Here are 100 ways to make a difference locally and/or globally.
- Babysit for a single mom so she can have a couple hours to run errands or have personal time. Write a letter or Scripture devotional for her to read and encourage her in the faith.
- Teach compassion with a Family Giving Box
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Launch your family on mission with a Family Mission Statement.
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Bake cookies (or any dessert) for your local fire deptartment and provide an invitation to your church services.
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Pick up trash at local park as a family field trip
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Create snack packs for Ronald McDonald residents. Write a note of encouragement and blessing from our church family.
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Welcome a new family to the neighborhood with a dessert and introduction.
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Pray for unreached people groups and missionaries around the world.
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Color a Smile-print coloring page to be given to lift someone in need up
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Make a baby care kit for a new infant family in need. Attach a note with Psalm 127 printed out.
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Take time each week to “unplug” as a family to talk, listen, and pray for one another’s lives.
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Donate your time or treasure to the Make a Wish Foundation
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Appreciate church leaders and teachers in some small, tangible way.
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Do yard work for an elderly neighbor or get a group to sing Christmas Carols at a nursing home.
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Make a Life Book for a child in Foster Care
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Read You Were Made to Make A Difference as a family
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Volunteer to serve at a homeless shelter in our area.
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Read Christmas Jars as family
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Save loose change in a jar and give to a needy family at Christmas
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Take a family volunteering vacation
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Stop and say thank you to grocery clerks, waitresses. Ask them how they are doing and offer to pray for them.
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Become a monthly sponsor to help pregnant girls in Kenya
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Make a birthday cake for an underpriviledged child
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Serve at home: make each other’s beds, clean up someone else’s mess
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Write thank you notes to people who serve you: postman, yard guy, doctor, etc
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Sponsor a Compassion Child monthly (cannot recommend enough)
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Make relief kits for disaster relief victims
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Sew a sleeping bag for someone in need (easy pattern)
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Volunteer in an outreach opportunity
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Make up some Hygiene Bags to pass out to local homeless people
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Take your family on a tour of the city. Read Matthew 9:35-38 and pray together.
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Put a quarterly date on the calendar for small group service mission.
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Take a meal to a new family at your church.
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Write a card of encouragement to someone who lost a loved one this year.
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Encourage your older children to be a Mother’s Helper to a mom with young kids
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Fill a backpack to help give a homeless person a lift up
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Make birthday cards and deliver them to a local nursing home monthly
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Donate books to Africa
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Take your kids to a local Food Pantry with canned goods to donate
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Deliver food for Meals on Wheels
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Pray as a family on a regular basis for the people in your life.
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Donate your hair to Locks of Love.
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Give blood. (Take your kids with you and explain the importance).
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Donate nice toys to cancer ward at a Children’s Hospital
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Buy a mosquito net and help prevent malaria
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Randomly celebrate a friend with a special treat, meal, time to extend God’s love.
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Donate school supplies to a classroom in need.
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Compliment and thank school teachers in your life (past & present).
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Buy a soccer ball for a child in poverty.
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Donate money & t-shirt drive towards an international missions organization.
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Donate coloring books/crayons to hospital emergency rooms
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Host a 40 hour famine in your home (fast something!)
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Give clothes to a family in need (call your church/school to find one)
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Read to a special needs child.
- Buy a goat for a family in extreme poverty
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Give a donation for a Bible in someone’s name in honor or memory of that person.
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Send your used shoes to Reuse-a-Shoe
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Become Certified Respite Caregivers to give Foster Family’s a babysitting
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Decorate a Christmas tree at an elderly person’s house
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Hold a collection drive: makeup, lotions, etc for women at a shelter
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Find a Food Bank near you to volunteer
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Deliver toy prizes, coloring books or candy to children at a children’s hospital.
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Offer your pet for therapy to the elderly
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Decorate nursing home rooms of residents with homemade art
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Have regular “family nights” with games, ice cream, time together.
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Visit the NICU with treats for anxious parents and offer to pray for them.
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Participate in Angel Tree Prison Fellowship.
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Read to patients at a local hospital.
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Plan a family mission trip.
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Bake cookies, host a bake sale and donate money to the poor or a cause
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Volunteer at a local animal shelter
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Plant a garden and share the produce
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Hold a drive for lightly-used stuffed animals for police stations SAFE program
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Write letters to servicemen or veterans. Thank them for fighting for freedom and how you have experienced ultimate freedom in Jesus Christ.
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Give a micro loan and change a family in a third world country
- Make care packages for children in the hospital. Write a note that tells them they are special in God’s eyes and that you are praying for them.
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Instead of a birthday gifts, ask for donations for a charity or food for a food pantry
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Shop fair trade
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Offer to decorate hospital hallways during the holidays
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Ask your city or chamber of commerce about volunteering
- Make no-sew fleece blankets for Hospice
- Send a care package to our military
- Collect shoes for Shoes for Kids (started by an 11 year old girl)
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Let kids choose a charity to donate to for one of their Christmas gifts
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Become a foster family or adopt a child.
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Pay for someone’s drink in Starbuck’s drive-thru. Make sure your kids enjoy the act of kindness.
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Help your kids starts a neighborhood or school Bible Study with their peers
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Volunteer to plant flowers for your school/church flowerbeds
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Make a Care Bag for a child in need
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Welcome home a hero at the airport
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Complain less
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Start an All Pro Dad club at your school or community.
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Look for opportunities to be the difference in someone’s life
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Host a virtual food drive
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Start a KidzRap on your street!
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Purchase gifts through families fundraising for adoption.
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Pray for your pastor(s)
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Pay the toll for the car behind you. Leave a note telling them Jesus loves them with your church website.
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Invite friends to Vacation Bible School
- Participate in Operation Christmas Child
Adapted from All Pro Dad