Doing Small Things with Great Love: How Everyday Humanitarians Are Changing the World

Start making an impact today in your own community through 12 principles that can spark anyone into action.

Drawing from decades of experience in humanitarian service, Sharon Eubank offers a wisdom-packed guide on how to enact impactful aid in the world and especially in your own backyard. Whether you’re inspired by compassion or looking to enrich your life through meaningful service, this book will change how you approach helping others.

Through powerful storytelling as well as twelve principles of action, rooted in her own experiences, Sharon demonstrates how to provide sustainable support and avoid common pitfalls. Her principles cover everything from preserving dignity to asking the right questions to attacking root causes. You’ll learn the importance of finding local solutions, fostering trusted networks, and recognizing that real help is always an exchange of value.

This book isn’t just a call to action—it’s a blueprint for effective, ethical, and lasting service. Whether you’re involved in large-scale relief or simply want to make a difference in your community, Doing Small Things with Great Love will equip you with the knowledge and a path to act that empowers you and others to say, “We did it ourselves.”

12 Principles of Service

• You are most powerful where you live
• Find local solutions for local problems
• Trusted networks determine the success of the money
• The right questions reveal the real answers
• Everyone is rich and has something to offer
• Protect dignity, protect choice
• My solution to your problem will always be wrong
• Real help is always an exchange
• Spend energy attacking root causes
• Sustainability—what happens when the problem comes up next time?
• Volunteerism weaves social fabric and can be a tool for peace
• It’s meant to be fun