Do One Nice Thing: Little Things You Can Do to Make the World a Lot Nicer

A few years ago, Debbie Tenzer was feeling overwhelmed by all the crises in the news. But rather than give in to despair, she thought, Maybe I can’t solve our big problems, but I know I can do something. She realized that helping doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive or time-consuming. You can help simply by doing one nice thing. So that’s what she vowed to do, one day a week. Not every day–she says she’s not that nice–but once a week was a promise she could keep.

So she started a website, DoOneNiceThing.com, and each week she posted an easy way to help people around town or across the globe. Good news traveled fast, and now Debbie is the leader of a worldwide kindness movement with fellow Nice-o-holics in ninety countries. They’ve sent . . .

• cans of food to food banks and schools
• notebooks to soldiers who will give them to Afghan children
• gifts to foster children whose birthdays are overlooked
• and much more

Do One Nice Thing has many new, easy ideas for small deeds that anyone can do (and includes explicit information on how exactly to execute the ideas, so you don’t have to go digging for information or resources). There’s even a chapter of nice things you can do in minutes without leaving your desk.

Join Debbie and her army of Nice-o-holics, and give the world some help–and some hope. Best of all, the more help you give, the more hopeful you’ll feel. And before you know it, you won’t be able to stop.

DEBBIE TENZER is an American non-fiction author, motivational speaker, and the founder of the international kindness movement, Do One Nice Thing. She also coined the term Nice-o-holic, referring to a person who performs acts of kindness on a regular basis.

A California marketing and advertising executive for many years, Tenzer became frustrated with the divisive political climate in the U.S. surrounding the 2004 elections. One day after having lunch with friends who were bemoaning the sad state of the world, an idea occurred to her: Instead of worrying about the big problems she could not solve, she would look for small problems that she could solve.
 
She committed to doing one nice thing for someone every Monday, her hardest day of the week. After hearing about it, her friends urged to start a website, which she did - DoOneNiceThing.com, and word of it spread rapidly. The movement has members in ninety countries.
 
Tenzer posts a different "nice thing" to do each week as well as stories about the kind people who do them. Do One Nice Thing members have:
-  mailed tons of school supplies to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, who gave them to local children so they can study
 - sent tens of thousands of cans of food, packages of pasta and boxes of energy bars to food banks and needy schools
 - given numerous backpacks to foster children who often carry the little they own from home to home in garbage bags
 - donated thousands of blankets to U.S. soldiers who give them to local people living without electricity or heat
 - and sent countless books to schools, libraries and hospitals

Tenzer grew up in Piedmont, California. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Communication and Public Policy, and from University of Southern California with an M.A. in Communications Management. She is married and is the mother of three children.