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The Chris Kindness Award. Encouraging acts of kindness to make the world a little brighter.
How It Works
Nomination
It begins by raising your awareness – being on the lookout for acts of kindness. Maybe someone on your block helped a neighbor while they were ill. Did someone help locate a lost pet, return a lost wallet? Do you know a nurse, a delivery person, a teacher - who went above and beyond what their job requires? Perhaps you are friends with someone organizing a charitable drive. Big or small, all acts of kindness deserve to be appreciated. Nominate that person for a Chris Kindness Award!
Voting
At the end of each month, we will gather all nominations and ask the community to vote for their favorite acts of kindness. To keep up with our work, sign up below for our monthly newsletter to learn each month’s Chris Kindness Award winner and vote for your favorite nominees for the next award. Our only stipulation is that nominees must live, work or go to school in Berkeley, CA. For more information on how winners are selected, please refer to the terms and conditions below.
Results
Public voting will close on the last day of the month. After this deadline, we will contact the winner(s) to verify their information. A prize of $1000 will be awarded to a winner each month. To inspire others, we will feature each winner’s story on our site and our social media platforms. Winners may, of course, opt to pay it forward by giving all or a portion of their award to their favorite charitable cause.
WHAT’S A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS?
This is totally up to you! Remember, the Chris Kindness Award isn’t limited to heroic or Herculean acts. It can also be a small act you witnessed or that someone did for you.
A kind person might:
- Help a sick neighbor with groceries
- Give up their seat on the bus for no obvious reason
- Pay for someone in line – maybe they were short on cash for stamps or groceries
- Make the new kid feel welcomed at school
- Bring school supplies to the teacher
- Go the extra mile in their job. Maybe it’s the smile your barista gives you every day.
- Make care packages for the houseless community or grocery shop for newly arrived refugees
The possibilities are endless! And there’s a bonus. Actively looking out for random acts of kindness is likely to make you feel just a little lighter and brighter. Try it!
FAQs
Not at all! In fact, we think some of the most Chris-Kindness-Award-worthy acts of kindness are those that would’ve otherwise gone unrecognized. As long as we have a way to contact them in the case they are selected for that month’s award, feel free to nominate anyone (or any act) that you come across!
While we’re accepting nominations from anyone, anywhere, we’re currently only looking for nominees that either work or reside within the City of Berkeley. For any further questions about eligibility, please email chriskindnessaward@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
No, there are no strict time restraints for the acts of kindness you submit to this reward (though we do ask that you limit nominations for acts that have occurred within the past 12 mos). As always, please don’t hesitate to email us at chriskindnessaward@gmail.com with any questions!
Our small panel of judges will pick three finalists on the last day of the month. If you subscribe to our newsletter, you will learn who the finalists are and you will be able to vote for your favorite. We will announce the winner and award the prize the first week of the following month.
We would love to have the nominator be there when we give the $1,000 award to their nominee if they are in fact the winner. But it certainly is not mandatory.
We certainly hope the media will be interested in shining the spotlight on our winners. That is one way we will be able to spread the word about our movement and inspire others to emulate our winners’ kind acts.
Donate
Help us start a movement, one community at a time
Our founder is committed to giving $1,000 award each month from his own pocket, but we need additional funds to run the program here and to take it to other cites that have expressed interest. Whatever you can give will help us create a ripple of kindness.
