Kristen Welch

We are THAT Family

100+ Ways for Your Family to Make a Difference

by

  1. Babysit for a single mom
  2. Teach compassion with a Family Giving Box
  3. Write a Family Mission Statement
  4. Bake cookies for your local fire dept.
  5. Pick up trash at local park as a family field trip
  6. Create snack packs for Ronald McDonald residents
  7. Welcome a new family to the neighborhood with a dessert and introduction
  8. Pray for the poor of the world
  9. Color a Smile-print coloring page to be given to lift someone in need up
  10. Make a baby care kit for a baby in need
  11. Take time each week to unplug as a family
  12. Donate your time or treasure to the Make a Wish Foundation
  13. Appreciate your church staff in some small, tangible way
  14. Do yard work for an elderly neighbor
  15. Make a Life Book for a child in Foster Care
  16. Read You Were Made to Make A Difference as a family
  17. Volunteer to cuddle babies at the hospital (older kids/teens are often allowed also)
  18. Read Christmas Jars as family
  19. Save loose change in a jar and give to a needy family at Christmas
  20. Take a family volunteering vacation
  21. Stop and say thank you to grocery clerks, waitresses. Ask them how they are doing.
  22. Become a monthly sponsor to help pregnant girls in Kenya
  23. Make a birthday cake for an underpriviledged child
  24. Serve at home: make each other’s beds, clean up someone else’s mess
  25. Write thank you notes to people who serve you: postman, yard guy, doctor, etc
  26. Sponsor a child monthly (cannot recommend enough)
  27. Make relief kits for disaster relief victims
  28. Sew a sleeping bag for someone in need (easy pattern)
  29. Volunteer at a non-profit
  30. Make up some Hygiene Bags to pass out to local homeless people
  31. Take your family on a tour of Red Cross
  32. Put a monthly date on the calendar for a Family Service Night
  33. Take a meal to a new family
  34. Create a card for Habitat for Humanity new home owner
  35. Encourage your older children to be a Mother’s Helper to a mom with young kids
  36. Fill a backpack to help give a homeless person a lift up
  37. Make birthday cards and deliver them to a local nursing home monthly
  38. Donate books to Africa
  39. Take your kids to a local Food Pantry with canned goods to donate
  40. Deliver food for Meals on Wheels
  41. Pray as a family on a regular basis for the people in your life.
  42. Donate your hair to Locks of Love.
  43. Give blood. (Take your kids with you and explain the importance).
  44. Donate nice toys to cancer ward at a Children’s Hospital
  45. Buy a mosquito net and help prevent malaria
  46. Randomly celebrate each other with a special treat, meal, time
  47. Donate school supplies to a classroom in need
  48. Compliment and thank the teachers in your life
  49. Buy a soccer ball for a child in poverty
  50. Give a used bike to a homeless person
  51. Donate coloring books/crayons to hospital emergency rooms
  52. Host a 40 hour famine in your home (fast something!)
  53. Give clothes to a family in need (call your church/school to find one)
  54. Read to a special needs child
  55. Only drink water for 2 weeks, give proceeds for clean water
  56. Buy a goat for a family in extreme poverty
  57. Give a donation in someone’s name to an organization you believe in
  58. Send your used shoes to Reuse-a-Shoe
  59. Become Certified Respite Caregivers to give Foster Family’s a babysitting
  60. Decorate a Christmas tree at an elderly person’s house
  61. Hold a collection drive: makeup, lotions, etc for women at a shelter
  62. Find a Food Bank near you to volunteer
  63. Deliver popcicles to children at a homeless shelter
  64. Offer your pet for therapy to the elderly
  65. Decorate nursing home rooms of residents with homemade art
  66. Have regular “family nights” with games, ice cream, time together
  67. Visit the NICU with treats for the doctors and anxious parents
  68. Write to unsponsored children
  69. Read to patients at a local hospital
  70. Plan a family missions trip
  71. Bake cookies, host a bake sale and donate money to the poor or a cause
  72. Volunteer at a local animal shelter
  73. Plant a garden and share the produce
  74. Hold a drive for lightly-used stuffed animals for police stations SAFE program
  75. Write letters to servicemen
  76. Give a micro loan and change a family in a third world country
  77. Smile. At everyone.
  78. Make care packages for children in the hospital
  79. Instead of a birthday gifts, ask for donations for a charity or food for a food pantry
  80. Shop fair trade
  81. Offer to decorate hospital hallways during the holidays
  82. Ask your city about volunteering to remove graffiti
  83. Host a Lemon-AID stand and donate proceeds Blood Water
  84. Make no-sew fleece blankets for Hospice
  85. Collect pencils for African children
  86. Send a care package to our military
  87. Read the Bible together as a family every day
  88. Collect shoes for Shoes for Kids (started by an 11 year old girl)
  89. Let kids choose a charity to donate to for one of their Christmas gifts
  90. Become a foster family
  91. Pay for someone’s drink in Starbuck’s drive-thru. Make sure your kids enjoy the act of kindness.
  92. Help your kids starts a neighborhood or school Bible Study with their peers
  93. Volunteer to plant flowers for your school/church flowerbeds
  94. Make a Care Bag for a child in need
  95. Adopt a child
  96. Welcome home a hero at the airport
  97. Complain less
  98. Start a Kindness Club with your family
  99. Let your light shine!
  100. Look for opportunities to be the difference in someone’s life
  101. Host a virtual food drive
  102. Start a KidzRap on your street!
  103. Purchase gifts through families fundraising for adoption.
  104. Make a quilt for NICU familes
  105. Pay the toll for the car behind you
  106. Invite friends to Vacation Bible School
  107. Help keep families together
  108. Take someone flowers from your garden
  109. Participate in Operation Christmas Child

What did I miss? Leave your ideas in the comments and I’ll add them!