a shared labor of love.

• Kindness.org
  • Kindness.org believes that kindness is an essential ingredient in social change. Through scientific research, education and storytelling, they are making it simple to choose and cultivate kindness.

• KindnessEvolution
  • KindnessEvolution has been formed to more fully integrate intentional kindness, compassion, and generosity into very aspect of society.

• The Foundation for a Better Life
  • The Foundation for a Better Life creates public service campaigns to communicate the values that make a difference in our communities. These uplifting messages, utilizing television, movie theaters, billboards, radio and the internet, model the benefits of a life lived by positive values.

Kindness Books:

• CHANNEL KINDNESS Book by Born this Way Foundation and Lady Gaga
  • CHANNEL KINDNESS: Stories of Kindness and Community is a collection of inspirational stories written by young people as well as personal notes of empowerment from Born This Way Foundation co-founder Lady Gaga. Within these pages, you’ll meet young change-makers who found their inner strength, prevailed in the face of bullies, started their own social movements, and decided to break through the mental health stigma. These storytellers share how they felt, created safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and embraced kindness with every fiber of their being by helping others without the expectation of anything in return.

• DEEP KINDNESS: A New Way to Talk About (and Act) with Kindness by Houston Kraft
  • Deep Kindness pairs anecdotes with actions that can make real change in our own lives, the lives of others, and throughout the world. Diving into the types of kindness the world needs most today, this book takes an honest look at the gap between our belief in kindness and our ability to practice it well—and shows us how to put intention into action. Exploring everything from the empathy gap to the skill of emotional regulation, Deep Kindness is perfect for anyone who believes in a kinder world and recognizes that there is a lot of work to do before we achieve it.

• Your Hidden Superpower: The Kindness That Makes You Unbeatable at Work and Connects You with Anyone by Adrienne Bankert
  • Through years of developing her own kindness practices and studying those of others, Good Morning America correspondent and ABC News journalist Adrienne Bankert has experienced firsthand the unbeatable power of kindness and witnessed its transformative impact on others. This book helps us adjust our perspective from being closed off and self-centered to a mindset of kindness ripples into a staggering amount of personal fulfillment and growth.

• The Kindness Handbook: A Practical Guide by Sharon Salzberg
  • The Kindness Handbook features a thoughtful collection of anecdotes, stories, and practical tools to inspire kindness for any life situation. This book is your personal companion to explore the rich landscape of kindness―and help you see just how it might shift and open up your life to greater joy, meaning, and compassion.

• The Power of Kindness: Why Empathy Is Essential in Everyday Life by Dr. Brian Goldman
  • In The Power of Kindness, Dr. Brian Goldman leaves the familiar surroundings of the hospital in search of his own lost compassion. A top neuroscientist performs an MRI scan of his brain to see if he is hard-wired for empathy. A researcher tests his personality and makes a startling discovery. Goldman then circles the planet in search of the most empathic people alive, to hear their stories and learn their secrets. He walks a boulevard in São Paulo, where he meets a woman who calls a homeless poet her soulmate and reunited him with his family; a research lab in Kyoto, where he meets a lifelike, empathetic android; and a nursing home in rural Pennsylvania, where he meets a therapist at a nursing home who has an uncanny knack of knowing what’s inside the hearts and minds of people with dementia, as well as her protege, a woman who talked a gun-wielding robber into walking away from his crime. Powerful and engaging, The Power of Kindness takes us far from the theatre of medicine and into the world at large, and investigates why kindness is so vital to our existence.

• The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World by Jamil Zaki
  • In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki shares cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, showing that empathy is not a fixed trait—something we’re born with or not—but rather a skill that can be strengthened through effort. He also tells the stories of people who embody this new perspective, fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. 

Kindness Podcasts:

• The Kindness Podcast by NPR
  • The Kindness Podcast is on a mission to teach the world about the transformative power of kindness! The host, Nicole Phillips is a champion for using kindness to overcome all of life’s difficulties, including her own battle with breast cancer.

• Kind World Podcast
  • Kind World is a show about how a single act of kindness can change someone’s life. In each episode, hosts and reporters Yasmin Amer and Andrea Asuaje search the world for good news stories that will restore your faith in humanity. A production of WBUR.

• The Daily Smile Podcast
  • Everyone needs a reminder about just how good people can be. On Wondery’s The Daily Smile, host Nikki Boyer brings you stories that will make you feel good each weekday morning. With interviews, inspiring clips, and chats with special guests and passionate friends, The Daily Smile takes you on a journey into goodness, gives you all the feels, and will leave you with a smile on your face.

• The Kindness and Happiness Connection Podcast
  • The Kindness & Happiness Connection is hosted by Dr. Elia Gourgouris – The Happiness Doctor and Randy McNeely – The Kindness Giver. Join them weekly with invited guests as we share actionable kindness and happiness tips, insights, and inspiration to promote personal and professional well being.

Important Kindness Dates:

November 13, 2022: World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day is a global day that promotes the importance of being kind to each other, to yourself, and to the world. The purpose of this day, celebrated on November 13 of each year, is to help everyone understand that compassion for others is what binds us all together. This understanding has the power to bridge the gap between nations.

February 17, 2022: National Random Acts of Kindness Day

Random Acts of Kindness Day was first created in Denver, Colorado in 1995 by a small nonprofit organization, the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. National Random Acts of Kindness Day falls within Random Acts of Kindness Week, which is February 13-19, 2022.

Top Kindness Quotes:

“Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.” – Charles Glassman

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” – Brad Melzer

“You’re never too important to be nice to people.”

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” – The Dalai Lama

“A little spark of kindness can put a colossal burst of sunshine into someone’s day.” – Unknown

“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and more underrate agent of human change.” – Bob Kerry

“The world is full of kind people. If you can’t find one, be one.”

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” – Princess Diana

See more kindness quotes here.

2022 Kindness Calendars:

• February 2022 Kindness Calendar
  • A free downloadable kindness calendar by Make Today Happy blog for February.

• My Kindness Calendar
  •  Premium-quality reusable wall calendars by My Kindness Calendar that inspire families to practice daily acts of kindness together.

• 35 Random Acts of Kindness Calendar
  • A free printable by the Pragmatic Parent that has 35 simple tasks that only take a few minutes, don’t cost a thing and can instantly turn someone’s day around.

Top Kindness Hashtags to Use:

#MakeKindnesstheNorm #bekindtooneanother #kindnessmatters #actsofkindness #kindnessquotes #gratitude #loveothers #bekind #kind #kindpeople #actofkindness #compassion

Kindness Activities for Kids:

• A Learning Curriculum Designed to Help Schools Create a Culture of Kindness
  • The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation’s new Kindness in the Classroom® curriculum is a Tier 1 evidenced-based social emotional learning curriculum designed to help schools create a culture of kindness. Every unit teaches six core kindness concepts: Respect, Caring, Inclusiveness, Integrity, Responsibility, and Courage.
• 55+ Kindness Activities for Kids
  • KidsActivities.com shares kindness activities including printable “Smile it Forward” cards, kindness catchers, and bags of joy.
• 20 Simple Kindness Activities for Children to do
  • This post by Mom Junction teaches how to create a kindness jar, how to thank a community helper, and making kindness paperweights.
• 16 Free Kindness Day Resources to Teach Kids to Give
  • This guide by the Ripple Kindness Project gives great kindness printables for kids like coloring pages, kindness checklists for kids and teachers, and kindness posters.
• 31 Activities to Teach Kids Kindness
  • Some activities by the Big Life Journal included here include how to create a a compliment board, understanding what you can and cannot control, and how kids can practice mindfulness.

Inspiring Kindness Stories:

• 30 Stories About the Touching Kindness of Strangers That’ll Make You Tear Up
  • By Reader’s Digest
• Videos of Kindness to Inspire You
  • By Living with Kindness
• Celebrity Kindness Stories
  • By Living101
• Stories of Kindness from Around the World
  • By Kindspring.org
• 41 Touching Random Acts of Kindness That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity
  • By Good Housekeeping

Kindness Activities for all Ages:

• Great Kindness Ideas
  • By The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation

• 15 Random Acts of Kindness that Take Less than 5 Minutes
  • By Happsters

• 13 Ways to Bring a Smile to Someone’s Face
  • By Happsters

• Kindness Ideas for Adults
  • By Ripple Kindness Project

• Acts of Kindness During the Pandemic
  • By Mental Health Foundation

I know this was a lot of information to get through, so if you made it this far thank you!! My hope is that you can bookmark or “pin” this page for future reference. Have a great rest of your week!