In my new book, A Revolution in Kindness, everyone from Angelina Jolie to homeless street vendors share their ideas and experiences of the transformative power of kindness. I asked in that book for readers to send me examples and stories that might help us reimagine kindness as something more than a random act. This week, someone introduced me to Modest Needs.

Modest Needs began as an experiment by a American university professor named Keith Taylor. He thought, what if people of modest means could pool together what resources they had and were willing to share, and helped others with modest needs? Some might choose to contribute cash (the professor gives 10 percent of his modest monthly paycheck), while others donate their time as volunteers to help build a barn, tutor a child, or fix a leaky faucet.

A working mother who lives paycheck to paycheck and who could not buy her son socks, shoes and underwear for the new school year, went to Modest Needs for help. She was given a department store gift card. A single mom attending college could not make her car insurance payment. Modest needs made it for her. (Read the testimonials.)

Modest Needs is a brilliant idea - it does not duplicate the work of charities that cater to the indigent, it does not aspire to save the world, it has resisted the pull to bureacracy. It focuses only on those regular people who live paycheck to paycheck encounter temporary rough spots -- an unexpected medical emergency, a ill-timed bill -- and need some compassion and a hand up to get through their trials with their dignity.

That is what A Revolution in Kindness is all about.

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