A full list of every idea we've funded [updated weekly]

Here's a working list (updated weekly) of all the Drop Dead Generous grantees each given $500 to fulfil their ideas.

Nov 08, 2025

Here is a full summary of every grant we’ve ever given. They’re a real mix of simple and strategic, emotional and playful, serious and silly - and are always full of heart. We’re inspired by every one of them and will update this list weekly until we reach 1,000 grants.

[update: 279 of 1,000 grants given as of 16th February, 2026)

#0279

Husain is giving robotics access

Husain is backing his school’s robotics team to reach nationals. A year 8 student who spends five days a week building, coding and refining his robot, Husain knows how close his team has come - just 7 points shy of qualifying this year. The gap isn’t talent or effort. It’s access. So he’s using the $500 to fund a summer robotics course and additional equipment for his team, giving them the tools and training they need to compete on a more level playing field with better resourced schools.

What makes this idea powerful is that no one on the team will have to pay to take part. Husain is clear that asking families to contribute would create inequality in a school community where circumstances vary hugely - including parents recently losing jobs. This funding removes that barrier entirely, ensuring every motivated, hard-working, and "proudly geeky" 12-year-old on the team can access the same opportunity.

But it doesn’t stop there. The boys plan to pass on what they learn - supporting younger students in the school robotics club, running demonstrations, and inspiring incoming year 7s to join. In that sense, this isn’t just about qualifying next year. It’s about creating a ripple effect of curiosity, engineering confidence and shared ambition throughout the school.

Supported by his parents, Husain is turning near-miss frustration into forward momentum - and inviting others to believe that with the right backing, they can build something brilliant.

#0278

Michael is giving check-ins

Michael is creating space for black men to talk. As the founder of ‘For Brothers That Talk’, he offers safe spaces for black men to share experiences, build connection and prioritise their mental wellness. He recognises that for many, conversations around mental health still come with hesitation - and that healing spaces should feel familiar, not clinical.

His idea, “Check In The Chair”, is a one-day activation inside a local barbershop, Slider Cuts. Subtle mental health prompt cards will be placed on mirrors, optional 10–12 minute guided breathwork resets will run throughout the day, and a small number of free haircuts will be subsidised for men who may not otherwise prioritise self-care. No pressure. No therapy labels. Just real conversations in a trusted community setting.

With £500, Michael will cover extended shop time, breathwork facilitation, printed materials and subsidised cuts - gently introducing awareness, regulation and open dialogue in a space where black men already feel seen.

#0277

Mohammed is giving walking sticks

Mohammed is helping elders in his refugee community stay mobile. An Iraqi Canadian immigrant who worked as a pharmacist for over 25 years, Mohammed now lives with nerve damage that is slowly affecting his ability to walk. Unable to continue his profession due to disability, he spends his time supporting newcomers in British Columbia to better understand and access health services.

Through lived experience, he understands the cost and challenge of mobility aids - especially for refugees who have not yet secured Canadian residency or medical coverage. With $500, Mohammed will purchase 5–6 cane walkers to gift to elderly newcomers in his community who are struggling to walk without support.

It’s a simple but powerful gesture - restoring stability, dignity and independence to those navigating both a new country and the physical challenges of ageing.

#0276

Kate is giving a wind phone

Kate is a designer, educator and holistic grief coach who has spent over 25 years working across academia and the creative industries. In the last year, following her own lived experience, she’s found the work she feels most called to do: walking alongside people who have lost someone they love. Her approach is gentle and human - helping people feel safe in their bodies again, reconnect with who they are, and slowly make space for joy to return.

Kate wants to create a Wind Phone in North London - a quiet, public installation where people can speak to those they’ve lost. A Wind Phone is an old-fashioned rotary telephone that isn’t connected to anything physical, but offers a deeply symbolic space for grief. You pick up the receiver, dial their number, and say whatever is in your heart - talk, cry, whisper, or sit in silence. There’s no right or wrong way to use it.

Inspired by the original Wind Phone created in Japan in 2010, and noticing that there are very few across the UK - and none in London - Kate plans to build one using her parents’ beautiful old rotary telephone. With the $500, she’ll design the installation and commission a local craftsperson to help bring it to life, placing it in a peaceful natural setting such as a park, hospice grounds, or natural burial site near her home. A simple, powerful offering - holding space for grief, love, and everything left unsaid.

#0275

James is giving colour to memories

James researches and writes about artificial intelligence and how it may shape the future of work. But this idea looks firmly to the past - to memories, relationships, and lives that deserve to be seen, remembered, and celebrated.

James will visit care homes around his local town of Redhill, Surrey, inviting elderly residents to share old black and white photographs of people they’ve loved. Using AI restoration tools, he’ll carefully bring these images back to life in colour, enlarging and printing them beautifully before framing and gifting them back to each resident.

But it doesn’t stop there. James will also create a second print of each restored photograph to display publicly at Redhill Library, alongside short messages written by the residents about the people they’re honouring. This temporary exhibition will turn private memories into a shared community moment — celebrating lives lived, connections cherished, and the generations that came before us. A tender blend of technology, storytelling, and respect for the people whose stories shaped the world we live in today.

#0274

Clement is giving a dream village

Clement is nurturing young dreamers through regenerative learning. A self-described “dreamer without a stop button”, he runs Dream Village - a hub offering a safe, inspiring space for kids to learn, create and grow. Through a six-month after-school programme, 20–30 children aged 6–16 explore creative arts alongside introductory regenerative agriculture.

With $500, Clement will buy seeds, seedlings, basic watering tools and art materials. The kids will plant and care for their own garden plots, learning simple practices like mulching, watering and tending soil over time, while using drawing and storytelling to reflect on what they grow.

Led by a local team, the programme supports children with limited access to creative resources and environmental education. Clement’s aim is to leave lasting tools, skills and confidence in place - empowering kids to see themselves as caretakers of both their ideas and their environment.

#0273

Irvan is giving 10 walkie talkies

Irvan is helping volunteers stay connected when it matters most. A long-time nonprofit social volunteer in Indonesia, Irvan has founded two national-scale organisations focused on disaster response and environmental conservation, together supporting around 6,000 volunteers. He also previously ran Indonesia’s first café to offer Suspended Coffee, quietly embedding generosity into everyday life long before it became widely known.

Right now, Irvan’s volunteer team is responding to a landslide disaster where communication on the ground is fragile. Mobile phone signals are often unreliable or completely unavailable during emergencies, making coordination difficult and slowing response times. With the $500, Irvan will purchase 10 walkie-talkies for the team — reliable, commonly used devices that allow communication across a 2–3 mile range without relying on cellular networks.

These walkie-talkies will immediately improve safety, coordination, and effectiveness for volunteers working in challenging conditions. Once purchased and distributed, Irvan and the team will document the process and share the story across their networks, showing how a relatively small investment can make a critical difference in disaster response.

This act of kindness is practical, timely, and deeply rooted in service - supporting the people who show up first when others need help most.

#0272

Shrividhya is giving 250 hours of teaching

Srividhya is protecting a fragile learning space from quietly disappearing. In the remote village of Modha in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, 39 children from a traditional musician community gather each day at a modest, community-run school. For half the day they learn basic reading and writing; for the other half, they learn ancestral music — cultural traditions passed down for generations that once helped foster harmony between Hindu and Muslim communities.

Today, this entire ecosystem depends on a single teacher. Previous support has ended, and without intervention, the teacher may no longer be able to continue. If that happens, these children — many of whom have never had consistent access to schooling — will lose not only their only safe learning space, but also a living cultural practice tied to identity, dignity, and belonging.

With the $500, Srividhya will cover the teacher’s honorarium for a few critical months, ensuring they can keep showing up to teach, listen, and hold this delicate space together. This act of kindness isn’t flashy or scalable. It’s quiet, deeply human, and rooted in care. Sometimes generosity simply means making sure something good doesn’t disappear - and letting a community know their learning and culture truly matter.

#0271

Jeremy is giving fruit and veg

Jeremy is supporting his local community through a stall that has stood the test of time. Now retired, Jeremy volunteers twice a week at the Oxfam bookshop on Portobello Road and knows the area well - both its affluence today and the quiet hardship that still exists beneath the surface. He is supporting Devlin’s, a fruit and veg stall on Portobello Market that has been trading for 150 years and is run by four generations of the same family.

With the $500, Jeremy will hand the funds directly to Devlin’s, who will prepare £10 boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables to gift to some of their neediest customers - people they already know and serve regularly. This idea keeps generosity rooted in trust, dignity, and community knowledge. By working through a long-standing local business, Jeremy is helping ensure fresh food reaches those who need it most — while also honouring a family-run stall that continues to quietly serve its neighbourhood.

#0270

Amina is giving an ice cream truck

Amina is creating a moment of sweetness and welcome during Ramadan. A general medical practitioner who works primarily with children and mental health, Amina understands the power of small, thoughtful gestures in helping people feel seen and cared for. With the $500, she will arrange for an ice-cream truck to park outside her local mosque and give out ice creams to everyone after a long day of fasting, sometime between mid-February and mid-March.

In a year where the Muslim community in London has experienced its share of racism and intolerance, Amina wants this to be a simple but heartfelt gesture of love, joy, and belonging. A shared treat after iftar, offered freely to all, becomes a way to soften the edges of a difficult time - reminding people that they are welcome, valued, and supported within the wider community.

#0269

Clara is giving job hunting support

Clara is helping people show up when opportunity knocks. A social worker and activist, Clara knows that job interviews are often a critical turning point - and that small, unseen barriers can be the difference between moving forward or missing out. She will partner with a local employment or community centre to identify 10 individuals who already have confirmed interviews but are being held back by practical challenges.

Using the $500, Clara will cover essentials like transit passes, basic grooming items, and professionally printed resumes with folders. Alongside this, she will give her time to offer one-on-one resume support, helping people translate their experience into clear, strengths-based resumes and prepare for interviews in a way that feels realistic and empowering.

This idea recognises that employment is one of the strongest pathways to long-term stability. Sometimes all it takes is a bus fare, a clean shirt, or a resume that truly reflects someone’s skills. By combining practical support with hands-on guidance, Clara is turning a small budget into meaningful, lasting impact at a moment that really matters.

#0268

Samii is giving 10,000 hugs

Samii is sharing the power of human connection through hugs. A cuddle therapist and advocate for platonic, consensual touch, Samii works with people who are craving connection in an increasingly disconnected world. She is building Hug100 — a growing movement encouraging people to give 100 free, 20-second hugs in one day, long enough for the real benefits of connection to begin. Her ambition is to mobilise 100 people globally on the same day, creating 10,000 free hugs in a collective act of care.

To build momentum and show the real impact of nurturing touch, Samii will use the $500 to create a coffee-table photo book and short documentary. The project will capture before-and-after moments and conversations with strangers who choose to receive a hug, offering tender proof that human touch and connection matter.

The funds will support equipment or professional help to capture and edit the work, with any sales or donations reinvested into future community connection events - helping the ripple of hugs continue to spread.

#0267

Lara is giving a bouncy castle

Lara is bringing her local community together through play. A speaker, community strategist, and founder of Found & Flourish, Lara has spent years supporting purpose-driven founders to build sustainable businesses without burning out. Along the way, she’s seen how disconnection and overwhelm show up not just in work, but in our neighbourhoods too. Using the $500, Lara will hire out her local community centre, complete with a bouncy castle and entertainer, and invite the whole neighbourhood to bring their kids for an afternoon of joy, connection, and old-fashioned play. A simple, inclusive moment designed to help families slow down, meet one another, and flourish together.

#0266

Dean is giving hugs to men

Dean is giving hugs to men in Ontario, Canada. His job is to attend scenes where people have died - including suicides. Seeing this again and again, he’s felt called to do something simple, human, and preventative. With the $500, Dean will travel across communities in Ontario on a small “Hug Your Bro” tour - offering hugs to men as a way to create connection without pressure, questions or fixing. Just presence. It’s based on a belief that feeling seen and connected, even briefly, can matter more than words. And that maybe - just maybe - one hug could help keep someone here.

#0265

Michelle is giving a polished demo

Michelle is recording a professional demo record for a random busker in London, UK. She supports artists and creatives with their mental health and wellbeing - especially in industries that create magic, but can be tough on the people behind it. With the $500, Michelle will find a talented busker who’s never had the means to record professionally and give them a day in a real recording studio. They’ll record and produce one original song, get mentoring on what to do next with a demo, and experience the moment of hearing themselves sound like the artist they’ve always known they are. Michelle will document the journey and share it publicly to shine a light on street-level talent, the grind behind it, and the power of someone simply believing in you at the right moment.

#0264

Will is giving film screenings

Will is producing and screening a local documentary for elderly residents in Buxton, UK. As a student, documentary maker, musician and thespian with a deep love for his hometown of Buxton, UK, Will believes everyone deserves to experience the place they live - even if they’re no longer able to explore it for themselves. With the $500, Will will create a short documentary about Buxton’s history and share it for free with care homes and retirement communities. Through film, residents will be able to see the streets, stories and heritage they can’t physically access any more - reconnecting them with the town they call home.

#0263

Pawan is giving 20 basketballs

Pawan is connecting neurodivergent adults from underprivileged backgrounds in Mumbai, India. He works closely with neurodivergent adults, including people with Down syndrome and those on the autism spectrum. He’s seen how loving and genuine this community is - and how few opportunities many have to socialise or feel included. With the $500, he is bringing together 15–20 neurodivergent adults for a friendly game of basketball. Nothing competitive or complicated - just movement, teamwork, shared joy and a free basketball for each of them to take home at the end.

#0262

Mahima is giving public art

Mahima is creating a collaborative art piece with her city’s residents in Chennai, India. She wants to use her $500 to create a community art installation that invites an entire city to take part. Rather than funding a one-off gesture, her idea is to build something lasting — something owned by everyone who contributes to it. Her vision is to transform a shared public space inside a major library into an open invitation to “leave your mark.” Anyone passing through is encouraged to participate using paint, poetry, collage, or strings to represent how they give love — from quality time to acts of service. There are no barriers: no cost, no artistic skill required, no spectators. Only contributors. The installation is designed to become a living heat map of the city’s generosity — a visual expression of how people show up for one another. At its heart, Mahima’s idea is about permission: to express, to connect, and to belong.

#0261

Deborah is giving 250,000 bubbles

Deborah is blowing bubbles at memorial events in the UK. She is the founder of a bereavement network supporting people who lost loved ones during and since the pandemic. Through memorial events, she creates space for collective grief, remembrance and gentle connection among those whose losses were often marked by isolation and disruption. With $500, Deborah wants to buy a bubble machine to use at these memorial gatherings - a simple but powerful addition that can bring moments of lightness, symbolism and shared pause. The bubbles will offer a visual expression of memory, love and release, helping attendees honour those they lost while experiencing a sense of togetherness, softness and care.

#0260

Pierre is giving a communal saxophone

Pierre is buying instruments to invite new members into his activist marching band in Paris, France. He is a carpenter and a member of an inclusive, activist marching band based in Paris. The band brings together more than 80 people of all ages and genders, using music to support migrant camps - making people dance, sing, and feel connected along the way. Entirely self-organised and operating without any subsidies, the band is deeply rooted in openness and collective action. With $500, Pierre wants to help kick-start a shared project to buy second-hand instruments that can be made freely available to local kids to give them the chance to test, learn, and dare to start playing music with the band. The funds would cover at least one saxophone and one trumpet, opening the door for the next generation to join in the joy, resistance, and community that music makes possible.

#0259

Em is giving rage room access

Em is giving teachers a time to vent (and time to relax). She’s a student at the University of Sussex, currently on placement at a primary school in the UK that is chronically underfunded. She has witnessed first-hand the pressure the staff are under - overworked, under-resourced, and supporting children whose needs often spill out as anger, distress, and disruption. And yet, despite it all, every member of staff turns up each day with care, humour, and an unwavering commitment to making learning joyful. She is using the $500 to create a well-being gift basket for the teachers - a collection of vouchers they can use as and when they need. This includes rage room sessions (with extra time generously matched by a local Brighton venue), massages, gym passes, pottery classes, stationery gift cards, karaoke slots, and other creative ways to let off steam. She’ll also pair these with simple mindfulness tools, recognising that while these are “plasters”, moments of relief still matter. Her idea is about acknowledgement. A quiet but powerful thank you to educators who keep smiling, adapting, and showing up — even when the plans are on fire and the lemons are rock hard.

#0258

Don is giving an intervention gap dinner

Don is a scientist, filmmaker and helptivist exploring how people can show up for one another before crisis hits. After nearly becoming homeless due to workplace burnout - and being helped by a stranger who intervened simply because he could - Don became deeply interested in the gap between noticing someone is struggling and actually stepping in. With $500, he will host The Intervention Gap Dinner in London, bringing together 30 burned-out NHS workers and 30 managers who want to support them but don’t know how. Employees and managers will sit alternately, with no work talk allowed during the first course. Later in the evening, guests will open envelopes containing anonymous, real stories gathered from Don’s research - moments of silent struggle and missed opportunities to help. Participants will then reflect on a simple but powerful prompt: What would need to be true for you to ask for help tomorrow? or What would need to be true for you to offer help tomorrow? The goal isn’t to fix burnout in one night, but to create a space for witnessing and honesty across a power dynamic. Everyone will leave with a small kindness card they can give to a colleague — a low-stakes invitation to connection, not therapy or HR, just one human reaching out to another.

#0257

Zohoro is giving 10 new beds

Zahoro is buying 10 new beds for an orphange in Zanzibar. By day, he is a dancer and performer using entertainment to create moments of joy while giving back to local communities in Zanzibar. While the main island of Unguja receives the majority of attention and tourism, Zahoro is deeply connected to Pemba - the second largest island in the Zanzibar archipelago - where his family is from and where support and resources are far more limited. After losing his parents at a young age, he helped care for his younger sister before moving to Unguja in search of work. His sister now lives in an all-girls orphanage in Pemba, a place that supports many young girls who have lost their parents and families. With $500, Zahoro will purchase 10 new beds for the girls living at this orphanage. These beds will directly improve daily life, comfort and dignity for the children - helping the space feel more like a home and less like a reminder of loss. This act is deeply personal. By improving the conditions of the orphanage where his sister lives, Zahoro is supporting not only her, but many other girls who share similar stories of grief, resilience and hope. His idea is about restoring a sense of care and stability, and reminding these young girls that even in places often overlooked, they are seen, valued and worthy of comfort.

#0256

Tazzio is giving a poem alter

Tazzio is creating a community alter for crowd sourced poems in Figeac, France. Tazzio is a carpenter working primarily on old buildings and collective, community-led projects with fellow craftspeople. Rooted in this ethos of shared making, Tazzio wants to create a permanent invitation for expression in his village. With $500, Tazzio will build a ‘Poetic Offering Altar’ - a wooden, weatherproof structure installed in a public space. The altar will function like a book box, but for short texts, poems, messages and folk stories. Inside, people will be able to leave or take printed texts on paper, while a large blackboard built directly into the structure will invite villagers and travellers to write temporary, ephemeral messages using chalk. Most of the funding will be used to design and build the wooden structure itself, drawing on Tazzio’s carpentry skills. Any remaining funds will go toward printing an initial collection of poems, texts and guides sourced from infokiosques.net, as well as stocking the altar with paper, pens and chalk for public use. Tazzio’s idea creates a shared, low-barrier space for public expression — a place where words can be offered, exchanged, erased and rewritten, reinforcing the idea that creativity, reflection and voice belong to everyone.

#0255

Lena is giving empowerment kits

Lena is empowering a family effected by domestic violence in Salt Lake City, USA. Alongside her work on VolunQueer - a platform connecting the LGBTQIA+ community with safe, affirming volunteer opportunities through tech - Lena wants to support a family who has survived domestic violence at a critical moment of transition. With $500, she will create an Empowerment Kit focused on immediate comfort, safety and emotional grounding. Each kit will include essential personal care items such as toothbrushes, toiletries and hygiene products, alongside grounding and self-care items like a journal, affirmation cards, calming tea, Epsom salts and a face mask. To support practical needs, the kit will also include a grocery store gift card, pre-loaded bus or train passes, a portable phone charger, and a small lockable bag. Each Empowerment Kit will contain a thoughtfully designed resource card connecting survivors to national and local support services. With the holidays approaching, Lena will also include colouring books and small gifts for children, as well as warm socks, hats and gloves for the whole family.

#0254

Caroline is giving a christmas party

Caroline is hosting a huge Christmas party for 250 orphans in Sierra Leone. As a teacher, she has seen firsthand how little these children receive and how much joy even the smallest gesture can bring. The kids are cared for by an incredible group of women who support them daily, often with very limited resources - so Caroline wants to create a moment that celebrates all of them. With $500, she will put together a festive gathering filled with food, treats, music and warmth. A day where every child feels seen, cherished and included, and where the women who dedicate their lives to caring for them are honoured too. Her goal is simple but powerful: to give these children a joyful memory to hold onto, and to remind their caregivers that their love and labour matter deeply. A Christmas party that becomes a moment of light for an entire community.

#0253

Abubakar is giving weekly gatherings

Abubakar is creating a drug-prevention support circles for boys and young men in his village in Tanzania. An acrobat performer who teaches local kids for free, Abubakar recently lost his younger brother to substance use - an experience that opened his eyes to how many young people around him are struggling in silence, without guidance or a safe place to talk. With $500, he will start a weekly gathering in an open outdoor space where young men can sit together, share what they’re going through, and learn from trusted community members. Some weeks will be simple open conversations; other weeks he will invite teachers, elders or local leaders to speak about addiction, mental health, decision-making and staying safe. His goal isn’t to lecture them — it’s to create a space where they feel heard, supported and valued.

#0252

Caroline is giving founder friends

Caroline is piloting a global movement of volunteer mentors for social impact founders. Having founded Media Trust and Together TV herself, Caroline knows the highs, lows and loneliness of building purpose-driven organisations - so she created a fast-growing network of 3,000 founders across the world who rely on one another for connection, support and solidarity. Now, with all of them asking for mentors, she plans to launch a worldwide community of “social impact mentors” - experienced peers who can offer guidance, encouragement, resources, and maybe even donations or impact investments. She’s using the $500 to create the campaign that will spark this movement: brilliant creative, impact stories, mentor-matching through her platform, and a call to action for major backers to join in. With Google and Circle.so as tech partners, and Caroline’s huge network of creative and media leaders behind her, this grant will be the catalyst that ignites a global mentoring force for the people creating change every day.

#0251

David is giving a santa challenge

David is supporting vulnerable young adults in London who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Through his organisation, The Great Friendship Project, David runs something called the Santa Challenge – a high-energy, joy-fuelled mission where 60 community members race across central London to buy Christmas gifts for young adults supported by Evolve Housing. Teams are given a shared pot of donations and compete to assemble the most thoughtful Christmas sacks they can – packed with warm winter essentials, wellbeing items, creative kits, toiletries, and a few joyful treats to make the season feel like an actual celebration rather than an afterthought. With $500, David will strengthen the present fund that powers the entire challenge, ensuring every sack goes beyond the basics and communicates care, dignity and joy.

#0250

Dorothy is giving 70 santa sacks

Dorothy is giving Christmas joy to orphanage homes in Ghana. She leads a small foundation that brings Christmas kindness to orphanage homes across Ghana, making sure children who’ve lost parents or come from vulnerable backgrounds feel remembered during the holidays. Since 2020, her team has visited homes from Mankessim to Kasoa, delivering food, toiletries, clothes and love. With $500, Dorothy will pack sacks of rice, drinks, toiletries, groceries and clothes for an orphanage of 50–70 children. She describes the magic when the truck arrives - kids rushing out with bright smiles, music playing, volunteers unloading boxes, and each child receiving something that feels truly theirs. A simple act ensuring they feel seen, valued and cared for this Christmas.

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#0249

Tefari is giving christmas trees

Tefari is delivering Christmas trees to single-parent families and vulnerable households in London. His mission is to help people reconnect with the land, and he sees the festive season as the perfect moment to offer something warm, grounding and joyful to those who need it most. With $500, he’ll source trees and deliver them directly to homes that would otherwise go without. A simple act, bringing nature, celebration and a sense of togetherness back into spaces that deserve it.

#0248

Daisy is giving an elders mixer

Daisy is bringing her creative community together with an elderly group in North London. To spark connection between two groups who both experience loneliness in different ways and after self-funding a first event, she’s now partnering with sustainable fashion guru, Lydia Bolton, to host another hands-on DIY workshop designed to bridge generations, create conversation and make community feel real. With $500, Daisy will hire assistants to support the sewing activities - especially important for older attendees with arthritis - and provide snacks to keep the session warm, fun and welcoming. A simple, crafted way to turn digital connections into real-world belonging.

#0247

Emma is giving anonymous art

Emma is creating an anonymous art auction raising funds for Dignity for Palestine. As a sculptor and filmmaker, she’s watched the world’s attention fade despite the ceasefire not being upheld and the people of Gaza continuing to face unimaginable suffering. Her goal is to use creativity as a collective act of solidarity and hope. With $500, Emma will coordinate an auction where all participating creatives recreate the same painting by a Gazan artist - a piece chosen specifically for its message of hope. Every artwork will be sold anonymously, with identities revealed only after bidding closes, allowing high-profile contributors to drive up donations without overshadowing the cause. It’s a simple idea with powerful symbolism: artists standing together, amplifying a message of unity, dignity and support for Gaza.

#0246

Nehemie is giving recycled art

Nehemie is hosting a full day of recycled-art workshops for displaced children in Delmas, Haiti. With gang violence closing nearly 90% of schools, many young people have lost not just access to education, but the chance to feel safe, playful and imaginative. As an art professional, Nehemie has gathered a group of volunteer artists who believe creativity can offer comfort, dignity and hope. With $500, they will run REKREYASYON (Haitian for “free time”, a simple gift children in Haiti rarely recieve. This will be a day where 25 children can turn paper and plastic waste into meaningful artwork, escape stress and experience joy. The funding will cover essential art materials and the cost of a safe venue, while Nehemie will personally cover any remaining transport fees. All the artists will volunteer their time, creating a rare moment of healing, imagination and fun for kids who deserve the simple gift of a break.

#0245

Luke is giving 65 bunson burners

Luke is giving science kits to rural schools in Sierra Leone. While studying international development at Sussex and working night shifts to get by, he volunteers with Village Schools Sierra Leone — a small charity building schools and improving access to learning in remote communities. With $500, Luke will provide science kits and simple apparatus to help students engage with hands-on experiments for the first time. From basic circuitry to biology materials, the equipment will make science feel exciting, accessible and real for young learners who rarely have the resources to explore it. A small investment, opening big futures.

#0244

Rhi is giving pop up youth clubs

Rhi is creating pop-up youth club sessions for teens in the UK facing food insecurity and stress. Having grown up around deep inequality herself, she knows how isolating it can be for young people who need help but fear shame or unwanted intervention. With $500, Rhi will run three pop-up evenings in small venues, each offering a hot meal, a safe indoor space and life-skill workshops tailored to the local community - like first aid or practical problem-solving. She’ll also set up a calm “chill-out cove” where teens can relax, socialise and be themselves without pressure. After the sessions, she’ll gather data to secure partnerships with local food shops willing to donate food nearing its best-before date, helping the club become self-sustaining rather than reliant on council funding. Part of the budget will also create the club’s identity such as a logo, website and accessible online hub - so even young people who can’t attend still have somewhere safe and teen-friendly to turn for guidance.

#0243

Maisie is giving 150 currys

Maisie is cooking and delivering homemade currys to disabled queer adults in her city. She’s part of a 150-person mutual-aid group chat where members share advice, signpost services and step in for each other when mobility, chronic pain or illness make daily life difficult. As winter sets in, more people are struggling to feed themselves—both due to rising food costs and the inaccessibility of leaving the house. With $500, Maisie will batch-cook rich, comforting vegan and gluten-free meals like massaman curry and korma, delivering them to community members who are housebound, immunocompromised or simply exhausted. She hopes to pair the meals with a weekly video call, so everyone can eat together (even through a screen) sharing nourishment, connection and the feeling of being held by community care at its most delicious.

#0242

Patricia is giving graphic novels

Patricia is creating grief support for adults with disabilities living in Texas. Patricia is creating compassionate grief support for adults with disabilities living in group homes and residential centres. Having spent her career building safety, connection and dignity for this community, she’s seen how often they’re excluded from conversations about death and left without the emotional support others take for granted. With $500, Patricia will partner with organisations in Houston and Austin to train direct-support staff on how to help residents navigate grief and loss - ensuring staff are compensated for attending training, something many agencies can’t otherwise fund. She’ll also purchase accessible bibliotherapy materials like picture books, graphic novels, guided activities and art supplies, giving people with disabilities developmentally appropriate tools to understand, express and process their feelings. Her goal is simple: no one should face grief alone, and everyone deserves support when someone they love dies.

#0241

Lucie is giving death wishes

Lucie is creating a pop-up stand in France to start conversations about how we want to care for our dead. As an artist, researcher and death-care advocate in France, she’s working to change funerary legislation so people can choose more natural, regenerative options - from coffin-free burials to shallower resting depths. Alongside a collective of death-positive artists, funeral advisors and theatre groups, she wants to bring these ideas directly to communities. With $500, Lucie will build a movable stand they can take from town to town, inviting people to share what they want their cemeteries to look and feel like, and what would ease grief in their local area. It’s the first step toward a larger dream: a caravan they can eventually drive from village to village, helping people reimagine death with more care, creativity and choice.

#0240

Philip is giving black british books

Philip is creating a community library and launch event for young people in Angell Town, Brixton. Through his organisation, upCYCLE LDN, Philip has built a hub where young people fix bikes, learn skills and feel part of a community. But many still lack spaces that reflect their identities or give them room to belong and imagine brighter futures. To mark the opening of their new Hub, Philip is hosting a Books & Beats night. A relaxed mix of music, conversation and storytelling with local authors and young voices. With $500, the youth will curate the library’s first collection themselves: books by Black British and diaspora writers, poets and graphic novelists exploring creativity, confidence, culture and joy. The library will be more than books - it will be a welcoming doorway into the Hub’s wider world of bike repair, mentoring and creative workshops.

#0239

Jaz is giving a communal garden

Jaz is transforming a derlict garden on her university campus in East Anglia, UK. As a 3rd-year student and Environment Officer, she’s seen how UK students are struggling with anxiety, rising costs and a lack of meaningful support - and how even on a green campus, young people feel boxed into concrete rather than connected to nature. After pushing through red tape to secure student ownership of a small garden, she found it was completely derelict: overgrown, littered and unusable. With $500, Jaz and her peers will buy second-hand tools, reclaimed wood, compost bins and seeds to turn it into a vibrant community space with wildflowers, hedgehog houses, picnic spots and areas for workshops, studying and yoga. It’s a simple mission to give students somewhere to breathe and gather.

#0238

Abdulla is giving 3 computers

Abdulla is creating a free computer lab for kids in his hometown of Dodoma, Tanzania. His idea is to open a small, free computer lab for young people in his village in Dodoma, Tanzania. In his community, many youths lack access to computers, the internet, and the basic digital tools needed to learn, apply for jobs, or explore new opportunities. With the $500, Abdulla will rent and renovate a tiny local shop, transforming it into a welcoming space equipped with 1–3 computers, depending on costs. His goal is to create a place where young people can learn resume writing, practise IT skills, explore online resources and, ultimately, build confidence in their ability to shape their futures.

#0237

Matthew is giving 33 cloud pillow pushies

Matthew is helping a local author promote her mental health message. This is kinda cool. Matthew is from the US and recently heard about Drop Dead Generous through a friend who had herself become a grantee. Kendall (#0232) is an author who wrote an amazing book about mental health, targetted at children. Matthew’s idea is to use the $500 to buy ‘cloud pillow pushies’ - an aid and tool for Kendall to help families talk about mental health together.

#0236

Gemma is giving fear slayers

Gemma is partnering with 4 mates to hold themselves accountable. Based in the UK, Gemma has a novel challenge for her and 4 other people. Over the month they will each pick one thing they want to do but have been scared to carry through with. They’ll each split the $500 as a budget to do their thing - whilst each playing ‘fear slayer’ for each other, helping by supporting and holding each other accountable.

#0235

Pasco is giving mates dates

Pasco is funding mates dates for men battling with mental health. Pasco wants to show up for a friend of his as he works toward sobriety after a lifetime of hardship. This friend grew up in care, lost siblings to gang life, and has battled serious mental-health challenges despite managing to carve out a career for himself. Pasco has been a steady presence through it all and now wants to help him further - along with a few other men in their circle - build stronger, healthier connections. With $500, he’ll gift four “mates’ dates,” giving his friend and three friends $100 each to spend on quality time with another man, creating space for support, vulnerability and genuine friendship.

#0234

Josie is giving a wrap party

Josie is hosting a Christmas party for Hackney Foodbank. In collaboration with her community club, We Are Bad at Sports, want to support Hackney Foodbank this Christmas—the organisation that feeds people experiencing homelessness and helps families in severe poverty enjoy the holidays with meals, toys and gift cards. What began as a run club “for people who are crap at running but want to anyway” has grown into a social group that carries out regular community service, from canal litter-picks to local clean-ups. With $500, Josie will host a festive “wrap party”—a donation drive and raffle with a cosy venue, some sparkle, and a bar tab to spark extra generosity—raising toys, funds and joy for local families.

#0233

Ato is giving plastic for food

Ato is tackling two major challenges in Ghana - plastic pollution and hunger. Through “plastic for food” events where community members exchange 20 plastic bottles or 30 water sachets for a hot, nutritious meal. In small farming communities like Dwabor and Abeyee, families often live on less than $4 a day, making it difficult to afford proper food, and waste is frequently burned or dumped into rivers and the sea. With $500, Ato will run an extra plastic-for-meal event, feeding around 270 people while collecting and upcycling plastic waste. A simple, powerful idea nourishing both people and the environment.

#0232

Kendall is giving librarians breakfast

Kendall is celebrating librarians who have become a second family to her children. As a children’s author and work-from-home mom, her local library branches are where her kids learn, play, and feel at home—thanks to staff who champion literacy, inclusion, and community despite modest pay. With $500, Kendall will organise surprise breakfast deliveries across multiple libraries in her system, teaming up with fellow authors and friends to make sure each branch is included. She’ll also collect letters from local kids sharing why they love their librarians, giving these everyday heroes a joyful, heartfelt start to their day.

#0231

Lindsey is giving a death puppet

Lindsey is creating a “death puppet” to help people talk about grief. Alongside her sister, she runs DEAD GOOD CIC, a neurodivergent-led organisation bringing imaginative, accessible death education to the UK. Knowing how scary and overwhelming conversations about death can be—especially for young people—they want to build a gentle, mysterious creature (possibly a moth) that families can meet, interact with and remember. With $500, Lindsey will collaborate with a coffin-weaver to craft its head while she designs its body and costume. A weird, wonderful puppet offering comfort, curiosity and a new way to approach loss.

#0230

Noor is giving 120 sanitary pads

Noor is supplying a girls football team in Tanzania with menstrual products. While volunteering across Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania, Noor met a group of incredible girls using sport as a way to avoid early marriage and build safer futures. But many miss a week of school and training every month due to lack of period products. With $500, Noor will buy 120 reusable pads made by women in Zanzibar, giving each girl 2–3 washable pads so they no longer have to sit out of school or football because of their periods.

#0229

Nadia is giving gym passes

Whilst at the gym and feeling a little low, Nadia met a woman with an incredible zest for life, and was instantly inspired by her. The stranger explained that she has 3 children and that her husband passed away during Covid, so there was no funeral. On top of that, she now cares full time for her mum who lives with her and gives her 24/7 end of life palliative care. To have experienced such connection and to be able to show up to the gym and be so open and vulnerable with a stranger all with a huge smile on her face really blew Nadia away. So she’s finding a way to say thank you - by using the $500 to fund gym classes and treatments as a way to acknowledge the power of human connection.

#0228

Erica is giving gratitude journaling

Erica is unlocking gratitude in others in Texas, US. As a lifelong “gratitude journaller”, Erica is creating an event where she’ll share the science and skills for stepping into gratitude journaling and pushing people to share within the group to get people more connected. She’ll use the $500 to buy and gift journals, and encourage others to inspire those around them to carry out this simple yet profound practice.

#0227

Solomon & Adwoa are giving black history books

Solomon and Adwoa are gifting black history books to people in the UK. Between them, Solomon and Adwoa are known as ‘Adeche Atelier’ on social media, educating their audience on African and Caribbean history through art. They want to help communities from the African & Caribbean diaspora, who may not be able to afford books that reflect and empower their culture and heritage, access them. So they’re teaming up with an independent book shop to gift a curated list of books to their audience, potentially sparking an ongoing initiative or book club.

#0226

Andy is giving a tonne of coal

Andy is delivering a winter’s supply of coal to his canal living community. Having lived on a boat with his sons, Andy has developed a huge appreciation for the community of boat livers who all support each other in incredible ways. In the run up to winter here in the UK, Andy is using the $500 to create a fundraiser that’ll pay for a tonne of coal that can be gifted by him, his sons and his friends to those living on the water.

#0225

Morgan is giving a first swim

Morgan is taking kids in Tanzania on a trip they’ve never been on. Describing herself as a “learner, educator and global citizen”, Morgan has discovered through her volunteer work in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that in most public schools the teacher to student ratio can be as high as 1:57. As such, the kids don’t get much of an opportunity to go on school trips - so Morgan is spending $500 to take an all girls group of students on a professionally supervised swimming trip.

#0224

Maddie is giving 250 kindness kits

Maddie is supplying local schools with kits to inspire kindness. Having set up ‘Davey’s Acts of Random Kindness’ in memory of her cousin, who died in 2014, Maddie is creating kit bags for 30 kids each at 5 local schools. She’s spend the $500 on the contents, including sunflower seeds to grow and give flowers and postcards to write and send messages of gratitude.

#0223

Sarah is giving a teddy bear

Sarah is creating a pay it forward device for people to spread kindness. With a husband who has recently experienced depression, Sarah wants to do something to encourage connection and kindness amongst strangers. Her idea is to buy an epic teddy bear and invite people to nominate who to send to. She’ll include a thoughtful note in service of what they’re doing through, and an ask to pay it forward by sending the teddy bear on to someone else when they’re ready.

#0222

Joe is giving inline skates

Joe is a famous pro skater helping the skate scene in Gabon, Africa. Having made a trip to Gabon two years ago, Joe has since seen a scene develop over there. He is using the $500, with the support of discounts from the local skate shop, to buy and deliver more equipment to the community during his next trip.

#0221

Katie is giving food security

Katie is helping people struggling with loneliness and food insecurity. A powerhouse of a change maker, Katie is expanding her amazing support for those struggling with loneliness and food insecurity by using the $500 to create an IRL meal and activity day for those who use St Luke’s Community Centre in Islington, London.

#0220

Kyle is giving a sober open mic night

Kyle is bringing sober people together to pursue dreams without drink. Running his sober open mic nights, Kyle has become an amazing community leader helping those on a journey of sobriety make connections with others and believe in their sober selves. He is using the $500 to hire an inspirational speaker at his next event.

#0219

Colleen is giving a doggy ball pit

Colleen is helping dogs get adopted in Mexico City. Inspired by Casa Mestizo, a completely self-run, in-home dog shelter in Mexico City, Colleen and her friends are running a fundraising and awareness event for the shelter and their dogs. For 30 years, Silvia, the owner of this shelter has cared for approximately 10,000 dogs. Their event will be full of fun and joy, attracting donors and prospective dog owners, with the $500 funding a puppy kissing booth and doggy ball pit.

#0218

Emily is giving grampy gratitude

Emily is celebrating the staff who looked after her ‘Grampy’ before he passed. As her grandfather grew older, the staff at his care home were an amazing support to him. Above and beyond their job descriptions - they looked after him and were “absolutely amazing for us as a family”. Being a musician, Emily is putting on a gig as a way to say thank you to them all, spending the $500 on cakes and gifts she can pass to every single one of them.

#0217

Wesley is giving pizza box maps

Wesley is giving food and support info to homeless individuals in Manchester, UK. The $500 will be spent on pizzas and custom pizza boxes, each one printed with information and directions to local support services such as food banks, soup kitchens, shelters and support centres. Wesley’s idea is brilliantly layered - solving a short term need (hunger) in a way that offers longer term solutions.

#0216

Anna is giving conditional love

Anna is helping her mate, Mikey. But not unconditionally. Mikey is a “super fun, zany and creative” founder of events that raises money for mental heath and animal charities. He recently crashed his car and has a bill to pay for the damage of someone else’s property. Anna wants to cover this cost using the $500 - but there’s a catch. Knowing he’ll love this idea and will want to express his gratitude, “In exchange for this, Mikey would have to do a forfeit performance of Epic Ballards such as Meatloaf, Bonnie Tyler, Aretha Franklin and Queen - for the entertainment of others!”

#0215

Felipe is giving a laptop

Felipe is buying a laptop for a student in rural Columbia. Himself a “forever student” but with access to his own computer and the world’s internet, Felipe is teaming up with his brother, a University professor in Columbia who has an especially talented student who studies remotely in a rural part of the country. A laptop and headset will help this student flourish.

#0214

Ashley is giving black men pride

Ashley is prototyping a clothing brand for young black men to wear with pride. As a black man himself, Ashley wants to challenge stereotypes that he and others “should be cool, edgy, mysterious and hood!”. He loves “musicals, kindness, elderly people and pokemon” - and wants to celebrate this side of everyone’s character. His idea is to create an initial run of a new clothing brand that just does this - “celebrating black men as also being goofy, colourful, vibrant, happy and happily stupid!”

#0213

Jack is giving fatherly support

Jack is helping the son of a friend who recently took his own life. Liam is the 4th friend of Jack’s to make the devastating decision to end their lives. He has left behind a 9 year old son and Jack is using the $500 to create a fundraising event to raise money for this boy for use when he’s older - on the condition it’s to better his life.

#0212

Philip is giving sanity ideas

Philip is gifting an online course to raise funds for ‘Doctors Without Borders’. Author, psychologist, psychotherapist and former leader of ‘The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids’ - Philip has produced an online course filled with ideas for ways to stay sane in a crazy world. He is using the $500 to promote the sale of this course, from which $7,500 has already been raised for ‘Doctors Without Borders’ to support their amazing work in Gaza.

#0211

Natalie is giving a beach trip

Natalie is helping 47 kids with HIV have a joyful day at the beach in Tanzania. At a local orphanage in Zanzibar there are 47 kids between the ages of 7 and 22 who Natalie describes as “incredibly special and resilient, despite the profound challenges they face”. Many were born with HIV and suffer huge stigma in a predominately muslim culture. The orphanage is amazing but has to focus it’s fundraising on essential needs, so Natalie is spending $500 to host a trip to the beach for all the kids they support.

#0210

David is giving a pop up design store

David is creating a volunteer run pop up for local designers and artists. Passionate about local art and compassionate about the challenges they face as they look to make a living, David is gathering a group of volunteers to run a pop up store in Glasgow, UK, which will feature and sell local art by local artists on their behalf.

#0209

Claire is giving a Sunday roast

Claire is putting on a feast for a homeless hostel in London, UK. Claire wants to support a local homeless hostel and the residents of their 33 bedrooms. As a break from pasta and soups, and to create a moment to bring them all together, Claire is putting on a huge roast dinner with meat, veg and cakes - to give them an experience to rival Christmas, albeit on a random Sunday soon.

#0208

Chris is giving 40 burgers

Chris is feeding the homeless in London, UK. Chris is a remarkable man. A few years ago, whilst suffering with cancer and living in his car, he started “Wetherspoons: The Game”, an online community that remotely buys food and drinks for strangers in pubs all around the UK. To date, an estimate £4,000,000 has been spent by strangers, on strangers in this way. Every month, Chris catalyses the community to buy food and drink not for strangers, but for the homeless community across cities in the UK. Chris is using $500 to buy the first 40 burgers during his next events - setting the pace for hundreds more meals to be provided by the 900,000 strong online community.

#0207

Riley is giving a smoothie bowl lab

Riley is helping kids play with and learn about food in Zanzibar. Although living in Canada, Riley has volunteered in Zanzibar since 2023. She has explained how endlessly creative the kids she works with are, but how rarely they have an opportunity to play and experiment with food. So she’s using the $500 to create a community event called “The Smoothie Bowl Lab”, buying fruit, compostable bowls and utensils for kids to cut, mix and have a whole heap of fun producing smoothie bowls whilst learning about the importance of play and healthy diets.

#0206

Bjorn is giving stargazing

Bjorn is providing a view of the stars to young kids in Ruhr, Germany. “I know from personal experience how powerful the night sky can be in sparking curiosity”, Bjorn (or ‘Scotty’ to friends) explained in his application. He runs a small observatory on a rooftop in Unperfekthaus, with the goal to “bring the wonders of the universe closer to people - especially children and young people”. With $500 he will invest in additional eyepieces for his telescope to make planetary and lunar observations sharper, clearer, and more impressive for the kids who look through it.

#0205

Jan is giving 1,500 P&J sandwiches

Jan is supporting her friend Gene make 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Gene is a humble, quietly heroic man who has carried heavy family burdens while still showing up, every single week, to buy bread, peanut butter and jelly from the local discount store and organise this act of generosity. He even teaches the ladies the trick of spreading peanut butter on both slices to stop the jelly soaking through. Jan wants to surprise Gene by funding their PB&J ministry to cover the growing cost of ingredients - a small celebration for a man who would never expect it, but deeply deserves it.

#0204

Gill is giving menopause stickers

Gill is reducing the stigma and shame around menopause. There is an “All Day Menopause Café” at the Cambridge Wellness Festival in the UK this year, and Gill is a keen advocate for menopause awareness - encouraging people to talk about it to help women feel more supported through the experience. She is using the $500 to produce menopause merch - stickers that say “Proudly Menopausal”, “Proudly Perimenopausal” and “Proudly Post Menopausal”, to encourage participates to wear their experience with pride over shame.

#0203

Andrew is giving a library

Andrew is creating a brand new community library in Uganda. Explaining that the people in his community yearn for information - the young, the teens, the adults and the elderly - all wanting information on different topics ranging from science, life challenges, motivation, love, parenting, or even just to learn a language. So Andrew is converting a space he has into a library, and will use the $500 to source donations and buy the first 500 books in it. The books will be free to borrow and the library will be open to new book donations, so the cycle continues.

#0202

Elvis is giving boundaries

Elvis is creating walls for a safe, community space in Mbikko, Uganda. Mbikko is a town in Uganda that Elvis (not that one) called home. He has explained that “it’s very famous for criminal gangs, thuggery and prostitution here in Uganda”. As a former “street child” turned artist, dancer and community leader, Elvis is using the $500 to construct and wall around a property he offers as a community space for the creative community in town. They will use the wall not just as a boundary for safety, but as a blank canvas for the community to express themselves through art.

#0201

Paul is giving a pretty wall

Paul is producing a public piece of art in Peacetown, US. As an artist, Paul has forever used his self expression as a way to communicate the power and importance of human connection. With $500, he will cover the cost of a large mural in his hometown of Fairfield, IOWA - dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as ‘Peacetown’. The piece will be a homage to wellbeing, featuring anthropomorphic animals doing different peace-related activities such as meditating, yoga and gardening.

#0200

Rubia is giving 50 balls of yarn

Rubia is training Brazilian prisoners in art and therapy of crochet. Through her volunteer work at women’s prisons, Rubia has seen up close the loneliness, stigma and lack of opportunities that surround the prisoners there. So she is using the $500 to buy as much yarn as possible, to up-skill their crochet prowess and to help them cover their concrete environment with colour and warmth.

#0199

Reyna is giving a book vending machine

Reyna is refurbishing a vending machine in Tulum, Mexico. Having found an old vending machine in a trash dump recently, Reyna is spending the $500 to get it working again. Her passion is to provide access to books for those in her local community. So she’ll then fill the machine with books to create a mini community library.

#0198

Alexia is giving college applications

Alexia is helping Latin American students apply to eduction in the US. Grateful for her own experience receiving mentorship as she navigated the tricky experience of college application, Alexia is doing the same for others. As well as the help she can offer with the forms, essays and recommendation letters, she will use the $500 to cover the application fees for dozens of applicants - setting them up for a good chance of acceptance and a great chance for a better life.

#0197

Ken is giving pawsome gifts

Ken is sparking conversations and connections between dog walkers. Perhaps the most bubbly and charismatic man you have ever met, Ken is a keen dog walker curious about the lack of conversation that happens between dog walkers in his local park. So he’s spending $500 creating little matchbox sized, “pawsome” gifts boxes with messages and conversation starters. He’ll give himself, others and those who have them passed on, an excuse to stop, chat and build a connection with fellow neighbours and dog lovers.

#0196

Julia is giving cocina libre

Julia is platforming immigrant chefs in Denver, US. Cocina Libra is a community project that lifts up immigrant stories through food, books, and events. Its founder, Julia, fights hard for the lives of chefs that have left their homeland. She recognises that “Food is resistance, food is identity, food is community”. With a new book on the way, featuring all these chefs, Julia will spend the $500 on travel expenses to ensure the families of these chefs can attend their upcoming book shop. Providing a moment for their work to be celebrated by those who love them most.

#0195

Andrei is giving pre paid pet food

Andrei is sparking a pay it forward movement for animal lovers. A volunteer since he arrived in Rio Grande do Sul, an area devastated by floods in 2024, Andrei will partner with a pet store and use the $500 to pre-pay for a load of pet food. For customers to put themselves in the mix for this free food, they must first carry out and share an act of kindness in aid of an animal.

#0194

Richard is giving a dream machine

Richard is crowd sourcing dreams and finding ways to make them happen. As a spin off from Simon Squib’s work catalysing dreams and business ideas, Richard has creating a ‘dream machine’ on wheels, that travels the UK interviewing people as a way to collect and catalyse their dreams. He will use the $500 as a gift to one of dream holders - encouraging them to do something small with the budget as the first step to pursue their dream.

#0193

Kelsey is giving wheat paste

Kelsey is supporting New York artists exhibit in public spaces. A few years back, Kelsey founded Gallery BQE, an outdoor gallery under the highway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here, up and coming artists can install their art, beautifying a dis-used space whilst exhibiting their work. Kelsey is using the $500 to sponsor much of the materials they need to do this - such as wheat paste, brushes and rags.

#0192

Angela is giving hair dressing careers

Angela is training 10 young girls in hair dressers Uganda. Many girls in Angela’s part of Uganda can end up in early marriages and having babies as early as the age of 15. She will use the $500 to buy each of them the kit they needs - scissors, hair dryers, curls and so on, so that once they have finished their training with her, they can go on to fund their own clients and make their own way on life, without being so tied to the disadvantages they face.

#0191

Mariana is giving a sewing machine

Mariana is equipping a Haitian refugee with a sewing machine. Every year, Brazil receives thousands of Haitian refugees. Since the devastating floods of 2024 in southern Brazil, many have lost their homes. Mariana has got to know Frantz, a Haitian seamstress and community leader. Her idea is to use $500 to spark a fundraising drive to raise the $1,100 needed to buy a professional grade, multi functioning sewing machine so he could produce more clothing, increase his income, and most importantly: start teaching others.

#0190

Fiona is giving equine therapy

Fiona is mentoring young people with the help of equine therapy. A university lecturer with a part time hustle supporting people with horses in compassion-based training methods, Fiona wants to spend $500 to sponsor the support of an individual child to learn greater awareness, better communication, enact appropriate boundaries, and hopefully building greater self confidence and compassion for themselves as well as for another sentient being - the horse that will act as her therapy partner.

#0189

Mary is giving baker training

Mary is training vulnerable children to become expert bakers in Uganda. A baker of bread, cinnamon rolls, cakes, pizzas, cookies and all the good stuff over in Uganda, where locally there are many vulnerable children whose parents aren’t in a position to pay for their education. Her idea is to buy an extra over with the $500, as well as some extra materials, in order to start a program teaching these kids to bake. Her goal is to help them help them earn a living by helping to get them jobs in local restaurants and hotels.

#0188

Edith is giving sanitary pads

Edith is training girls in Uganda to make and use reusable sanitary pads with easy to get and safe materials. Edith has explained that in Uganda, a huge number of girls in rural parts of Uganda especially, have to skip school every month due to menstruation. Each pad that these girls make will have a lifespan of 3 years, not only helping them remain in school but also restoring their confidence and dignity during the menstruation period.

#0187

Guilherme is giving parasite awareness

Guilherme is leading an awareness and cleanup initiative in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This parasitologist is bringing back to life a project that his old university professor once ran. He’ll gather a group of volunteers to head to large, local village. They’ll go door to door to explaining individually to the residents on how protect themselves from parasitical diseases and giving out the medicine they need. During this trip, the volunteers will also help clean areas with visible waste and identify hygiene issues in the environment that may be contributing to infections.

#0186

Richard is giving men’s nail polish

Richard is helping men redefine masculinity through self care. In Birmingham, UK, he organises a running club called ‘Well Run Brum’ - a free fortnightly 5km run for men from the area. Each run starts with a guest speaker who acts as a pace maker for inspiration and motivation, focusing on men’s mental health and wellness. To challenge this community’s idea of masculinity, Richard invites 10 of his regular participants to a nail salon and hosts a conversation around how men can express themselves in any way they want.

#0185

Rosy is giving a universal love ripple

Rosy is creating a global challenge for kids to be kind. An artist from the US, Rosy’s idea is to create a challenge for kids around the world to carry out one small act of kindness. She’ll launch a website that promotes the challenge to parents, teachers and community leaders, and invites participants to submit a photo or video of their act. She will use the $500 catalyse the challenge specifically in Uganda, where many of her collaborators are based.

#0184

Debbie is giving reflective supervision

Debbie is paying for reflective supervision for Drop Dead Generous. Ok - this one might seem a little self serving, but we were really touched with Debbie recognised from our newsletter that we were grappling with the moral and emotional stress of choosing what to fund vs what not to fund. She wants to spend $500 hiring us a ‘reflective supervision’ practitioner - a support type she benefited from whilst in the social impact sector.

#0183

Jeff is giving a men’s night

Jeff is trialing a ‘Men’s Night’ in Dallas, Austin. As mental health issues soar amongst men across the US, yoga teacher, Jeff, wants to bring a group of local men together for a free night of mindfulness education and activities. “As a man that has struggled with anxiety silently for many years, I strive to provide a space for other men to no longer have to do the same”.

#0182

Kateme is giving tailor tutoring

Kateme is training 5 school dropouts from Uganda in the art of tailoring. Himself a school drop out, Kateme knows how hard it is to find your way without education, and without being pulled in the wrong direction. He’s spending $500 across 6 months to mentor and teach 5 young school drop outs how to be tailor. After 6 months, he hope to find a way for these 5 kids to then to the same for 25 more, and on and on it may well go.

#0181

Alfie is giving odd jobs

Alfie is doing random acts of kindness for his family and fans in Clitheroe. Known as ‘Alfie Odd Job’ on social media, Alfie is a loveable rogue who cleans and fixes all sorts of things in his local community. Famed for his charm and compassion for the locals, Alfie is spending $500 on random acts of kindness and odd jobs across one day in his town of Clitheroe.

#0180

Joel is giving a 60 metre smiley face

Joel is planting a huge smiley face for air passengers near Bournemouth airport. A self confessed ‘extreme gardener’ who’s built a massive following on Instagram planting beautiful, native gardens in public spaces around Bournemouth, UK, Joel is using $500 to buy enough daffodils to create a huge smiley face for passengers to see out of the window of their plane as they approach the local airport.

#0179

Guilherme is giving 2 new guitars

Guilherme is buying 2 new guitars for local and loved street musicians. Every day, two musicians bring joy, music, and positive messages to passengers riding the Trensurb train between Porto Alegre and Novo Hamburgo, in southern Brazil. In a space often filled with silence or stress, they create real human moments. To celebrate them, Guilherme, an admin assistant at a local school, will buy 2 new guitars and a portable speaker and gift them as a surprise whilst on the Trensurb train on his way to work.

#0178

Emma is giving elder life hacks

Emma is collecting life hacks from elders to display in public spaces. This is such a simple idea laced with a deep respect for the elder community. Emma, who works at St Luke’s Hospital in Oxford, UK, will collect words of wisdom, advice and life hacks from elder residents at the hospital and spend $500 on the material she needs to display them artfully and publicly throughout local cafes and libraries.

#0177

Liz is giving dinner for 35 people

Liz is hosting a dinner to showcase local charities to local residents. Liz runs an interior design studio and understands the importance of creating space for people to connect meaningfully. Her idea is to spend the money hosting a local group of 35 people, inviting speakers from local charities to talk about the work they do. In return for being invited, guests will be asked to do just one thing, however small, for the charities they have heard from that evening.

#0176

Emanuel is giving 50 headshots

Emanuel is photographing headshots for 50 final year students. Emanuel, or ‘Boo’ to friends, is a community superhero in Louisiana with an amazing track record of civic engagement and activism. With $500 he’s helping 50 students as they transition from school to adult life, by hiring a photographer to take their professional headshots. Each sitting an opportunity for him to share some advice and encouragement, as well as a nudge for them to pay it forward however they can.

#0175

Frida is giving 3 months of sight

Frida is giving her grandma another 3 months of eye sight. Frida’s 73 year old grandma is “the kindest, most active, loving and giving and person I know”. Sadly she has a degenerative eye disorder which is causing total blindness over time. Treatment is temporary and expensive, but with $500 Frida is able to pay for injections to remove fluid which will restore her grandmother’s eyesight for around 3 months. “I want to remember your face so I take longer to forget it once I can’t see” - she has told Frida. And now she’ll have another chance to do just this.

#0174

Patty is giving a dinosaur van

Patty is taking kids to a dinosaur park in a dinosaur themed van. A designer and artist who happens to like dinosaurs, Patty is putting $500 towards the renovation of a broken van owned by a local orphanage in Mexico City. Her plan is the get the van up and running, including decorating it in dino-dress, and taking the kids from the orphanage to a newly opening dinosaur theme park in Coyoacán, Mexico.

#0173

Ivan is giving a bench

Ivan is donating a bright yellow bench to a park to spark conversations. A simple idea to raise awareness for the connection crisis here in the UK, Ivan is building a bench to place in a public space encouraging strangers to talk to one another. After an initial installation, he hopes to move it to other spots and is considering capturing the conversations as a documentary series.

#0172

Rodolfo is giving creative mentorship

Rodolfo is sponsoring a young artists in Sinaloa, Mexico. For 8 years, and out of his own pocket, Rodolfo has dedicated himself to mentoring young artists in Culiacán, Sinaloa - helping them navigate the intersection of creativity, technology, and purpose. He’s using the $500 to sponsor an artist called Alexia, as she creates an exhibition covering six emotional states through handcrafted textile dolls, drawing on local myths, ancestral techniques, and personal memory.

#0171

Laura is giving their son’s story

Laura is turning her son’s imagination into a children’s book. In 2024, Laura lost her son, Tay, to cancer. After Tay passed, she wanted to create something special by turning a story he had made up into a book that could be sold to raise funds for cancer charities. She is using the $500 to create a limited print run as she continues on this incredible journey, despite the grief, to create something meaningful from her experience and Tay’s brilliant little imagination.

#0170

Kirsty is giving period products

Kirsty is training others to produce re-usable sanitary pad kits. With “just me and my superhero sewing machine”, Kirsty runs an organisation called ‘Little reCreations’, turning fabrics destined for landfill into beautiful, purposeful creations. She’s using the $500 to train a group of volunteers on how to produce re-usable sanitary kits to donate to charities that support schoolgirls with affordable period products.

#0169

Daniel is giving street art

Daniel is a mosaic street artist gifting art on a pilgrimage through Europe. A street artist on a journey of sobriety, Daniel is using the $500 to fund the costs of materials for a number of mosaics which he will gift to the streets of Europe as he heads off on a pilgrimage to the “capital of mosaics”, Ravenna in Italy.

#0168

Paola is giving migrant childcare

Paola is helping 15 migrant mothers stranded in Mexico. This idea is in support of 15 migrant women from Central and South America who have endured unimaginable hardship as they attempt a journey towards a new life in the US. Like many others, they are currently stranded, in limbo, often with nothing other than a few bags and the clothes on their back. So Paola and her friends are hosting them for a day, providing babysitting for their toddlers and pre-teens led by trained volunteers and freeing up their time to “be fully present, to cry if they need to, to breathe, to remember who they are beneath the fear, the exhaustion, and the heartbreak”.

#0167

Mithu is giving family supplies

Mithu is rallying customers of a shop to support its owner. Living in Mexico, Mithu’s local convenience story is run by a single mum who works there full-time whilst looking after her two children, the youngest of which is just 8 months old. Mithu’s idea is to secretly hear about her needs - from a baby carrier to cloths and cleaning products - and with $500 will purchase many of these things whilst inspiring his local community to buy the rest.

#0166

Janet is giving free pastries

Janet is promoting a family-run business in danger of having to close down. In Tulum there is a pastry shop that’s famously delicious. However, due to rising costs, it’s at risk of having to close its doors. Janet doesn’t even know the owner, but is going to gather her friends, spend $500 on pastries and swarm the local area offering free samples to future customers - fighting for the survival of a family-run business without any personal connection to it.

#0165

Fernando is giving boxing classes

Fernando is covering the costs of travel for kids to attend free boxing classes. A boxing coach at a social project run by Sport Club Internacional’s organized supporters’ group in Brazil, Fernando is using $500 to support the costs of low-income kids attending his free training classes, helping them to develop skills and discipline through sports and community.

#0164

Cinthya is giving cannabidiol

Cinthya is helping a 50-year-old patient bridge his gap in treatment access. Based in Brazil, Cinthya supports low-income Brazilians living with mental health challenges who depend on our overstretched public system. One of her patients suffers from epilepsy and is having to wait 6 months for the treatment he needs - cannabidiol, a legalised medicine that clinical trials report reductions of up to 50% in tonic clonic seizure frequency. With $500, she is able to provide this treatment for him until he is able to secure a government-funded supply.

#0163

Ellie is giving a repair and share day

Ellie is hosting a scalable upcycling event in Manchester, UK. Working with the local sustainability group, ‘Re-Action Collective’, Ellie is running a day in a local public space (like a community hall, park, or street corner), inviting people to bring broken things, unused items, or unloved clothes, to repair and share whilst coming together around a shared love for sustainability. She will also share their event blueprint for others to copy wherever they are.

#0162

Ewa is giving a horse birthday party

Ewa is bringing the community together to celebrate the life of a horse. Animals all over the world provide so much joy. In her hometown in Poland, one such animal is turning 31 and has been a stalwart for the community during all this time. So Ewa and the horses’s owner, Ania, are hosting a birthday party where everyone is welcome. All they have to do is bring a gift!

#0161

Monica is giving single mixers

Monica is hosting an app-free dating event for singletons in the UK. Describing herself as a ‘pro single - hoping to eventually become a pro partner’, Monica is spending $500 to host an IRL dating event to help others if not find love, then to at least realise that there is more to the opportunity of building relationships than soulless, money-grabbing dating apps.

#0160

Katie is giving LinkedIn love

Katie is incentivising heartfelt B2B shout outs on LinkedIn. As a marketing consultant by weekday (and adventure traveller by weekend), Katie thinks even LinkedIn could and should be full of more generosity. So she’s using the $500 to create gifts for people chosen at random. These are people who have spent time reflecting upon and publicly sharing their positive experiences about work colleagues from other companies.

#0159

Ami is giving a random red carpet

Ami creating a moment for people to express themselves fully. A firecracker of a woman who has been through her own challenges in recent years, Ami wants to bring out the best in others. Her idea is to spend $500 to create a pop-up red carpet - an open, inclusive performance space where anyone, regardless of age, background, or confidence, can walk, dance, or strut down a symbolic catwalk.

#0158

Paloma is giving grief workshops

Paloma is helping kids process the trauma of cartel wars in Sinaloa. In this part of Mexico, Paloma has explained that “we are learning to live with bullets everyday”. In the few weeks before her submission, 4 children had been murdered as a result of fights between drug cartels. She has decided to spend $500 developing a workshop for school children who have lost their friends this way, or been orphaned themselves by the same issue. In her words - “Together, we will build an environment of deep listening that brings them validation and, through it, the opportunity to recognise and process their emotions.”

#0157

Becki is giving an ADHD coach

Becki is helping her friend with the symptoms of ADHD. Her incredibly talented friend, Liv, has recently received a late stage ADHD diagnosis after years of struggling with the symptoms. Becki is going to hire an ADHD coach to help Liv manage and flourish.

#0156

Sabrina is giving professors

Sabrina is matchmaking university professors with students. A student and volunteer librarian, Sabrina has an idea to matchmake retired university professors “with a lifetime of wisdom” to students in her hometown, many of whom “feel frustrated, discouraged, or left behind” by the lack of support they get at home.

#0155

Christopher is giving film industry mentoring

Christopher is a film maker mentoring young people with intellectual disabilities. As a film maker, Christopher has seen first hand how difficult it is to make a career in the industry, especially for those with intellectual disabilities. He has even made films on the topic. He will use the $500 to amplify his mentoring for this community.

#0154

Jocelyn is giving 25 physio sessions

Jocelyn is helping a child with cerebral palsy gain mobility. A volunteer community work in Uganda, Jocelyn has found a physio that for $500 can provide 25 discounted sessions for a young boy with cerebral palsy. During these sessions they will also provide basic english and math lessons for the boy but also his 3 siblings, none of whom have ever been to school.

#0153

Vagna is giving a voice to the homeless

Vagner is recording songs with people experiencing homelessness. As a professional musician and keen volunteer for the homeless community in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Vagner will spend $500 offering to record songs sung by those living on the street. His plan is to return these songs back to them to induce the respect and pride they deserve.

#0152

Tailta is giving new teeth

Talita is paying for a new set of teeth for Mr Sebastiao in Brazil. Mr Sebastiao is a hardworking man with a poor background and a visible show of shame every time he smiles. Talita is barely more than a stranger to him, meeting by chance at a dental care clinic recently. She noticed the shame and the opportunity - with $500 - to pay for a new set of teeth to as a way to restore dignity and “give him a reason to smile from the heart”.

#0151

Sinead is giving a world record

Sinead is helping her daughter break a Guinness World Record. Sinead is an amazing mum of Edie who inspires her everyday. With $500, she will buy a number of Guinness World Record books for Edie and her friends to pick and take on a kindness related world record.

#0150

Michael is giving checkout interventions

Michael is randomly paying for stranger’s groceries in Tulum, Mexico. In a set of simple, random acts of kindness, Micheal will head to a supermarket in a low income part of town and respectfully lean over and tap his card at the checkout to surprise pay for stranger’s groceries. In an area where many incomes are low but the cost of living is increasing, these small acts not only cover costs but also show anyone can do anything in service of anyone else.

#0149

Fadia is giving dog neutering

Fadia is supporting the network of animal rescue centres in Mexico. In Puebla city there is a chronic issue with animal control and many are left to live on the streets with no care or support. Fadia is spending $500 as she explores all the organisations in the city addressing this issues, offering funds for sterilisation, food and cleaning products. As the end of her product, where’s produce a digital catalogue and map of all the shelters and their offerings, to offer as a public resource.

#0148

Joana is giving time off prison

Joana is running a book club for 49 men in her local prison. A literature and linguistics major, Joana is running a book club in a prison in Brazil to help building reading and writing confidence and competence for 49 inmates. Her goal is to sign them up to a a sentence remission program offered by the government, where for every piece of local literature read and report written, prisoners can get 4 days off their sentence.

#0147

Tim is giving a mile long table

Tim is hosting a mile long lunch table for the people of Denver, US. In his own words, Tim has a “big, audacious, hairy goal to set a literal mile long table in Downtown Denvero to bring 5,280 humans together to share lunch”. An already crazy-brilliant idea, he will use the $500 to do random acts of kindness at the event for additional moments of joy, and conversation starters for the thousands of strangers lunching together.

#0146

Theresa is giving talking narwhals

Theresa is gifting books to kids who visit her medical centre. Visiting the doctor can be intimidating, especially for kids as young as 3 or 4. So Theresa is using $500 to handpick joyful kids books, such as “Talking Narwhals” and “Cats who run for President”, to gift to kids as they visit the medical centre she works at. Random acts of kindness purely to acknowledge their courage.

#0145

Felipe is giving mothers day surprises

Felipe is doing random acts of kindness for Mothers in his town. An underground poet and street artist, as soon as Felipe discovered he was soon to become a dad, he become immediately grateful for his partner and all the mothers who create life. So on Mother’s Day this year, he’s creating self care kits to gift randomly to any mother he passed throughout the day.

#0144

Fabricio is giving learning kits

Fabricio is supplying learning kits for kids from underprivileged backgrounds. Many kids in Fabricio’s town in Brazil face daily challenges like limited access to quality education, lack of resources, and unsafe living conditions. With the $500, he’ll create personalised learning kits filled with everything they need to dream big and study with dignity. Such as backpacks packed with notebooks, pens, pencils, coloured markers, a scientific calculator, a USB drive with offline educational resources, and even a solar-powered reading lamp for those without reliable electricity at home.

#0143

Jean is giving sponge art

Jean is creating an arts day for kids who are beach vendors in Mexico. For World Children’s Day, Jean is using $500 to put on an open event for all the local kids who can’t go to school because they are made to work selling products on the beaches nearby. They’ll practise stencil painting with sponges and other techniques - having the opportunity to learn and play so they can focus on being children.

#0142

Joao is giving hamlet

Joao is producing a interactive show for flood victims in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He’s a 70‑plus‑year‑old street theatre artist and puppet‑maker, with a broken heart for the ongoing sense of loss children in Porto Alegre still feel from their destroyed houses during the floods of 2024. With $500, Joao is producing an interactive theatre experience called “Hamlet is a pain in the ass” to show at local schools in the coming months.

#0141

Mark is giving a pizza oven

Mark is becoming a community pizza chef for 60 houses on his street. Food has always brought us together, but as we seemingly live in more isolated ways, opportunities to eat together and as a community are becoming less common. So Mark is using the $500 to buy a pizza oven to help people on his street come together and connect over the pizzas he will cook using it.

#0140

Philipe is giving 5 trumpets

Philipe is providing instruments to the LGBT+ community in Porto Alegre. A trumpet playing member of the carnival scene in Brazil, Christopher is sponsoring 5 people from his community to learn and play the trumpet in their band. This is access not just to music, but to a safe, relatable group of people with shared experiences and the expression of joy together.

#0139

Christopher is giving a roof

Christopher is building a roof for a family home in Malawi. Although living in South Africa, Christopher has a friend in Malawi called Matthew. Matthew has been working hard building a new home for his family, brick by brick and on a shoe string budget. So Christopher is heading out there and will use the $500 to complete the build of this home - by giving it a roof.

#0138

Marc is giving balcony gardens

Marc is creating a community initiative to create gardens on balconies. Living in a high-rise, concrete building, Marc wants to find a way to bring the incredibly diverse residents together around an ongoing group activity. So he’s using the $500 to buy seeds and gardening equipment for him and his neighbours to collaborate on creating gardens on each of their balconies.

#0137

Lucas is giving a smokeless fire put

Lucas is a making gathering around fire inclusive for everyone. A community grower and reciprocity economist, Lucas hosts community events centred around the age old tradition of gathering in circles around fire. Like those from millennia before, they talk, laugh, dance and connect simply and meaningfully. He is spending $500 on a smokeless firepit - as a gesture that ensures everyone can participate as they keep this tradition going.

#0136

Mohd is giving football boots

Mohd is buying a refugee kid the kit he needs to dream of pro football. Mohd’s story is incredible. He grew up in Belgium before moving to the US to pursue a career in pro football (or soccer). So moved by one coach’s support of him, he’s since created his over academy, coaching refugee kids in Dallas. One kid has now has a trial in Madrid, Spain, so Mohd is spending $500 to show his ongoing support - buying new boots, shirts, shorts and practise gear.

#0135

Lulu is giving non plastic instruments

Lulu is buying musical instruments for kids in Mumbai, India. On a recent trip to India Lulu did some community work in a low income neighbourhood of Mumbai. She saw a group of kids playing music with plastic waste that has lived rent free in her head since. With $500, she’s sourcing tambourines, flutes, harmonicas and drums to gift these same kids on her next upcoming drip.

#0134

Peter is giving future dream space

Peter is holding space for 50 people to dream about the future. As a strategist, Peter has a sharp insight into the human psyche. We spend alot of time looking back - sometimes with smiles, sometimes with rumination. But how often to we speak together about what’s coming. Tomorrow? Next year? Next decade? So he’s spending $500 to trial a workshop three times, to see the benefits of bringing people together to dream about the future. His goal is to measure the impact and to scale it if it works.

#0133

Elizabeth is giving a family day

Elizabeth is providing a family with a day to remember. She knows of an incredibly inspiring single mother of 3 who is sadly battling cancer. Her daughters have had a tough life even before their mother’s illness, so Elizabeth want’s to create a happy memory for them all. She’s spending $500 on a day out in Spain - a waterpark, food and treats. All to say that when family can’t be there for you, others still can be.

#0132

Cristina is giving abuse prevention

Cristina is helping kids and their care givers understand what’s private. As child psychotherapist in Sinaloa, Mexico, Cristina works with kids at risk to extreme violence and abuse. She is spending the $500 to develop an awareness workshop to educate children on the different between private and public parts of the house, as an analogy for private and public parts of the body.

#0131

Carlotta is giving a new stove

Carlotta is helping an 80 year old lady socialise with her friends. In a chance meeting, Carlotta fell in love with Auntie Rachieda. A sweet muslim lady who, at 80 years old, still works from her humble home in Cape Town, South Africa, sewing with friends and lighting up her local community. Her dream is to cook more, for family, friends and friends of friends, so Carlotta is buying her a stove that’ll bring people together around Auntie Rachieda’s warmth, kindness and tasty Afrikaans cuisine.

#0130

Ryan is giving fortune cookies

Ryan is creating and distributing uplifting fortune cookies in Portland, US. As a write, artist, and prolific activist for small acts of kindness, Ryan has a joyful idea to spread messages of kindness around town, spending the money on fortune cookies and print materials. But he’ll also open source his magic - creating downloading assets for anyone to do the same, wherever in the world they are.

#0129

Charlotte is giving 110 bike lights

Charlotte is lighting up bikes on weekly community rides in Tulum, Mexico. “Spreading the Light” is a community in Tulum that organise weekly bike rides. The area is surrounded by jungle roads that are poorly lit, so she’s spending $500 on clippable bike lights that on their rides will be distributed to locals for safer riding in their local community.

#0128

Kimberley is giving snake silliness

Kimberley is bring a youth community to an animal sanctuary. She’s a leader at a community youth cafe in the UK and it totally inspired by the kids that she serves. There’s a family run animal sanctuary nearby that she would like to support by spending the $500 on a trip for the kids - many of whom find socialising hard and deserve an experience that’ll bring them all together through a shared love of animals (even snakes)!

#0127

Reanne is giving a free lunch

Reanne is bringing outdoor lovers together to break bread. A crew called ‘Bossin’ Breeze’, organised by Claire and Natalie, run donation based outdoor community events to encourage human connection and a love for nature. These events are powered by what attendees can bring and offer - proper gift economy stuff. So Reanne is using the $500 to raise the bar by putting on a slap up lunch for everyone coming to their next event.

#0126

Laura is giving befriender merch

Laura is fostering her community of ‘befrienders’ with gifts and merch. She’s part of a renegade bunch of informal volunteers who’ve taken it upon themselves to call and visit elderly people experiencing loneliness. So she’s spending $500 on some gifts and merch to acknowledge and cultivate this special thing they’ve got going on together. Citizen’s doing what they can for others entirely off their own backs.

#0125

Bwambale is giving a dance floor

Bwambale is building a communal dance floor in the middle of Biko, Uganda. Too many young people in Biko are at risk of being pulled into gang involvement and exploitation. Keen dancer, Bwambale, recognised the need for and power of ‘third spaces’ - where kids and young adults can gather, connect and meet each other in a safe and open environment. So he’s building a dance floor in the middle of town for anyone to use. A centre point for community over conflict.

#0124

Jay is giving welcome packs

Jay is paying forward an experience he had, by helping new residents settle in. When Jay moved to Guernsey in 2024 all was rosey. But then he lost his job. The weight of it all left him at rock bottom. But then he met a man called Marc and his hopes were restored. “Marc’s timely intervention changed my life. I was 48hrs to leaving the island when Marc showed me light at the end of the tunnel”. Jay is using the $500 as a spark to pay forward his experience with Marc. Finding and helping newly relocated residents of Guernsey, with a welcome pack and a black book of contacts for them to meet and get to know.

#0123

Anita is giving bags and essentials

Anita is levelling up her one-on-one support for every homeless individual she meets. It’s clear that Anita is one of those people who never questions what she can do for others. And always acts on doing it. She stops, sees, and provides for every person she meets who is experiencing homelessness. “They might not remember me”, she says, “But I always remember them”. She’s spending $500 to scale up her duty acting on service of those she meets this way. Buying bags and filling them with essentials, to also use as a prop and an excuse to stop and talk to those living on the streets.

#0122

Alex is giving marketing skills

Alex is a coach supporting one of his clients to host a community event. A well renowned coach in the UK, Alex has been moved by the work of one of his clients, called Jess. She runs community forums for local residents to surface and discuss local issues. To support her, he is funding a marketing initiative for her next event - sparking more attendees, more discussions, and more issues raised and solved by citizens, for citizens. Power to the people!

#0121

Maleesha is giving crockets for neighbours

Maleesha is creating gifts as ice breakers for everyone living on her street. “Despite living here for 6 months, I don’t know my neighbours all that well”. This is what Maleesha said in her submission and I reckon just about everyone can relate to that sense of not knowing their neighbours as well as they could and should. To break the ice, she is spending $500 on yarn, before spinning it into a little gift for every house on her street.

#0120

Natasha is giving tickets to men

Natasha runs mental health workshops and is inspiring men to show up. Having run workshops for a while both Natasha and her brother, Harvey, have found themselves frustrated with the gender ratio of who turns up to talk about mental health. It’s generally about 80% women and 20%. With men’s mental health issues on the rise at an alarming rate, Natasha and Harvey are using the $500 to come up with creative ideas for how to bring more men to their sessions.

#0119

Agnieszka is giving small acts

Agnieszka is planting 10 small acts of kindness amongst her friends to see how they spread. We often marvel at the power of small acts of kindness. Agnieszka is exploring this with her idea to carry out small but thoughtful acts within her friendship group to observe the outcome. How will they react? Will they respond in kind? What might be the ripple effects?

#0118

Maya is giving lights, camera, accessibility

Maya is helping filmmakers with disabilities build confidence and get into the industry. He idea is to start a content series in collaboration with and for aspiring filmmakers up against accessibility issues. The series will be called “Lights, Camera, Accessibility” and the $500 will cover the cost of interpreters to make the show itself as accessible as it can be.

#0117

Tia is giving a camera

Tia is helping autistic children see more of the world through a camera lens. As the president of a non profit helping special needs youths, Tia has an insight that’s really quite special. Many of the kids she supports struggle with communication. Often they are non-verbal or choose silence over anything else. However, a camera can change all of this. Through it’s lens they see the world from a different perspective which encourages them to open up. So she is using the $500 to buy and camera as tool to enable learning and communication.

#0116

Tally is giving shout outs

Tally is creating a monthly zine to promote the grass roots music scene in Birmingham, UK. Tally is using the $500 as seed funding for the first edition of her new, monthly zine promoting up and coming musicians in her home town. With funding cuts the the arts across the UK, Tally is stepping up for the creative community - providing a platform for them to find fans and gigs.

#0115

Natalie is giving a mentee budget

Natalie is helping Archie, a man who went above and beyond for her son. A recruiter by trade, Archie recently found Natalie’s son a job and waived his fee in the process. Natalie was touched by this, especially as Archie had recently lost his dad to suicide and was himself struggling with life during this phase of grief. So Natalie is creating a fund for Archie to spend finding and spending time with mentors. Male role models who can support him like he did her son.

#0114

Hafþór is giving kitty treadmills

Hafþór is supporting two women on their mission to rescue stray cats in Iceland. When Hafþór got in touch, he explained how there are these two women who sacrifice everything for the cats they rescue. They live of nothing and give it all to whatever the cats need. However, this also means they are limited by the care they can give to these cats. So to help these women help those cats, Hafþór is using the $500 to buy “kitty treadmills” to keep the cats healthy as they await adoption.

#0113

Natasha is giving free manicures

Natasha paying forward her manicure skills to women at domestic abuse centres. We often get caught up in the limitations of what tangible things we have to give, without considering what skills we can develop and share. Natasha’s goal is to use the $500 to become a qualified technician in order to give free manicures to women in need of self esteem and often on a journey to get back into work.

#0112

Matt is giving boxing gloves

Matt is mentoring kids from a low-income community in Tulum, Mexico. We often get ideas in from people who already have an incredible track record of giving. Matt has been mentoring young kids in Mexico for years. Most are working in construction from the age of 12 to get by. He trains them in boxing, enters them in to tournaments and travels with them as they compete - all for free. With $500 he’s buying them all new gloves and entering them in to their next big tournament in the town of Cozumel.

#0111

Meng is giving games with strangers

Meng is hosting a matcha stand and card game for strangers in Austin, Texas. It’s a simple idea - to create an opportunity for strangers to connect. Meng will hire our a matcha cafe and fund free refills of the drink to encourage strangers to come together and play the card game ‘We are not really strangers’.

#0110

Isobel is giving cancer distraction

Isobel is whisking a work colleague off for a treat after a devastating cancer diagnosis. The workplace is exactly that. A place to work. But it’s also a place where lives overlap and compassion can flourish. When Isobel found out that her work colleague received a cancer diagnosis, she reached out with an idea to take her and her son to a fun day out in London to create a healthy distraction from her recent news and a special moment between her, her son and a lovely lady from work.

#0109

Abi is giving emo intelligence

Abi is mentoring young kids on how to develop emotional intelligence. An actor and poet, Abi also spends her time working with a grass roots charity in South London called ‘Step Out’. She’s noticed the need for but lack of emotional intelligence in many of the young kids that get support from the charity. So her idea is teach emotional intelligence and self awareness through the guise of acting and she’s developed a 6 week programme that she will run. The $500 will pay for the costs so this can be offered for free - her goal is to use this first run as a case study to scale the programme further.

#0108

Kyle is giving parental support

Kyle is stepping up for parents at his local neonatal unit it Coventry, UK. When Kyle became a dad, it was not straight forward. Unfortunately his son was born 8 weeks premature weighing just 2 pound 7 ounces. He was on the unit for a total of five weeks. This was the most stressful time of their lives but luckily, his little boy is now thriving. Experiencing this and seeing other parents go through the same, Kyle will be using the $500 to buy coffees, cakes and vouchers for parents at the unit. In his words, “a small act of kindness will go along way when they are at the most stressful time of their life. It’s what I could have done with when I was going through it”.

#0107

Chrissy is giving a design platform

Chrissy is platforming design students in Aberdeen, Scotland. In her submission, Chrissy described herself as an illustrator and teacher who “creates opportunities for the students that I would’ve liked when I was a student”. In support of these students and there challenge to find work in a stalling economy, Chrissy is co-creating a zine featuring their work to distribute to design professionals across the industry.

#0106

Bruna is giving future talk

Bruna is hosting conversations with the elderly about the future. Discussions on innovation and what’s next almost always centre around younger generations, entrepreneurs, and digital natives. Rarely do they include those who built the foundations of the world we live in today. Her idea is to invite people over 65 to an open cafe - creating a space and a series of moments where she can ask: What future did they imagine decades ago? How do they see today’s transformations? What do they think we’re missing? The goal is to create a format for meaningful gatherings where different generations can share perspectives and rethink what the future looks like - together.

#0105

Daniel is giving a care home gig

Daniel and his brother are producing a free concert at an elderly care home. As a musician, you have the power to brighten up anyone’s day. So Daniel and his brother are doing just this by putting on a free show at their local elderly home in Porto Alegre, Brazil. They’ll use the $500 to provide food, drink and gifts for those old school rockers in the audience.

#0104

Liv is giving a balanced life

Liv is hosting an event to educate the public on balanced living. She founded ‘Balanced Living Club’ which aims to help people explore ways they can live a more balanced life. She recently met a local restaurant owner who suffered a stress induced heart attack. She’s using the $500 hire his restaurant as a way to trial an events arm of his business. The event itself will feature talks on balanced living, focusing on mental health.

#0103

Gabriela is giving 250 books

Ericsson is hosting a poetry competition for students in Brazil. Collaborating with artists across disciplines, Ericsson is producing a poetry themed initiative for students of a school on the outskirts of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The primary objective is engage these students in the power of poetry and as well as the performances, he will gift books to attendees as well as the school library.

#0102

Olivia is giving a fix-it day

Olivia is gathering a crack team to help others fix stuff that shouldn’t be thrown out. A self confessed “maker and curious explorer of materials”, Olivia wants to help inspire and educate people how to fix things, just like her dad did for her. So she’s hosting a session with a group of people with building skills (including her Dad!) and inviting members of the public to come with whatever’s broken. They’ll fix stuff together, giving visitors confidence in their own ability to unbreak what’s broken.

#0101

Emma is giving a silly goody bags

Emma is gatecrashing the mundanity of modern life by giving out silly goody bags. Emma is a bit of a mischief maker (as well as an occupational therapist) who thinks life is boring. So she’s gatecrashing the boring in random stranger’s days, handing out “silly goody bags” with sweats and notes and a little moment of “I see you”, and “Life can be fun... and silly”.

#0100

Xavier is giving 50+ haircuts

Xavier is negotiating free haircuts for kids in his town experiencing homelessness. With experience working at a shelter and having met many kids in his community who don’t have a stable home experience, Xavier wants to do something to help instil dignity in them. So he’s onboarding local barbers to gift free haircuts to kids from the shelter, using the $500 to supplement agreements when a nudge is needed!

#0099

Farrieda is giving notes of gratitude

Farrieda is thanking everyone who’s ever done anything kind for her. It’s such a simple idea, to think back at your years here and make a note of everyone you’ve ever met who took their time to do something that touched you meaningfully. Farrieda is a creative at heart, on a mission to let all these people know what those moments meant to her. She’ll use the $500 to compliment her messages with small gifts.

#0098

Lisa is giving a mummification demo

Lisa is creating a Egyptian museum experience in the class room. A teacher based in Coventry, Lisa has realised that many of her students don’t have the disposable income to visit museums and exhibitions, let alone travel to other countries and cultures. So she’s hiring a specialist actor to bring a bit of Egyptian history into the classroom - showing them the process of mummification. They’ll take notes on papyrus and play ancient Egyptian games - sparking curiosity about the world beyond the one they can afford to see.

#0097

Kelly is giving a 12 hiking boots

Kelly is buying hiking boots for 6 visually impaired activists climbing Mount Snowdon. As a volunteer, Kelly does a lot of work for charities supporting the blind community. One such Charity has an amazing ambassador called Tilly who, with 5 other people affected by visual impairment, are soon to hike up Mount Snowdon. She is sorting them out with some much needed hiking boots so they’re well prepared for their trip ahead.

#0096

Zak is giving family care packages

Zak is helping families of addicts with care packages and support. Zak’s insight is powerful. For every person experiencing addiction there’s a family suffering often with a feeling powerlessness. As a career with a dream to create some way to support these people, Zak is spending $500 to prototype care packages to gift. His aim is to test and learn what works well, as a first step to building something bigger.

#0095

Roxanne is giving a toiletry amnesty

Roxanne is teaching 375 students about self care and hygiene. The cost of living crisis has left many families in the UK struggling to get the basics. As a school teacher to 16 to 19 year olds, Roxanne has noticed the impact of this on her student’s hygiene awareness and therefore self esteem. So she’s running classes and offering random hygiene gifts to almost 400 students.

#0094

Jesse is giving 45 yoga mats

Jesse is inspiring people from low income groups to try wellness practises. Jesse is a yoga instructor passionate about making the practise accessible to everyone. She often meets and teaches students for whom costs such as yoga mats are difficult to bear. To support her own efforts making yoga affordable to this community, she is using the $500 to buy 45 mats to gift to these students over time - ensuring cost or discomfort doesn’t get in the way of them continuing their practise.

#0093

Matt is giving fire replacement items

Matt is helping 10 families after a fire in Tulum destroyed their homes. Matt already runs a brilliant NGO in Tulum called ‘Feed Tulum’, providing food to families experiencing poverty in the area. Recently a big fire ripped through a part of town and totally destroyed 10 homes, leaving all 10 families with nothing. He’s now gathering support from the local community to replace what they have lost, using this $500 to catalyse the initiative.

#0092

Jade is giving memorial t-shirts

Jade is printing t-shirts with her friends best quotes as a way to remember him. Jade is a teacher at a school which lost their headteacher, Kevin, earlier this year. He was quite the man - “witty and could talk forever but with no actual point being made”. They are soon hosting a moonlight walk in his memory and to raise money for a local hospice, so she is spending $500 to produce t-shirts for the event, each with a famouse Kevin quote printed on them.

#0091

Ellen is giving a friday pizza night

Ellen is hosting a friday pizza night event for LA’s homeless community. Ellen has fond memories of the ‘Friday Pizza Nights’ she used to have as a family. Frustrated at the invisibility of those experiencing homelessness in LA, she wants to re-create that family experience and open it up to those that deserve, at the very least, to be seen. So she’s collaborating with a nearby pizza restaurant to offer free pizzas and water to those living on the street.

#0090

Sandra is giving a clean beach

Sandra is organising a huge beach cleanup in Tulum, Mexico. The battle to clean beaches may seem endless, but Sandra’s idea is to create an experience by doing it. She’s inviting the people of Tulum for an Earth Day event to remove trash from the local beaches, whilst connecting with each other and their inner selves. Litter picking will be the main job, but free meditation, yoga and gratitude ceremonies will also be on the agenda.

#0089

Ericsson is giving a poetry competition

#0088

Jorge is giving fun for the homeless

Jorge is arranging an Easter Egg hunt for Austin’s homeless community. When thinking practically about how to help anyone with their needs, it can be easy to forget that everyone deserves joy. Jorge has decided to provide those experiencing homelessness in Austin, Texas, with food and rain gear via a small, gamified experience. Easter Eggs will be left around time with a respectful note and number, inviting participates to collect their items at a nearby venue.

#0087

Miriam is giving pallet furniture

Miriam is building a communal outdoor seating area for a neighbours. Living high up in the Alps amongst 17th Century buildings in a small town called Briancon doesn’t sound too bad. But for Miriam and her neighbours, their little pocket of the village has fallen into disrepair due to broken promises from authorities and an aging population. With $500 and her neighbours to help, they’re rejuvenating an area with planters, communal seating and a whole lotta love.

#0086

Joy is giving ongoing sobriety

Joy is helping her friend on her journey of sobriety. After addiction ruled Joy’s friend’s life for 26 years, they’ve now been sober for 11 months and are doing amazingly well. So Joy wants to find a productive way to celebrate this achievement and ensure it endures. Soon they will head to the shops together with a $500 budget - finding and buying items that support their journey and induce the pride they feel.

#0085

Sherrisse is giving grief relief

Sherrisse is surprising her friend with odd jobs around her house whilst she’s away. Sherrisse’s friend is called Leah, and over the past few years she has lost multiple family members. She has struggled with the relentlessness of it all. With each passing the process of grieving has become more and more complex, and her life more and more dysfunctional. So, whilst Leah is in Canada soon, Sherrisse is gaining entry to her house with friends and professionals to give the whole place a once over. Creating a new norm and a stable living environment whilst also showing her that she had friends to rely on.

#0084

Nicole is giving pig food

Nicole is leading the charge for a pig food drive at her local animal sanctuary. Aware that the owner, Judy, of her local animal sanctuary has health issues and is struggling with the upkeep of her work, Nicole is using $500 to start a drive for supplies that’ll keep their pigs happy and healthy.

#0083

Gay is giving sober workshops

Gay is creating a workshop seeings for adults who have transcended their alcohol eras. Gay’s idea is to develop a series of immersive workshops where participants dive into various art forms—painting, writing, music, sewing and dance. These sessions will serve as therapeutic outlets, allowing individuals to express emotions, confront anxieties, and rediscover passions without the crutch of alcohol. The funds will cover art supplies, venue rentals, and perhaps local artists to guide the sessions.

#0082

Jon is giving a messy art fest

Jon is creating a website with kids to encourage reassurance through creativity. A super talented creative director, Jon is putting his skills to task by co-creating a website with kids and for kids. It’ll feature visuals and text created with local school children as a “messy glorious art fest”, listing daily aphorisms for other kids around the world to take inspiration from.

#0081

Tai is giving pop up music sessions

Tai is supporting under privileged music producers through mentoring and pop ups. Tai recognises that the music industry in the UK is tough to succeed in, especially if you don’t have a network to support you. Many people spend long hours working alone, chasing placements and industry recognition, but rarely have spaces where they can connect, collaborate, and talk openly about their challenges—especially around mental well-being. He’s spending $500 to amplify his work mentoring and offering free pop up sessions for the community to come together and create.

#0080

Anuhya is giving south asian art fame

Anuhya is creating an exhibition for South Asian artists in Manchester, UK. Anuhya is curating and producing an exhibition to support Manchester’s South Asian creative community while also highlighting the broader South Asian presence in the city. Exhibitions in the UK that spotlight artists of colour are often concentrated in London and at a time when anti-immigration sentiments are on the rise, Anuhya aims to spotlight immigrant communities and their contributions to the art scene as a show of unity and solidarity.

#0079

Christopher is giving animal toys

Chris is creating ‘blue plaques’ to celebrate anonymous acts of kindness. In the UK, blue plaques have been placed on houses the signify someone famous has lived there. These could be artists, scientists, politicians or people from any group who have contributed meaningfully to society in some way. Chris is using $500 to parody these plaques with the message “An anonymous human once did a small, almost imperceptible, kindness to another anonymous human here.” A tongue in cheek subversion of something known, to spark people’s imagination about kindness (and what might have happened there).

#0078

Lucas is giving a gratitude mural

Lucas is leading the creation of a gratitude mural at his local school. Lucas is a well known illustrator who lives in Spain. He is blown away by the commitment and dedication of the staff at this kids school, so is hosting a day to produce a beautiful mural in celebration of them and to nurture creativity and design in the kids, whilst making their school feel more welcoming, inspiring and full of life.

#0077

Bailey is giving a 31 inch shetland pony

Bailey is bringing join to a community of elders. With a little help from a pony. Bailey is a well known social media personality who shines a light on the elderly community in the UK, whilst carrying our personal training sessions in care homes. He recognises the need for joy in these spaces, so is hiring a 31 inch shetland pony from Rainbow Dreaming CIC to bring with him on his next trip.

#0076

Ashley is giving a homely feel

Emily is helping Jamie and her kids turn their house into a home. Emily is a superstar. She volunteers with an organisation that funds and supports people from low income background build their own homes. Emily has been helping a woman called Jamie throughout the build - but is now using the $500 to buy the things inside that turn it from a home... to a house.

#0075

Ashley is giving forest school gear

Jessie is helping her friend, Rose, start a forest school in the UK. Rose’s dream has always been to start a forest school. To provide kids with an opportunity to learn amongst nature. So Jessie is using the $500 to buy some basic equipment to help her give this a go. Seed funding in more ways than one.

#0074

Alessandro is giving a coffin

Alessandro is helping a member of staff with the cost of losing her brother. Alessandro is from Cape Town, South Africa. Recently a member of staff at the bar he runs heard that her brother had been murdered. She’s a single mother of two, facing post mortem, body transport and funeral costs, on top of every day costs and on top of the unbearable pain off loss. As well as supporting her emotionally, Alessandro is paying for the cost his coffin in order to “help her bury her brother with dignity”.

#0073

Claire is giving a festival of play

Clare is hosting a ‘Festival of Play’ for 150 kids in the Philippines. Clare’s idea is to host a ‘Festival of Play’ for 150 preschool kids in a small, underfunded school in the Philippines that had recently been hit by a typhoon. She will work with local teachers and community leaders to train them in new games and activities, and use the $500 to donate play equipment and mats for the school.

#0072

Mack is giving a plant based party

Mack is putting on a celebratory event at an orphanage in Ghana. Teaming up with a non-profit on the ground called ‘BASICS International’, Mack put spending $500 to put on a beautiful, heart-fuelled event at an orphanage to provide a joyful day for their kids - providing mix of healthy food (supplied by a local plant based caterer) dance, and joy.

#0071

Ashley is giving animal toys

Ashley is helping a local animal shelter by sourcing food, cleaning products and toys. Ashely is a animal lover from North Dakota. Post Covid, many animal shelters are experiencing a high volume of adoptions at a time when costs are also increasing. So Ashley plans on buying and sourcing food, cleaning products, toys and more to pay forward to a local shelter.

#0070

Devon is giving shakespearean hip hop

Devon is helping fifth grade kids with swag bags and some shakespearean hip hop. Known as ‘The Sonnet Man’, Devon uses his hip hop skills to educate kids of all ages on all things Shakespeare. With $500, he’s creating kwanzaa themed educational swag bags to gift to students joining him in an upcoming school performance.

#0069

Nicholas is giving school kit

Nic is helping a work colleague with his daughter’s cost of schooling. Nic runs a bar one of their part time dishwashers recently lost his job in music production. He’s helping him learn new skills that’ll see him promoted up the ranks, but with this $500, will also cover the cost of his daughter’s school fees, supple and uniforms.

#0068

Maureen is giving a portable toilet

Maureen is supporting her friends who run a sustainability event - by hiring a toilet! Melinda and David run arts and nature gatherings to immerse participants in outdoor activities and an appreciation for nature. Maureen is hiring a portable toilet for their next event as a way to support them and their costs. Decorating it in artful ways for playful and organic integration with the landscape and the broader message of the event.

#0067

Mongezi is giving a vegetable garden

Mongezi is creating a vegetable garden with and for kids in his local community. In Mongezi’s hometown of Cape Town, South Africa, there is a need to engage and educate young people on the benefits of a healthy diet. So he is using $500 to create a community vegetable garden for kids to learn how to grow food and to live of the food that grows there.

#0066

Izzie is giving access to dance school

Izzie is sponsoring young girls to attend dance classes in New York, US. A friend of previous Drop Dead Generous grantee, Melissa (#0051), Izzie is following up on Melissa’s project running an awareness event for a local dance school by using the $500 to sponsor girls attending the school to support with their transport costs too and from classes.

#0065

Maria is giving album cover art

Maria is designing album cover art of emerging musicians and independent musicians. As a designer, Maria’s idea is to create amazing custom cover art for emerging and independent musicians who can’t afford professional design work. Over the course of a week she’ll work with 5 musicians to understand their music and vision, before designing unique cover art for each of them for free, using the $500 to cover costs of bespoke photography.

#0064

Shamash is giving author gratitude

Shamash is working with friends to offer workshops based on their friend’s book. Creating a team from mutual friends, Shamash plans of celebrating Sarit and her new book on gratitude. They will use the $500 to buy 30 copies and run a playful gratitude & generosity pop-up at the event, encouraging particpants to write a personal message inside a book before gifting it on.

#0063

Joserra is giving 21 days of kindness

Joserra and his friends are travelling through India for 21 days to carry out small acts of kindness. Joserra runs ‘Espacio Ubuntu’ and organises pilgrimages across India. His philosophy is routed in the Gandhian principles of service and at the centre of this is kindness. Fro 21 days they will travel from village to village practising small acts of kindness with a $500 budget.

#0062

Rich is giving a dishwasher

Rich is buying a family a dishwasher as a way for them to spend more time with their kids. It’s a simple and unsexy idea; to buy a dishwasher for a family so that they can spend more time with their kids. But Rich and this family share a traumatic experience. They both lost a child to a drowning. They both know the preciousness of time spent with their children, and Rich is doing what he can to increase this as much as possible.

#0061

Nic is giving a reddit surprise

Nic is sending a gift to a stranger on reddit, who helped him through his cancer battle. When Nic was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago he didn’t know where to turn to. Then he stumbled across a man on Reddit who had been through the same thing. He quickly became a huge support to Nic and now he’s spending the $500 to find a way to so thank you.

#0060

Tom is giving $7,090

Tom is sparking a fundraising initiative to buy meals for vulnerable people in his community. Tom’s project is a classic case in infectious generosity. In preparation for his grant application, he shared the idea that he would buy $500 worth of meals from his local community food truck with his friends and family. Asking if anyone would join him, he had already raised $6,590 in anticipation of his act. So our $500 in his hands suddenly became $7,090 and will go on to cover hundreds of meals for those that really needed it.

#0059

Adaku is giving half a tonne of rice

Adaku is enabling her father to provide food for villages in Nigeria. Adaku’s father previously ran successful businesses and became a huge inspiration to her as he used much of his profits to support his local communities. However, when his businesses fell on hard times, he had to scale back his community support. Knowing how much it would mean to him to enable him to do this kind of work again, she paid forward the $500 to him in order for him to buy food and once again distribute it to people nearby.

#0058

Maya is giving a dance event

Maya is encouraging young girls in NYC to get into dance and community. Maya is creating community dance event in support of Groove With Me, a free dance school for girls in East Harlem, US. Her goal is to raise awareness for the program by bringing people together for an evening of dance, storytelling, and connection. The event will showcase the impact of GWM, how it helps young girls build confidence, discipline, and self-respect while keeping them engaged during critical after-school hours.

#0057

Alex is giving a community fun run

Alex is a marathon organiser who’s putting on a fun run for kids in Morocco. A keen runner, Alex competes in Morocco and during his time there, has fallen in love with a small village community near the Atlas mountains. On his next trip, he’ll be organising a fun run - providing clothes, medals and certifications to make it a celebration of fun for all the kids involved.

#0056

Florent is giving 100 sleeping bags

Florent is creating a flashmob in Paris to distribute sleeping bags to the homeless. Florent is a bit of a mover and shaker over in Paris. He has a community of friends from the creative and showbiz industry, and plans to gather them together to raise funds beyond our $500, buy sleeping bags and then head off as a group to gift them to those experiencing homelessness in the city.

#0055

Henry is giving 5 months rent

Henry is sponsoring the rent of an emerging artist in Mexico City. A fan of the arts who is passionate about the scene in Mexico City, Henry is continuing his support for the community by covering 5 months worth of rent for an extremely talented, lovely, emerging artist - Gilda Medina.

#0054

Anthony is giving commuter joy

Anthony is a train driver from Ireland creating kindness challenges for his passengers. Dubliner, Anthony, drives a train for thousands of commuters every day. He’s using the $500 to create daily kindness challenges for his passengers. His goal is to spark joy through kindness during the monotony of an everyday journey to and from work. And he aim is to create a case study for his employer to scale!

#0053

AJ is giving 33 children’s books

AJ from Mexico City is buying books to give away in support of his author friend. There are an infinite amount of ways to express kindness in support of the friends that you’re surrounded by. For AJ, his friend, Christie, has recently written a children’s book - so he’s using the $500 to buy 33 copies to gift on her behalf, and has written a letter he’ll read to celebrate her at her upcoming book launch.

#0052

Cristina is giving a contemplative man

Cristina is an artist from Spain producing a street installation inspiring contemplation. As an artist, your gift can be both the art and what it provokes in those that experience it. Cristina is a hugely talented illustrator and muralist from Spain who is creating a piece that’ll be installed on the street in her hometown and will encourage those walking by to stop and have a moment with themselves to reflect.

#0051

Melissa is giving hope after fire

Melissa is providing hope to a friend after the loss of her house to a fire. Sarephine is killer bartender and the kindest girl Melissa knows. Tragically, her house recently burnt down in a fire so Melissa plans on using $500 to catalyse a fundraiser amongst friends to pay for as much of what Sarephine has lost as possible.

#0050

Aidan is giving a wish board

Aidan is creating a wish board for students in Manchester, UK. A student himself, Aidan is creating a ‘wish board’ asking his fellow students to share their wishes. With the $500, he will then become the genie in the bottle, making wishes come true in whatever creative and imaginative way her can. He plans on filming the experience to share the insights around what students on campus dream about.

#0049

Ruchita is giving workshops for kids

Ruchita is providing art workshops for kids in India. Ruchita is an amazing graphic designer who recognises the power and potential of art and creativity for kids. She has designed a workshop for schools in India, encouraging young people to express themselves through art, and will spend the $500 on the materials required to run these in the coming months. She wants kids to fall in love with art, just like she did all those years ago.

#0048

Anjuli is giving a recovery garden

Anjuli is creating a recovery garden for her grandmother as she fights cancer. Supporting a family member through illness is tough both emotionally and physically. There are 1,000 practical ways to help, such as cooking the right meals and playing taxi driver to and from hospital. But for Anjuli, she’s recognised her grandmother’s need for a safe space to contemplate. So she’s creating a small recovery garden in her back yard - a place to reflect and heal.

#0047

Mim is giving a cleaner

Mim is getting a cleaner for her Aunt. Freeing her time up to care for her child. Life of a care-giver is tough. Mim’s Aunt, Rakhi, has a chronically ill son as well as a mother currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy. So Mim has been finding ways to support her and she supports everyone else, and will spend this $500 to hire a cleaner to free up her time.

#0046

Ryan is giving running gear

Ryan is showing gratitude to those who lead a running club in Coventry. Ryan’s run club started just a few months ago. The goal was to bring people together to meet strangers, run together and in their own small way, combat the connection crisis that has arisen in this digital age. With 50+ runners turning up every week, certain runners have become de-facto leaders - helping to organise and co-create the safe space intended for the group. Ryan is putting together a gift packages for this special group as a way to say thank you for their role fostering this amazing community.

#0045

James is giving cycle path face lifts

James is buying the kit needed to do ongoing citizen clean ups. James and his friends live in the UK, where budgets for local maintenance are getting cut. Rather than complain about he overgrown footpaths and litter, they’re banding together to buy the equipment they need to make these spaces clean and well kept, enabling people to walk and cycle through these areas but also communicating the message that anyone can take responsibility for these things.

#0044

Sonia is giving perimenopause sessions

Sonia is taking a perimenopause course and paying forward free sessions. Sonia wants to support women experiencing perimenopause. Especially those with neurodivergence, for whom the symptoms and coping mechanisms can vary greatly. To do this, she is spending the $500 to complete a course on the subject, in order to pay forward our gift to her in the form of free session and group workshops over the coming year.

#0043

Avril is giving performance art

Avril is bringing her community of performance artists together to show that action can be fun. Avril is based in Manchester, UK, and as an artist and climate campaigner, is rallying her troops to produce a collective piece of performance art on the topic of climate change. Her goal is to communicate the message of sustainability, but to also show that change can happen through art.

#0042

Ben is giving an easter egg hunt

Ben is creating an Easter egg hunt as a way for local kids to discover nature nearby. Ben is a dad or two and local business owner. Like a lot of parents these days, he’s worried about the lack of time kids spend outdoors, exploring and experiencing nature. So, for Easter, he’s creating a community Easter egg hunt - inspiring kids to get outside and marvel at the nature around them (whilst eating an egg or two)!

#0041

Jody is giving coke cans

Jody is recycling soda cans to raise funds to gift to local non-profits. Jody is “a sales guy that is trying to do better”. In Florida, US, to incentivise recycling, the local authorities offer cash rewards for beverage can donations. Jody is using the $500 to organise mass collection of cans from the bars and restaurants who don’t participate in this program, in order to donate and generate funds to gift to local non profits. Win, win, win.

#0040

Ann is giving secret acts of kindness

Ann is a retired bookkeeper from Vermont leaving little gifts in unexpected places. Receiving an act of kindness from a stranger and totally out of the blue does something very profound to the human heart. Ann has been doing this for years, and will be using the $500 to continue her long campaign of renegade, surprise gifting across her local community’s store shelves, library books, gym changing rooms and coffee shops.

#0039

Christie is giving 125 doggy bowls

Christie is buying doggy bowls to gift to Karen, her friend provides for stray dogs in India. Christie is jewellery designer and children’s book author from the US. Her friend, Karen, lives in India and spends much of her life supporting the stray dog community over there. To acknowledge and support this work, Christie is using the $500 to spark a fundraising campaign that’ll cover the cost of bowls, food supplies and vet costs.

#0038

Melissa is giving 50 Christmas presents

Melissa is negotiating with a toy store to provide presents to disadvantaged kids this Christmas. As Melissa says, “Children are the future”, yet many live in circumstances where things like Christmas presents are not the priority. So Melissa spending $500 to buy and distribute gifts to kids in this position, negotiating with the local toy store to make the money go as far as possible.

#0037

Eric is giving 40 Christmas crackers

Eric is fostering community support in Ireland this Christmas. Eric is producing 40 bespoke Christmas crackers that he will gift to lucky recipients this Christmas. In them will be vouchers for local businesses, but also messages for how to support them and the communities elderly population both during the festive period and after.

#0036

Augusto is giving a big blank canvas

Augusto is hosting a collaborative, community art experience in London. Like many cities around the world, London is an incredibly busy place to feel lonely. In this digital age there’s a emerging crisis of connection that’s making it harder and harder for people to meeting others in real life. Augusto is tackling this in his own way, using the $500 to buy a big, blank canvas and hosting an event that brings strangers together to collaborative produce a piece of art whilst meeting new people in the process.

#0035

Patrick is giving a hospital performance

Patrick is hosting a show in Paris, France, for kids too sick to leave hospital. Patrick is a dancer and performer from France, moved by the reality of many young kids who are too sick to leave hospital and experience the joy of what others are able to do. So he’s bringing together his community of performers to put on a new show and take it to these kids - putting it on in hospitals across the city.

#0034

Olivia is giving a home

Olivia is building a new home for two teenage boys. Olivia has committed her life to the service of others and works in the Charity sector in Uganda. She recently met two young boys, aged 13 and 14, whose father is now in prisons. They’re house was recently destroyed in a fire, making them homeless. She is using the $500 to bring together her community and to build them an entirely new home.

#0033

Jose is giving winter preparedness

Jose is providing a haircut, food and winter clothes for a local man experiencing homelessness. For a long while Jose has been passing a man nearby who experiences homelessness. With winter fast approaching, and having built a relationship with this many through numerous conversations, Jose is using the $500 to get him a haircut, new clothes and a healthy supply of food.

#0032

Cheryl is giving infinite cuddles

Cheryl is becoming a certified cuddlist to offer trauma informed therapy. There are many studies pointing towards the detrimental effects of lacking touch. Cheryl is using the $500 to complete her qualification as a certified cuddliest and to begin offering cuddle therapy to patients with experiences ranging from trauma, disabilities, intimacy issues, social isolation, mental health or neurodivergencies.

#0031

Elliot is giving 70 school tuitions

Elliot is covering the cost of 70 kids to complete their schooling. On a recent trip to Kenya, Elliot discovered 70 school kids unable to complete their final year of education due to rising costs. His idea is to use the $500 as a spark to raise the remaining $1,300 required to cover the cost for all of these children.

#0030

Slavica is giving a wider view of home

Slavica is a cultural worker in Hong Kong, producing a zine on the meaning of ‘home’. Herself a migrant worker living away from ‘home’, Slavica is bringing together a community of creatives to expand the notion of home. They’ll produce a zine that aims to help the reader find the comfort of ‘home’ wherever they are.

#0029

Nelson is giving a cat food dispenser

Nelson is a software engineer from Singapore, helping street cats eat. Nelson’s idea is kinda out there. Living in Singapore where street cats are both loved (by residence) and despised (by the authorities), he wants to build and mount a cat food dispensing machine on his street. But there’s a twist! He’ll live stream the dispenser, encouraging an online audience to donate to their local cat support Charity as a way to trigger the dispensing of extra food!

#0028

Rhian is giving miscarriage support

Rhian is hosting a support group for women with lived experience of miscarriage. Rhian is an amazing artist, but also qualified coach who wants to provide moments and spaces for women to begin the process of grieving after experiencing miscarriage. She’ll use the money as seed funding for her first series of events.

#0027

Matthew is giving 50 oak trees

Matthew is planting 50 oak trees across the English countryside. You’d think Matthew’s idea is motivated by climate change. It is. But it’s also something a little more. We are all in some way constrained by our time bias. We do things that reward us or others soon. The sooner, the better, in most cases. Matthew’s idea is in protest of this - planting 50 trees over a prolonged period of time that will take decades and centuries to grow. He’ll never see or even know the impact. And that’s the point.

#0026

Edward is giving google reviews

Edward is driving google reviews for a local Indonesian “warteg” food stall. Edward has been moved by the entrepreneurialism and huge working hours of a man who runs a local food stall near his home in Indonesia. On chatting with him, he’s explained that this is all to provide for his large family. So Edward’s stepping up and running a citizen promo campaign on his behalf - offering discounted meals in return for Google reviews!

#0025

Chester is giving a driving licence

Chester is a driving instructor supporting a student who’s mother recently passed away. Chester has been moved by one of his students, 17 year old Isaac, who has been putting in so much effort learning to drive despite experiencing the loss of his mother. He is committed to supporting him with free lessons as a way to acknowledge his strength, diligence and persistence during this time. And ultimately to help him obtain his license.

#0024

Emma is giving art supplies

Emma is hosting a community arts event for working class artists. Emma runs the Fuuki Fam Art Collective and hosts events promoting art from the community in support of those from less privileged backgrounds. She’s using the $500 for their Artist-in-Residence program, to provide the materials for their chosen artist to produce work for their upcoming show.

#0023

Andrew is giving a canoe

Andrew is gifting mental health advice whilst canoeing local rivers and canals. Poor mental health comes in many forms. As does the ways it can be addressed. Andrew is a keen canoeist who’s starting a youtube channel of videos inviting people into the nature of his local waterways, and the advice he has to give on mental health.

#0022

Stephen is giving a night of darts

Stephen is hosting a night at the darts for his teachers as they cope with a colleague’s death. Stephen is a Headteacher at a school here in the UK. Recently one of his staff passed away from cancer. His teachers have been amazing supporting the students through this grief, even developing a version of the game of darts that helps the children articulate their emotions. He’s using the $500 to bring these teachers to their local darts club. A fitting place for him to celebrate and acknowledge them.

#0021

Beth is giving a Elvis Presley

Beth is hiring an Elvis Presley impersonator for her parents to renew their vows. Beth’s parents have sacrificed everything for her. They have always dreamt about flying to Vegas to renew their wedding vows - but having just supported Beth through the costs of University, this isn’t possible. So Beth is bringing Vegas to them. She’s using the $500 to hire their very own Elvis impersonator to officiate their renewal at home.

#0020

Marc is giving 200 coffees

Marc is having coffee with 200 people currently at a transition point in their life. Whether navigating personal issues, career changes or relocations, Marc is Guernsey’s man for helping with your transition. He runs ‘New Beginnings’, an organisation and process to support those on the island in need of support during this changing times. That process starts with something simple - a coffee!

#0019

Theodora is giving babysitting vouchers

Theodora, form London, is giving babysitting vouchers to single mothers from marginalised communities. Theodora works in the non profit sector supporting single mothers in Hackney, London. She has a front row seat to the challenges they face and has decided to do something very simple, but very powerful - to give them a night off to enjoy themselves.

#0018

Erin is giving extra love

Erin is a film student from Liverpool, expressing gratitude to volunteer film extras. A-listers are the tiniest fraction of the film industry, the rest of whom are busy giving up everything to try and make it. At film school, Erin and her class have to produce a short film and are blown away by the number of extras that are willing to support them for free. She’s using the $500 to say thank you to them.

#0017

Mikey is giving a upcycled bikes

Mikey is upcycling old bikes to loan to his local community of kids. Like so many who have dedicated their careers to the service of others, Felipe’s girlfriend is too busy caring for others to care for herself. So he’s taking her on an adventure and skydive, to acknowledge her commitment to others and her status as “the kindest person I know”.

#0016

Felipe is giving a nudge from a plane

Felipe’s girlfriend is too busy working in Charity to ever do something special for herself. Until now. Like so many who have dedicated their careers to the service of others, Felipe’s girlfriend is too busy caring for others to care for herself. So he’s taking her on an adventure and skydive, to acknowledge her commitment to others and her status as “the kindest person I know”.

#0015

Alex is giving Christmas dinner

Alex is gifting his neighbour Christmas dinner, as a thank you for her support of his autistic son. It can seem that the fabric of local community has become fragile in our age of digital connection. But Alex’s neighbour has been there for him and his family, showing constant kindness and compassion to their autistic 6 year old boy. So Alex want’s to find a way to show his gratitude, but treating them to neighbourly love this Christmas.

#0014

Tallulah is giving a tattoo machine

Tallulah is training herself to train others in the art of tattoo. Tallulah lives in tough circumstances and has played the role of career from a young age. Her dream is to become a tattoo artist - to get by and support her family, but to also train up aspiring artists in the process.

#0013

Pheobe is giving fancy dress to a priest

Phoebe’s dad is a priest, but for one night he wants to be the pantomime dame. Phoebe’s dad is the beating heart of her local community. As well as being the parish priest, he has also hosted the annual pantomime for 8 years. His dream has always been to be the dame in the show, so Pheobe’s spending $500 to make this happen and to shower the crew with gifts in the process.

#0012

Helen is giving notes to strangers

Helen, from the UK, is leaving gifts and notes for strangers in unexpected places. Helen is a prolific kindness activist, once creating a ‘Kindness Calendar’ that was downloaded 500,000 times. With this $500, she’ll be leaving gifts and notes in the most unexpected places for strangers to stumble across, smile, and pay forward.

#0011

Patricia is giving 100 surgical caps

Patricia is gifting homemade surgical caps to kids in her local hospital in the UK. As a nurse, Patricia has noticed the anxiety and fear that children experience before surgeries. So she’s making handmade surgical caps - perhaps with their favourite cartoon characters, as gifts make those moments a little easier.

#0010

Heather is giving homeless support

Heather, from the UK, and is saying thank you to two homeless men who helped share missing posters. When Heather’s friend tragically went missing, two men experiencing homelessness helped her as she was putting up missing posters across the streets of London. She wants to find them and spend the $500 on their needs as a way to acknowledge the support they offered her on that day.

#0009

Linzie is giving 250 postcards

Linzie is a well known illustrator from London, creating 250 postcards for strangers to send. In a hyper digitalised world, postcards have mostly become a thing of the past. So Linzie is hand drawing 250, unique cards and hosting an event inviting strangers to send them to people they want to get back in touch with.

#0008

Marcelo is giving a chess coach

Marcelo is supporting two chess prodigy sisters from a favela in Brazil. A keen chess player himself, Marcelo recently got wind of two incredible talented players - Gabrieli (17) and Valentina (8). Living in a favela they don’t have the means to travel and enter tournaments. So Marcelo is using the $500 to get them entered into an upcoming tournament and sorting them out with a coach in the process.

#0007

Greame is giving 500 creativity tokens

Graeme from Glasgow, Scotland, is setting a challenge for 500 people to create joy. Graeme runs a creative meet up called Gab in Glasgow - www.gab.scot - where folk come to give talks about their creative practice and inspire others. At his next event he’s giving 500 x £1 coins with the creative challenge of “starting something to spread joy”.

#0006

Eloise is giving love bombs

Eloise is a student from the UK, spreading secret messages across her campus to promote mental health. Eloise is a fire cracker. She runs a blog documenting her love bombing of post-it notes for different causes and at different places. With $500 she’s supercharging this with a campaign on campus spreading mental health awareness for the 69% of students who struggle with it.

#0005

Jo is giving hand drawn human hearts

Jo from the UK lost everything when her house burnt down. She’s saying thank you to the mate that helped her. Jo went through something unimaginable when she lost all of her belongings to a house fire. Her friend, Karolina, helped her through this time. Karolina herself has been through a lot, and to cope and spread kindness, she leaves hand drawn hearts with messages for strangers. To say thank you, Jo is supporting her with art supplies.

#0004

Tania is giving a bagpipe overload

Tania from Sussex, UK, is taking her father to the military tattoo in Edinburgh. Tania’s father had a massive heart attack 8 years ago and since then many of his dreams have been curtailed. A loving dad and friend to many, she’s using $500 to take him and her mum on a weekend of a lifetime - back to their roots in Scotland.

#0003

Tom is giving a night of gratitude

Tom from Reading, UK, is organising a dinner for teachers at his kids’ local school. Teachers are some of the most under paid and under appreciated communities in cultures across the world. Tom is working with parents from his local school to put on ‘a night of gratitude’ - a dinner for them by those that truly appreciate what they do.

#0002

Julie is giving welcome signs

Julie from Evesham, UK, is creating an art trail of local signs to welcome immigrants to the area. Julie’s idea is in response to the current animosity towards immigrants to the UK. She’s spending $500 to create signs around town, in each of the 21 languages most widely spoken in the immigrant community.

#0001

Toni is giving a dinner invite

Toni from Brighton, England, is inviting kids experiencing homelessness over for dinner. Toni works in the Charity sector and funs “fancy supper clubs” (her words) as networking events for people in the industry. With $500, she’s bringing young kids who access the local homeless day care centre along for food and ongoing support.

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