Kindness in Action

Each year, Our Future is Kind and its president, Michael G. Neece, pursue kindness in action through annual giving and charitable actions. Since our founding in 2024, we have supported Feeding America and stocked Little Free Libraries with children's books, because kindness works best as a habit.

Our Future is Kind is our multi-author book coming out November 13, 2026. It’s more than a collection of inspiring stories - it is an investment in the future.

For the first three months following the book's release, 5% of all book sales will support the nonprofit kindness.org and its research-backed K–8 education initiative, LearnKind™.

LearnKind helps students develop the essential human skills our future depends on: kindness, empathy, curiosity, connection, and emotional well-being. Built on the latest science and aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, LearnKind transforms kindness from an abstract value into a measurable life skill that helps children become kinder, happier, and more connected. This program is used in all 50 states and more than 80 countries. You can learn more at learnkind.kindness.org.

Together, the authors of Our Future is Kind hope these stories inspire readers today while helping equip tomorrow's generation to build a kinder world.

Breaking Barth (2014–2015). For two years, Michael helped organize Breaking Barth, a taekwondo board-breaking fundraiser in Chapel Hill benefiting the Barth Syndrome Foundation, which fights a rare genetic disorder that affects the heart and muscles. The Foundation named him its 2014 "Breaking Barth Hero," after he broke his hand training for the first event. In 2015, Michael, Master Neill, and students of Neill's Taekwondo and Fitness broke more than 1,000 boards. Foundation Newsletters: 2014 2015

100 Miles for Campaign Zero (2020). In summer 2020, Michael and two teenagers set out to hike part of the Appalachian Trail, turning a pre-senior-year adventure into a fundraiser for Campaign Zero's work to end police violence. By 9 days into the hike, we made it 50 miles and halted due to medical issues one of our hikers was suffering. Everyone regained full health, and we happily smashed our fundraising goal of $3,500 with 69 donors giving $4,255.

Two board breakers, R. Watkins and

Master Erik Walker Neill during the 2015 event.