You’re likely familiar with the term “pay it forward.” It describes an act of kindness and giving, from passing along soccer cleats to the younger player next-door to volunteering in a soup kitchen, as a way of giving back. It’s all about putting generosity into action and participating in a cycle of giving that empowers both you and others.
By paying your good fortune (financial, healthwise, or otherwise) forward, you both help others and may inspire people to also give what they can to assist others and lift spirits.
As part of their ActNow campaign, the United Nations lists 17 Sustainable Development Goals, along with small things individuals can do in their daily lives that can improve life for all of us. They note that “a lot” can happen “when millions of people act together for our common future.”
Interested in joining this movement towards positive change? Read on to learn 23 ways to pay it forward, including:
• Gestures that lift spirits, from running errands to letting people take your place in line
• Giving back to your community
• Passing on meaningful possessions instead of tossing them.
Is Paying It Forward the Same as Karma?
The concepts of paying it forward and karma are similar yet different.
Paying it forward involves helping others without expecting anything in return, except the hope, perhaps, that the recipient might keep the cycle going, thus making the world a better place. You may also have heard of this concept called “random acts of kindness.”
The word karma, on the other hand, comes from the Hindu and Buddhist religious concept that a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence decide their future fate when reincarnated.
In everyday usage, the idea is that if we send the universe positive energy, also known as good karma, it will come back to us. On the flip side, bad karma is often believed to bring more bad events or bad luck.
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Simple Ways to Pay It Forward
If you’d like to test-drive some pay-it-forward ideas, there are plenty of options. Here, you’ll find 23; notice how doing one can make you want to try another.
1. Letting Someone Go in Front of You in Line
This is a present to a harried parent with a sick child at the pharmacy or a driver merging into a crowded highway toll lane. Kindness is connection in a busy world and is applicable anywhere, from an airport restroom to Home Depot aisles.
2. Paying for a Stranger’s Coffee or Meal
At Starbucks, numerous customers have kept drive-through pay-it-forward chains going, each covering the tab of the customer in the car behind them. But you could also buy someone a java at any coffee shop or drive-through, or be kind and give the cashier money to pay for a full meal of another patron, just to make their day.
3. Sharing Your Green Thumb
Tend the flowers in a public patch to give beauty to your town. Donate homegrown veggies to a food pantry, or leave extra zucchini, beans, rhubarb, and more by your mailbox for others to take for free. It could really help someone who is struggling to pay for groceries in a given month.
4. Donating Blankets, Pajamas, Socks, and Toiletries to Shelters
Unhoused families might move from shelter to shelter for available beds. Consider donating new blankets, PJs, socks, and unopened mini shampoos, lotions, and soaps from hotel stays for the gift of personal care.
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5. Leaving a Big Tip for a Server or Waiter
Servers and waitstaff are on their feet, catering to our whims (dressing on the side, hold the onions), and their base salary is generally low. Tips help even the score. Yes, there are guidelines of how much you should tip, but occasionally, it can be nice to go a bit overboard. For a server that goes above and beyond, consider slipping them a generous cash bonus before you leave.
6. Returning Another Person’s Shopping Cart
Here’s an easy way to pay it forward with a random act of kindness: Grab another customer’s card after they are done with it. This saves them the extra steps and, if you’re on your way on, you won’t have to hunt for a cart.
7. Sending an Email of Gratitude
Amid spam, advertising, and billing statements, a note of gratitude is a grace. Maybe it’s time to thank unheralded people like the school reading teacher or your family doctor for all they do every day.
8. Sharing Your Food With Someone
If you enjoy getting bargain prices but Costco multipacks are just too big to store, consider sharing a few with a friend or neighbor free of charge.
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9. Learning the Names of People You See Every Day
Get to know the crossing guard, train conductor, and neighbor who walks her poodle by your house every morning. (Learn the poodle’s name, too.) This is a sign of respect and appreciation that says “I see you and notice you. You are not anonymous.”
10. Leaving Extra Quarters at the Laundromat
These shiny silver timesavers can be a real boon for the next person lugging in dirty wash and detergent.
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11. Asking for Charitable Donations Instead of Gifts for Your Birthday
More and more kids and adults share this kind of gift request on Facebook and in party invitations. Money goes to good causes, from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to the World Wildlife Fund, rather than material gifts. Need inspiration? Spend a bit of time researching the best charities to support.
12. Helping Someone With a Task
Give a neighbor a hand raking leaves, shoveling snow, or with a work-related task, such as proofreading a resume or printing a document. Offering to help without any payment expected can deepen your bonds.
13. Writing a Recommendation for a Coworker
Leave a golden review on LinkedIn or write a glowing letter someone can take along when leaving a job. This can help them move ahead in their professional pursuits.
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14. Writing a Message to Someone Who Made a Difference in Your Life
Did your fifth-grade teacher see in you skills other people missed? Did your first boss train you in a way that’s made your work life so much easier? A handwritten note or card sent by snail mail is one of the best pay-it-forward examples. You’ll probably make their day and then some.
15. Giving Away Items Online
Your daughter’s riding boots from all those lessons at the horse barn deserve a good home. So does the dollhouse your brother built her. Instead of tossing them in haste, consider posting them on sites like Freecycle, Nextdoor, or a local Facebook group, so someone else can nab them. Reduce/reuse/recycle helps the planet, too.
16. Encouraging Someone Who Needs It With a Few Words
We all need some positive encouragement now and then. You can offer it by saying “You got this” to a parent who is job-hunting or “Good for you, walking” when you pass someone on a steep hill.
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17. Leaving Coupons Next to Corresponding Products in the Grocery Store
That diaper coupon you can’t use because your baby is too big now? Leave the coupon on a package for another shopper. Same with any other coupons that could brighten someone else’s day.
18. Purchasing Extra Food to Leave at Shelters
When you go grocery shopping, you might add some shelf-stable products, like pasta, sauce, rice, nuts, boxed milk, nut butters, wholesome cereals, and canned fruit, to your cart for others in need. You can then drop them off at a local shelter or other nonprofit.
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19. Cleaning Up Your Local Beach or Public Area
Bring trash bags, gloves, and perhaps family members to help collect garbage that clogs our natural areas. You can also help keep plastic out of our bodies of water this way.
20. Running an Errand for a Busy Loved One
Is your sister a full-time nurse raising two kids? Once a week, drop off a heat-and-eat dinner or shuttle kids home from activities.
21. Volunteering Your Time
Whether you make it a regular or a once-in-a-while activity, an easy and rewarding way to pay it forward is to give a couple of hours of your time. Help at a religious institution, the school library, or the local soup kitchen, or pitch in at a town park or garden cleanup. Volunteering can prove to be a fun, free way to spend your leisure time.
22. Donating Blood
Sign up to donate blood or give platelets (the latter takes longer but meets critical needs.) You leave on a high, knowing hospitals, patients, and their families are waiting for your vital gift.
23. Giving up Your Seat to Someone
Do it on the subway, bus, or train. If you’re hailing a taxi and other people are waiting, too, why not let them get the first one? It’s an easy way to be charitable.
Banking With SoFi
Paying it forward can help improve our world, little by little. You might give money, time, skills, or all of the above. A random act of kindness in your apartment or office building, or even with courteous driving, can turn someone’s bad day around. Looking out for another person, not just for yourself, makes everyone feel better.
Interested in opening an online bank account? When you sign up for a SoFi Checking and Savings account with direct deposit, you’ll get a competitive annual percentage yield (APY), pay zero account fees, and enjoy an array of rewards, such as access to the Allpoint Network of 55,000+ fee-free ATMs globally. Qualifying accounts can even access their paycheck up to two days early.
FAQ
How do I pay it forward at work?
In the office, you might treat co-workers to coffee and fruit as an act of friendship and gratitude. If everyone on your team is now remote, consider making a donation in their names to a nonprofit near company headquarters.
Where did the concept of “pay it forward” begin?
The phrase can be traced back to the 1916 book In the Garden of Delight by Lily Hardy Hammond. In it, she wrote: “You don’t pay love back; you pay it forward.” There was a movie with the title “Pay It Forward” in 2000. Then in 2007, a Pay It Forward Day was launched in Australia. The idea has since been adopted by many counties as an opportunity to do acts of kindness.
How often should you pay for kindness?
The term “pay for kindness” is a misnomer. We do not pay for kindness. Rather, we can pay forward to others the thoughtful gestures and generosity we received by keeping the cycle going. And if we receive an act of kindness, we can repay it by doing one too.
Photo credit: iStock/Vladimir Vladimirov
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