After a lot of thinking, planning, and coding, I’m proud and excited to announce that the Nice Things Project is now ready for your awesomeness!

What is it? The Nice Things Project (or, as we like to call it, NTP) is the Girlyfight version of a kindness chain. Brigitte and I have had a lot of conversations about popular websites and one thing we noticed is how most seem to focus on some sort of negativity. We thought it would be great to create a project that encourages people to put something positive into their communities. This played into the motto we chose – Be nice for a change. Let’s take out a few minutes to do something uplifting and make a difference.

Here’s the basics of how NTP works. Someone does a Nice Thing. It may be paying for the order behind you at the drive-thru or leaving a flower on a coworker’s desk. A note is left that says the Nice Thing was done in the name of NTP along with a link to the website. Once the Nice Thing has been done, the giver enters it into the system on our website. The recipient then comes to the website, searches for the Nice Thing they received, and leaves a note about how the Nice Thing made them feel. Then they give their own Nice Things, continuing the chain. If you’re more of a visual person, we made a short video about the concept:

The acts don’t have to be large or costly to make someone’s day. The focus is on small, anonymous acts encourage change. By putting these little acts of kindness into an online system, we’ll be able to track the reach of your good deeds. Maybe if you buy someone a coffee, they’ll send someone an encouraging note and so on until eventually that coffee you bought ends up perpetuating the chain to the other side of the world. And there’s no way to predict how the tiny effort you make may improve someone’s mood or change their own behavior, even if only temporarily.

Check out the Nice Things Project and be nice for a change. It’s possible to give a Nice Thing even if you haven’t received one. In fact, as we get started, it’s encouraged. The more giving that happens, the more we’ll be able to round out the site and the system. We have a lot of great plans once things are up and running (including visual representation of the chains, videos, and interesting statistics) but we need you all to do your part and get involved.