Yahoo! Launches New Acts Of Kindness Program

Buy a stranger a bus ticket. Donate duplicate tools to a neighborhood garden. Drop off a holiday card to an overworked teacher. Do something kind and then log on to share it via Yahoo!, Twitter and Facebook.

Yahoo! wants to encourage you to do something kind and hopes that your sharing about it online will spark others to do good deeds as well. Recently launched Yahoo! Ripples Of Kindness is the place to do this.

User John bought coffee for local fire-fighers, user Rahkee held the elevator door for others, and user N Mc fed a skinny stray cat. You can browse thousands of recent acts of kindness and add your own. Your visual “ripple of kindness” grows as others read your idea and do a similar act.

To test out this model, Yahoo! first took to the streets. On the busiest grocery shopping day of the year– the day before Thanksgiving– team members paid for the grocery bills of strangers.

The response was quite positive. Business Wire reported that one of these recipients– an employee for the Department of Parking and Transportation– said she was not going to give out any tickets for the rest of the day. Other recipients wanted to continue to pass on acts of kindness as well.

Yahoo! has designated additional days for acts of kindness:

Postal Fees: Paying for people’s shipping fees at select post offices on the busiest shipping day of the year: December 13.
Santa Claus Photos: Paying for people’s photos with Santa Claus on the busiest shopping day of the year at select shopping centers: December 18.
Luggage Fees: Paying for people’s luggage fees at designated airports on the busiest travel day of the year: December 23.

So far, 24,651 users have reported an act of kindness. Be sure to add your acts of kindness at kindness.yahoo.com so that others may be inspired.

Photo by by Ed Yourdon on Flicker

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Tyler K.

11:13AM PST on Nov 18, 2011

I just found this - does Yahoo's network for random acts of kindness still exist? I've honestly never heard of it. I've been looking for little ways to brighten someone's day since I heard about the Kindness Cab event (http://kindnesscab.com) where a man drove across the country giving free rides to people. While I can't take off a couple of months to drive across America, I would like to start doing little things to make the world a little happier!

November 18
send a green star

Jo A.

7:08AM PDT on Sep 7, 2011

Bravo! Hooray! Yahoo Ripples of Kindness is a wonderful program! Heartwarming!

September 7
send a green star

Kersi P.

1:58AM PST on Feb 4, 2011

Simple acts of a visit to an old age home or an orphanage or a home for destitutes - a hug here,a helping hand there and the smile of happiness & gratitude you get is worth a million bucks! Really try it !!!

February 4
send a green star

Lorraine C.

9:10PM PST on Jan 27, 2011

There are so many kind and generous people out there, it would be wonderful if their acts were mentioned rather than just those of 'I've done for somebody else'!

January 27
send a green star

Joy D.

9:17AM PST on Jan 8, 2011

As a new ritual, I decided to take what is offered me at social gatherings - including work place. I do not take donuts for myself; I do with the sole intent to give a homeless or panhandler.

January 8
send a green star

Priscilla G.

1:17AM PST on Jan 8, 2011

The saying "what goes around comes around" you show kindness to other it will come back to you.

Catharine B.

7:45AM PST on Jan 5, 2011

A stranger once helped me, without any reason other than the simple fact that I needed help. When I asked "How can I ever repay you?", he answered "Do it for someone else someday".
Every act of kindness starts a chain reaction...