JLJosh Liljenquist

Practical guides

Practical guides for helping people well.

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Helping someone can be simple, but doing it responsibly takes more than a good intention. You have to understand the need, ask what would actually help, protect the person's dignity, choose a realistic next step, and follow through after the first moment.

This library turns the patterns behind Live to Love projects into practical guides for people who want to help in their own communities. You do not need a large audience, a nonprofit, or a huge budget to use these ideas. Start with the situation in front of you and the resources you actually have.

Good help starts with the right question. These guides cover the practical steps behind verifying a need, raising support, protecting dignity, following through, and bringing other people or organizations into the work responsibly.

Browse guides by goal

Start helping

Use the Helping People topic hub for trusted referrals, direct assistance, dignity, privacy, community projects, and documented examples.

If you want to give or volunteer through an organization, use How to Find Local Nonprofits to Support to discover and verify candidates, then compare which charity or nonprofit best fits your intended impact.

Fundraising and trust

Browse the connected Fundraising topic hub to move from verification and setup through visibility, updates, trust, and documented examples.

Messages and wishes

For personal celebrations rather than fundraising outreach, use the Messages & Wishes collection to find original birthday wishes, congratulations messages, graduation messages, anniversary wishes, and wedding wishes. Each resource includes optional tone and length filters, copy tools, and personalization guidance. For broader vocabulary inspiration while writing your own sentence, browse the Positive Words collection by starting letter and practical use, then use the compliment words and phrases database when you want specific, sincere praise.

Construction and material calculators

For practical project planning, use the Construction & Material Calculators to estimate volume, material quantity, basic stair geometry, and pool capacity with visible formulas, unit conversions, and assumption notes.

Social media and storytelling

Direct help and partnerships

Start with the question you are trying to answer

I want to help someone in my community.

If you do not yet know whom to help, begin with How to Find a Family in Need to Help for trusted referrals and safe introductions. Once a willing family is identified, use the direct-family giving guide to compare cash, gift cards, goods, payments, and services. Then use the respectful direct-help guide to offer choices, the anonymous-help guide to distinguish privacy from true anonymity, or the nonfinancial-help guide for time, skills, transportation, connections, and practical tasks.

I want to start giving more intentionally.

Read How to Become a Philanthropist for a beginner-friendly approach to choosing a cause, deciding what you can give, setting boundaries, and building a sustainable habit of helping. When you are comparing organizations, use the charity and nonprofit evaluation framework.

I want to raise money for a specific person or family.

Start with How to Ask Your Community for Help to define a specific financial or practical request and decide whether a fundraiser is necessary. If it is, read How to Start a Fundraiser for Someone Else before launch, then use How to Write a Fundraiser Story People Trust for the full public presentation.

I already have a cause and need help getting people to care.

Read How to Get a Fundraiser Noticed Without Going Viral for personal outreach, community distribution, local businesses, reporters, and creators. If the campaign is already live but underperforming, use the complete fundraiser diagnostic. For platform-specific sharing, use How to Use Social Media to Raise Money for a Cause.

I want to tell someone's story without making their hardest moment the product.

Read How to Help Without Exploiting Someone's Story for consent, privacy, dignity, sensitive details, power imbalance, and public-story boundaries.

I want to organize something practical with a team or local partners.

Read How to Organize a Community Help Project for need verification, scope, volunteers, resources, safety, privacy, completion, and follow-through.

The pattern behind the guides

Across the public impact stories on this site, the needs are different: housing, transportation, fixed-income stability, care-related pressure, recovery, food, and other forms of practical support. The useful process is often similar:

  1. Understand the person before the problem.
  2. Verify what is actually happening.
  3. Ask what would make a meaningful difference.
  4. Choose a form of help that fits the need.
  5. Get permission before making the story public.
  6. Make money and expectations easy to understand.
  7. Follow through after the first wave of attention.

For examples of those principles in real projects, browse the Impact archive.

These guides are not a formula for going viral

A large audience can make some kinds of help move faster, but attention is only one resource. Time, transportation, a meal, a repair, a professional skill, a warm introduction, a safe place to stay, a fundraiser, or simply consistent follow-up can matter just as much.

The point of this library is to help you make better decisions before, during, and after the moment of giving.

Keep dignity at the center

If another person's identity, hardship, finances, health, children, home, workplace, or safety could become public, the standard should get higher, not lower. The Trust & Care page explains the public boundaries used across Live to Love stories.

Where to go next

If you already know someone whose story you want to share with Josh's team, read the Story Submission Guide before using the official nomination path.

If you are looking for examples of how support has played out in public projects, explore the Impact stories.

If your question is about how Josh's own work operates, use the FAQ for official answers.

Browse all resource collections.