Use these ideas to inspire you as you brainstorm ways to Pay It Forward. Remember, every little bit helps, so whether you buy someone lunch or buy them a car, you are changing lives!
$0 – $25
It's amazing what a few dollars can do. These ideas won't weigh on your wallet, but will make a huge difference for someone else.
  • Anonymously pay for gas for strangers
  • Buy lunch for a homeless person
  • Randomly give away a prepaid transit card for a couple of trips on a bus or train
  • Volunteer—it costs nothing but means a lot.
  • Buy flowers to cheer up a co-worker
  • Write letters to troops serving in Iraq
  • Clean up a neighborhood park
  • Buy a board game for a local children's hospital

$100 – $200
Have a little more to spend? There are a lot of ways to change the world.
  • Invite women living in a shelter to a spa day or treat them to a makeover
  • Buy school supplies for a needy school
  • Buy coats and hand them out to the homeless
  • Buy pet food and supplies for the animals at the pound
  • Search your local newspaper for stories about people in need and find a way to help them
  • Pick up the tab for a family at a restaurant
  • Buy theater tickets for parents with a newborn—then babysit!
  • Buy food and prepare meals for the elderly in your neighborhood

$1,000 & over
Thinking big? You've seen what $1,000 can do—now it's your turn.
  • Buy instruments for a needy school's music class
  • Travel to New Orleans and go help build a Habitat home
  • Pay for a string quartet to give a concert at a local nursing home
  • Donate iPods for soldiers serving in Iraq
  • Take a terminally sick friend on a weekend getaway
  • Buy a new wardrobe for kids in need
  • Help rebuild a home destroyed by a fire
  • Make a family's holidays a little brighter by buying all their holiday gifts
Published 07/15/2006

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