73 Community Service Project Ideas

Helping the place you love, doing the things you love.

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Updated: March 15, 2022

Community service is exactly what it sounds like: services that you do to benefit your community. If that sounds a little broad, it’s because it is -- community service can take a lot of different forms since there’s SO much you can do to help folks out in your area.

But that might leave you wondering where to start. (Spoiler alert: this is where you start!) We’ve put together a list of community service project ideas, organized by what you’ll be doing. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often spoke of a Beloved Community–-one that requires acts of service based on justice and equal opportunities.

Whether that’s collecting, teaching, volunteering, or something else, you should be able to find something to inspire you to get out there and do.

Collect and Donate Things for Your Community:

If you look around your community, you’ll probably find at least a few places that accept donations -- like food pantries, family shelters, and schools, just to name a few. Here’s a super comprehensive guide on running your own donation drive, and here are some places that accept donations.

  1. Collect and donate school supplies.
  2. Collect and donate backpacks.
  3. Collect grocery coupons for local food pantries to help them with costs.
  4. Collect and donate non-perishable food items.
  5. Collect unused makeup to donate to domestic violence shelters.
  6. Collect Halloween candy to send to deployed military service members who can’t be home to celebrate.
  7. Collect and donate hygiene products, including period products.
  8. Donate or recycle unwanted clothes and textiles to support vulnerable populations and protect the planet.
  9. Collect stuffed animals.
  10. Collect SAT books and donate them to a library.