Superhero charity ideas: 5 ideas for young families

‘You get what you get and you don’t get upset!’

As parents it can be frustrating when our children don’t seem to appreciate what they have, and you may have resorted to phrases like this one in the past. But there are lots of ways to chat to your kids about privilege, gratefulness and social justice – ways that will encourage action from within, not just because they’re being told to do something nice.

Today, we’re going to look at the idea of ‘everyday superheroes’.

Do your kids love Iron Man? Are they charging round the living room pulling gravity-defying stunts like Black Widow? Well, teaching children about ‘everyday superheroes’ can be a great way to put all that energy to good use!

And at the end of this post, we’ll share five fun superhero charity ideas to kick-start your family’s social justice journey.

What is a superhero?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines superheroes as ‘characters who have special strength and use it to do good things and help other people.’

Over the last year, we’ve seen thousands of people fulfil this definition, from the NHS staff using their skills to care for the sick, to the delivery drivers ensuring our food supply is maintained. They’re all superheroes!

Chat to your children about who has helped them during lockdown, and what special gifts they used to do this. Here are some examples:

Help your kids become real-life superheroes!

Everyone has superhero skills – you just have to look for them. And when we use our skills and gifts and position to help others, we become world-changers to the people around us.

So we’ve pulled together a list of fun superhero charity ideas for you to have a go at as a family. Why not have a read through these ideas with your little ones and pick one to try together?

Five superhero charity ideas

Donate books

You probably have lots of books lying around at home. Why not choose some that you’ve finished and donate them to your school so other children can enjoy them? If you’re not at school at the moment, you could gift them to a friend who lives near you instead.

Do some recycling

Being a superhero is not just about looking after people – we need to take care of our planet too. Could you take some bottles to the bottle bank? Or wash out some food cartons so that they can be recycled?

Super skills

What are you really good at? Can you play the flute? Can you speak French? Are you a footballing whizz? Maybe you’re good at washing cars or making lunch? Why not use your super skills to raise some money for charity and offer your skills in exchange for money! You could even get some friends to join in to raise even more!

Drop off some clothes at a charity shop

Some families have very little money to live on. If you have some nice clothes that are too small for you now, you can take them to a charity shop for other people to buy at a much lower price. Charity shops also use the money they earn to do other amazing projects in local communities. (Lots of charity shops have local bins for donating clothes or can even pick up from your house, so you can still donate to them, even if the shops are closed).

Be a monster superhero

Lots of superheroes transform when they start doing their superhero good deeds (think Hulk from The Avengers or Ladybug from Miraculous). Could you ask people to sponsor you to paint your face a bright colour for a week? Or maybe you could colour your hair instead? Send the money you raise to a charity that you care about.

These are just five charity superhero ideas to get you thinking. Maybe these ideas have even sparked some more ideas that you'd like to try out as a family!

Want more family-friendly superhero resources?

If you're interested in getting your hands on some more family-friendly resources to explore UK poverty and justice with your children, good news: we’ve got some Marvel-ous (!) new things coming up! By letting us know you're interested below, we'll make sure you're the first to know when they launch!