20 Charitable Team Building Activities for Workgroups

Doing good for others makes you feel good, and employees expect volunteer opportunities from the organizations they work for. With charitable team building activities, you and your workgroup can give back to those in need while gaining all of the personal and professional benefits that come with doing so.

Updated: June 30, 2025

There’s no doubt about it: doing good deeds and giving back to others is a great thing for everyone, and charitable team building activities are the perfect way to do it.

In a study by Jorge Moll and colleagues at the National Institute of Health, researchers found that when people give to charities, it activates regions of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust, creating a “warm glow” effect.

And in our increasingly socially conscious society, this desire to help others transcends beyond our personal lives and has even taken on professional implications:

• 93% of employees who volunteer through their company report being happy with their employer
• 54% of those who are proud of their company’s contributions to society are engaged at work

So, if you’re looking for ways to engage your team, support them in their desires to do some good, and give back as an organization, we’ve got you covered with a mix of DIY events and charitable team building activities offered by Outback.

Here are 20 ideas you and your team will love.

Table of Contents

• 1. City, Park, or Beach Clean-Up
• 2. Charity Bike Buildathon
• 3. Volunteer as Virtual Tutors
• 4. Random Acts of Kindness
• 5. Host a Food or Toy Drive
• 6. School Supply Scramble
• 7. Volunteer at a School
• 8. Create Care Kits for People Experiencing Homelessness
• 9. Host an Office Clothing Donation Day
• 10. Host a Book Drive and Sorting Day
• 11. Help Build Homes for Local Families
• 12. Volunteer at an Animal Shelter
• 13. Make Art for a Cause
• 14. Do-Good Games
• 15. Make and Donate Blankets
• 16. Host a Sustainable Living Challenge
• 17. Wheelchairs for Charity
• 18. Host a Sports-Related Fundraiser
• 19. Assemble Birthday Boxes for Kids in Need
• 20. Spread Some Joy at a Nursing Home

1. City, Park, or Beach Clean-Up

Category: DIY

You can do some good in the world without it costing your company a dime—all it takes is some time and a little team spirit.

Consider heading out into your community—whether to a city, park, or beach—and doing a cleanup.

Pick up trash, collect recycling, and spend the day tidying up the local public amenities that everyone enjoys.

2. Charity Bike Buildathon

Category: Offered by Outback

Want a way to give back while helping your team hone valuable business skills at the same time? Then you’ll love this.

With Charity Bike Buildathon, your workgroup will split into teams to build, decorate, and put together an advertising campaign for children’s bicycles.

After each group has presented their bike, you get to donate them all to a charity of your choice!

3. Volunteer as Virtual Tutors

Category: DIY

Charitable team building doesn’t have to happen in person. Virtual tutoring offers a flexible and impactful way to help students who need academic support.

Partner with a local school district or a tutoring nonprofit to match your employees with students who could use help with reading, writing, math, or other subjects.

Some great organizations to explore include:

• Reading Partners, where you can help elementary students improve literacy skills
• Upchieve, which connects volunteers with low-income high schoolers for on-demand math and science tutoring
• Learn To Be, providing free online tutoring for underserved youth
• Paper Airplanes, offering virtual English tutoring to conflict-affected individuals around the world

This is a fantastic option for remote or hybrid teams who want to give back while staying connected as colleagues.

4. Random Acts of Kindness

Category: Offered by Outback

Philanthropy isn’t always about donating money or goods. Sometimes, it can just be about spreading some cheer and goodwill.

Random Acts of Kindness fuses the scavenger hunt concept with a philanthropic twist. This team building activity gets teams racing against one another to try and complete as many good deeds as possible before time runs out.

5. Host a Food or Toy Drive

Category: DIY

As an organization, you’ve got a ton of connections—and so do your employees. If you’re up for a bigger project, hosting a food or toy drive can be a great way to make a difference for those in need.

It’s not a complicated process to put one together, it just requires a little bit of planning.

Here’s how to approach it:

• Choose a Charity: Decide on a food bank or charity you’d like to support, then contact them to inquire about what they need. It’s also wise to ask if there’s anything they can’t accept.
• Decide on Your Location: You can choose to host a one-day drive where everything brings their donations to a specific location, or you can set up multiple collection points and accept donations on certain days over an extended period of time.
• Promote your food drive: Make sure to get the word out there about your drive. You can do this using email and social media, printing flyers, and personal outreach.
• Collect and Deliver Donations: Once you’ve collected all of your donations, drop them off to the charity you’re supporting.
• Thank your donors: Make sure to follow up and thank everyone who contributed! It’s often nice to send an overview of the drive, including how many items were donated and who benefitted.

Having your team work together to host the drive is also a valuable exercise in event planning, so your charitable initiative also has a team building and business-benefitting aspect.

6. School Supply Scramble

Category: Offered by Outback

Class is in session with this philanthropic activity where your team will be tested by a variety of education-themed teamwork challenges, share a special bonding experience, and support local children in need by competing to fill backpacks with school supplies and donating them to charity.

7. Volunteer at a School

Category: DIY

There’s another way that you and your team can make a difference in the lives of the professionals of the future: by volunteering at a school. This can include mentoring students, giving a presentation, or volunteering in a classroom. If this is something that your team would be interested in, reach out to your local school board and inquire about whether they need support, as well as what your team might be able to do to help.

8. Create Care Kits for People Experiencing Homelessness

Category: DIY

If you’re looking for a hands-on way to help people experiencing homelessness, consider hosting a team event to create care kits filled with essential items.

These might include things like:

• Toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant)
• Non-perishable snacks (granola bars, trail mix, crackers)
• Bottled water or juice boxes
• Socks and gloves
• Hand warmers
• Face masks and hand sanitizer
• Bandages or basic first aid supplies
• Feminine hygiene products
• Wet wipes
• Lip balm
• Small notepads and pens
• Reusable tote bags
• A handwritten note of encouragement

Break into smaller groups to assemble the kits, then deliver them to a local shelter or community outreach program.

Not only does this provide much-needed supplies to those in need, but it’s also a meaningful way to bring your team together for a shared purpose.

9. Host an Office Clothing Donation Day

Category: DIY

If you’ve ever looked in your closet and felt overwhelmed by the volume of clothing you own, you’re not alone—there’s a good chance your colleagues have felt the same way.

And here’s the good news: clearing out some of those unneeded garments can free up some room in your closet while also making a big difference in the lives of others.

Consider hosting a clothing donation day at your office and then donating it all to those in need.

This is especially helpful if you can donate clothes that people can wear to job interviews or at work.

If you want to make an even bigger impact, you can extend the donation invitation to friends and family.  

10. Host a Book Drive and Sorting Day

Category: DIY

Literacy is the foundation of learning, yet many communities lack access to books. Your team can help change that by organizing a book drive.

Ask employees to bring in gently used or new books over a few weeks.

Then, host a sorting day where everyone works together to categorize books by genre, age level, and condition.

Consider adding a personal touch by creating handmade bookmarks to tuck inside each book.

Once sorted, donate the books to local schools, libraries, shelters, or literacy organizations. It’s a simple but powerful way to support education and community development.

11. Help Build Homes for Local Families

Category: DIY

Looking to make your team’s philanthropic efforts even bigger and more impactful? Take on an ambitious volunteer project such as collaborating with Habitat for Humanity to help build homes for local families.

Together with your workgroup, you can get hands-on and literally contribute to building the foundation of a better future for families in need.

Habitat for Humanity builds decent and affordable homes around the world in partnership with families in need of a decent place to live. Habitat homebuyers help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage.

12. Volunteer at an Animal Shelter

Category: DIY

In the United States alone, nearly 6.5 million animals enter shelters each year—but only 3.2 million are adopted.

Not only does this make life hard for the animals who don’t find new homes, but it also puts an incredible strain on the staff and resources at the approximately 3,500 shelters across the country.

You and your colleagues can help make a difference in the lives of these animals and the people who care for them by volunteering at your local shelter.

If you’re not sure where to start, check out this comprehensive directory of animal shelters in each state The Humane Society of the United States.

13. Make Art for a Cause

Category: DIY

Tap into your team’s creative energy while bringing some joy to people who need it most.

Host an art session where employees create paintings, drawings, or mixed-media pieces with uplifting themes or messages.

Once complete, donate the artwork to hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, or community centers to brighten their spaces and lift spirits.

This activity not only promotes creativity and stress relief but also gives team members a chance to spread positivity beyond the workplace.

14. Do-Good Games

Category: Offered by Outback

This budget-friendly philanthropic team building activity is all about connecting with your colleagues to complete challenges designed to provoke thought, spur discussion, and inspire action pertaining to some of the most pressing challenges facing our world today.

With The Do-Good Games, your team will break out into groups and compete in text, trivia, multiple choice, and media challenges focused on clean water and food insecurity, health and wellness, community support, and global environmental awareness. Groups will receive points for successfully completing each challenge.

And, if your team wants to take this chance to give back to those in need, you can choose to upgrade your activity, add one of Outback’s care kits to your event for you to coordinate the donation with the charity of your choice.

Choose your kit:

• Patient Care Kit
• Hygiene Kit

This activity is also available in Virtual and Self-Hosted formats.

15. Make and Donate Blankets

Category: DIY

There are an estimated 582,000 people experiencing homelessness in the United States. If you’re looking for ways to provide them with support, getting your team together to hand-make and donate blankets is an amazing way to help—especially in states where the winters are harsh.

To do so, you’ll need:

• Different types and colors of fabrics
• Sewing machines
• Needles
• Threads
• Scissors
• Measuring tapes
• Any additional decorations you might want to add to your blankets

Once you’ve got your materials assembled, that’s where the team building aspect comes in. Break out into teams and task each team with:

• Dividing the work of sewing, cutting, and decorating
• Set parameters for the size of the blanket each team should aim for
• Regroup once everyone’s done making their blankets to discuss what they learned from the experience

Since you’ll need some space to work, it might be worth taking this team building activity off-site.    

16. Host a Sustainable Living Challenge

Category: DIY

Giving back doesn’t always require dollars and cents—it can also involve everyone doing their own small part to make a difference in the long term. And sustainability is a perfect place to start.

To start, create a list of simple sustainability initiatives each person can implement into their daily lives. This can include things like:

• Setting up a recycling bin
• Creating a compost pile
• Carpooling to work
• Shutting off lights when they don’t need them on
• Investing in reusable straws and portable cups
• Switching over to eco-friendly lightbulbs (at home and in the office)
• Drinking tap water rather than buying bottles
• Purchasing locally-grown food to cut down on the emissions required to transport groceries
• Using reusable bags
• Take public transit

The opportunities are virtually endless. Your organization can also provide a small stipend to help employees implement these changes.

In order to get everyone engaged, create a weekly checklist with each sustainability initiative listed. Ask each employee to check off which items they implemented or maintained during that week. Then have the group meet each week to discuss the steps they’re taking and what they’ve learned in doing so.

17. Wheelchairs for Charity

Category: Offered by Outback

Doing good deeds has been scientifically proven to reduce stress and make people feel better. That’s why philanthropic team building activities are a big hit. Our Wheelchairs for Charity activity fuses philanthropy with real-world learning outcomes to help participants give back while sharpening their business skills. Together, teams will build and test fully functional wheelchairs before donating them to those in need. This exercise is great for helping leadership team members increase their empathy while enhancing their communication and collaboration skills.

18. Host a Sports-Related Fundraiser

Category: DIY

Is your team into fitness? Or are there members of your team who would like to focus more on their health and wellness?

If so, consider hosting a goal-oriented, sports-based fundraiser.

For instance, you could plan a 5-kilometer or 10-kilometer run that employees can sign up for if they’re interested. Give them some time to prepare and encourage them to take some time out of each work week to train together.

Your employees can raise funds along the way and then donate them to the charity of your group’s choice.

19. Assemble Birthday Boxes for Kids in Need

Category: DIY

Every child deserves to feel special on their birthday—but not all families can afford a celebration.

Gather your team to assemble “birthday boxes” filled with party essentials that help families throw a small celebration at home.

These might include things like:

• Cake mix and frosting
• Candles
• Birthday cards
• Party hats
• Balloons and streamers
• Small toys or books
• Stickers or temporary tattoos
• Plates, cups, napkins, and utensils in festive colors
• Confetti or party favors
• Gift bags or wrapping paper
• A personalized birthday note from your team

Divide the shopping list among team members, then come together to pack the boxes and decorate them.

Partner with local food banks, children’s charities, or social service organizations to distribute the boxes.

It’s a heartfelt way to bring joy to children and build camaraderie within your team.

20. Spread Some Joy at a Nursing Home

Category: DIY

Loneliness is one of the biggest challenges faced by the elderly. In fact, about 50% of people over the age of 80 report that they’re experiencing loneliness.

Nursing homes are essential because these facilities provide basic medical services and supervision to residents. But human interaction is always an added benefit.

By visiting and spending some time with the elderly, you and your team members can brighten residents’ days and spread a little joy.

You can do things like:

• Lead an exercise class
• Wash windows
• Help with gardening
• Answer the phone at the reception desk
• Help with fundraising
• Distribute mail

If this is something your team would be interested in, look for local nursing homes in your areas then reach out and see how you might be able to help.

In the modern workforce, employees want to work for organizations that believe in giving back to those in need and provide opportunities to do so. And with these 13 charitable team building activity ideas, you and your colleagues can do some good, make a difference in the lives of others, and enjoy all of the personal and professional benefits that come with doing so.