How to Help Others

Helping in Your Community

1. Volunteer. Volunteering is great way to help out others in your community. Look around for a homeless shelter or soup kitchen and spend some time there doing whatever needs to be done. Not only will this help others, but you will get a new perspective on your own life.^[3]

   1. Work at a battered women's shelter and help women and children who have had traumatizing experiences get back on their feet.
   2. Try tutoring homeless children at the local shelter so that they can stay in school and not fall behind because the economy has been difficult for their family.
   3. Volunteer for hospice and really listen to the stories of the people who are going through their final days. They will give you more perspective on the blessings and the hardships you will encounter in your own life.

2. Donate to important causes. This can be anything from a monetary donation to a charity or items like clothing that are needed by a local food bank or shelter. If you don't have money to spare, look through your unused items and see what you can part with that is in decent condition

   1. Donate foods like unopened spices, healthy non-perishable goods like canned soups, or beans.
   2. Give toys to the local shelters and food banks. Many of the children who take refuge there don't have any toys of their own.
   EXPERT TIP

   Direct Relief

   Humanitarian Aid Organization

   Direct Relief is an award-winning humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries. They focus on helping people affected by emergencies and natural disasters. Direct Relief has been highly rated by Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at University of Pennsylvania, for their effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.

   Direct Relief
   Humanitarian Aid Organization

   Support what matters most to you. According to Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization, "It's important for each individual to think about what matters to them, because there's no 'best' cause. A disaster situation offers a clear example because an effective response includes multiple interventions, from medical care, the sheltering of evacuees, animal rescue, and the provision of food and water. No single organization serves all these functions. You might see food banks serving meals to evacuees in a shelter managed by the Red Cross, while volunteer doctors treat people who are sick or injured and pets are cared for by a local humane society.'

3. Redirect gifts. Instead of getting lots of new presents every birthday or present giving holiday (like Christmas), have your friends and family make monetary donations to charities or some important cause.

   1. You could even set up a fund that they can donate into. For instance, creating a fund to help low-income children go to college.

4. Stop to help. If you see someone on the street who is struggling to carry all their groceries, or who needs money for a bus fare, give them a helping hand or some money. It usually doesn't take much to help another human being out.

   1. Keep in mind that they may not always need help. If someone says something like, "No thanks." or "I can handle it.", then just insisting may annoy them. You won't always be able to tell if they really do need your help, but it's best to back off if others are angry or in a hurry. However, if they refuse your help, you should ask one more time, and if they still refuse, then walk away.

Helping Online for Free

It is not always possible to donate a considerable amount of time or money to causes. However, there are methods online that are both free and easy which allow anyone with internet access to help.

1. Play FreeRice. This is a simple website where you answer questions to donate rice to people in need. They work through the UN World Food Programme. Every time you answer a question, ten grains of rice are donated. There are a variety of categories, including vocabulary and geography.

2. Edit wikiHow. wikiHow is always looking for new good editors and writers.

3. Use click-to-give websites such as GreaterGood. When doing this, you want to be sure they are giving to good charities. For example, one of the sections of this one donates to Autism Speaks, which is generally considered to be a charity that does more harm than good. However, the other sections are perfectly legitimate charities.

4. Download the Tab for a Cause extension. This is an extension where every time you open a new blank tab, a customizable dashboard with a small ad comes up as your default new tab page. The advertisement money is then apportioned to charities based on percentages of user votes (one new tab is one vote.)

5. Just listen to someone's problems. This will show a person that you actually care and you are trying to figure out the cause of the problem that person has.