100+ Things You Can Do
to Build Social Capital

1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbor.
2. Attend your town meeting.
3. Register to vote and vote.
4. Support your local merchants.
5. Volunteer your time anywhere.
6. Donate blood.
7. Take dance lessons with friends.
8. Be a mentor for someone of a different ethnic or religious group than you belong to.
9. Surprise a new neighbor with one of your favorite dinners--and include the recipe.
10. Tape record your parents' memories of how they met and their first years together--share with your children.
11. Organize a vacation with friends.
12. Don't gossip.
13. Help someone with a flat tire.
14. Organize or participate in a sports league.
15. Join a gardening club.
16. Attend home parties when invited.
17. Become an organ donor.
18. Attend your children's athletic contests, plays and recitals.
19. Get to know your children's teachers.
20. Join the local Elks, Kiwanis, Knights of Columbus.
21. Get involved with Brownies or Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts.
22. Start a monthly afternoon tea group.
23. Speak at or host a monthly brown bag lunch series at your local library.
24. Volunteer - use your "special" skills to help an organization.
25. Sing in a choir.
26. Get to know the clerks and salespeople at your local stores.
27. Attend a PTA meeting.
28. Audition for community theater or volunteer to usher.
29. Organize a community garden.
30. Join a carpool.
31. Participate in a charitable walk-a-thon.
32. Volunteer in your child's classroom/chaperone a field trip.
33. Give to your local food bank.
34. Attend the play put on by your local high school.
35. Answer the surveys you are asked to participate in.
36. Businesses: invite local government officials to lead lunchtime discussions for employees at your workplace.
37. Attend Veterans' Day and Memorial Day parades and say "thanks".
38. Form a neighborhood/town outdoor activity group.
39. Participate in political campaigns.
40. Attend a local budget committee meeting.
41. Form a computer user group for elders in the community.
42. Help coach Little League or other youth sports -- even if you don't have a kid playing.
43. Help run the snack bar at the Little League field.
44. Form a "tools cooperative" with your neighbors -- to share ladders, rototillers, etc.
45. Join a babysitting cooperative.
46. Start a series of lunch gatherings with your co-workers.
47. Offer to rake a neighbor's yard or shovel their walk if they need help.
48. Plan a "Walking Tour" of historic areas in your town.
49. Eat breakfast out on Saturday morning at local gathering spot.
50. Stop and make sure the person on the side of the highway is OK.
51. Host a "block party" or a holiday open house.
52. Run for public office.
53. Start a "fix it" group--friends who are willing to help you clean, paint, garden, etc., and you help them in turn.
54. Offer to serve on a town committee.
55. Join the volunteer fire department.
56. Hold lunchtime discussion groups at your workplace.
57. Go to church...or temple...or outside with your children--talk about why it's important to be there.
58. If you grow your own tomatoes, plant extra for the woman who lives alone two doors down from you--better yet, ask her if she can teach you and three friends how to can the extras.
59. Ask the older man at the next table if he'd like to share your table for lunch.
60. Stand on the corner of Main Street holding a sign for the candidate of your choice.
61. Persuade your local restaurant to have a designated "meet people" table.
62. Host a potluck supper before your Town Meeting.
63. Start a "Volksmarching" group in your town.
64. Give a weatherproof chess or checkers board to your town park.
65. Say "thanks" to public servants - police, firefighters, city council, town clerk, ...
66. Fight to keep essential local services in the downtown area - your post office, police station, school, etc.
67. Sit on a nonprofit board of directors.
68. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery.
69. Join a bowling team...or form one.
70. Employers: give volunteer time as a benefit (e.g. 3 days/year to work on civic projects).
71. Have dinner with your family.
72. Turn off the TV and talk with your family.
73. Play cards with your friends or neighbors.
74. Have a neighborhood barbecue.
75. When somebody says "government stinks," suggest they help fix it.
76. Employers: encourage volunteer and community groups to hold meetings at your business site.
77. Bake cookies for new neighbors.
78. Cut TV time in your house.
79. Volunteer at the library.
80. Talk to your friends and family about social capital. Tell them why it matters.
81. Shovel snow off a neighbor's walk.
82. Host a movie night.
83. Go for a walk with your family; invite a neighbor.
84. Invite friends to take a hike, go snow shoeing, or cross country skiing.
85. Be real, be humble, acknowledge others self worth.
86. Attend gallery openings.
87. Write personal notes when inspired to neighbors and friends.
88. Form a fitness/health group with your friends or co-workers. Exercise together.
89. Organize a town-wide yard sale.
90. Visit a local nursing home, day care center, or group home.
91. Start children’s story hour at your local library.
92. Go to the next church supper or community potluck in your town.
93. Slow down enough to chat with your neighbors as you all sort your trash at the Recycling Center.
94. Volunteer to deliver Meals-on-Wheels in your neighborhood.
95. Become a story-reader or baby-rocker at your local child care center or neighborhood pre-school.
96. Read your local newspaper, faithfully.
97. Join a Book Club Discussion.
98. Fundraise for Town Clock, New Town Library.
99. Collect Oral Histories from Older Town Residents.
100. Go to your Town Dump.
101. Take a pottery class with your children or parent(s).
102. Read to your children.
103. Go to or organize community bandstand events.
104. Build a neighborhood park
105. Assist with or create your town's newsletter.
106. Organize a block party.
107. Join other people walking in the mall in early morning -- and don't forget to stay for coffee!
108. Organize a neighborhood litter pick-up -- with some lawn games afterwards.
109. Invite your friends and colleagues to help with a home renovation/building project.
110. Volunteer at your local recycling center.
111. Make a point to help those in need - open the door for someone who has their arms full.
112. Join a coastal or street cleanup committee... or start one.
113. Help the kids on your street construct a lemonade stand.
114. Bike, walk or motorcycle to support a cause... and have fun meeting new people.
115. Bake some cookies and bring to your new neighbors with a list of important community phone numbers.
116. Go to a Contra Dance.
117. Host a family reunion.
118. Write a "thank-you" letter to the Editor about a person or event that you think helped build community.
119. Register as a bone marrow donor.
120. Become a Big Brother or Big Sister.
121. Organize a community garden tour.
122. Run for elected office; planning boards, budget committees, conservation commissions, Governor, etc.
123. Create a magic group.
124. Try a friend's hobby.
125. Have regular potlucks at work.
126. Offer to help a senior shop, pick up precriptions, go to the doctors, or just go to a movie.
127. Say thanks to at least 6 people each day and mean it and know why.
128. Ask to see others' family photos.
129. Volunteer for an afterschool tutoring program.
130. Choose to patronize businesses which locate in downtown areas.
131. Volunteer to coach a community sport, even if your children are all grown up.
132. Volunteer at a local school.
133. Start a "social capital club". See how much of this list you can complete!
134. Email us your idea!