Ok, I just wanted to share this with everyone because I'm rather proud of my players for this. So, I'm the type of GM who is more than happy to pass out experience points for stuff outside of the game such as extra birthday presents or for getting a reference I put in the session. Well my fraternity was raising money to buy toys for children in a home for victims of violent families. Well each brother was asked to raise at least $50. I had several strategies in which to do this, including hitting up family, and a donation can at work, but I decided that it might be a good idea to offer exp. to my players if they donated. So I gave my players this exchange, for every dollar they donated I'd give them ten exp. My one player gave me $120. $20 from his girlfriend and $100 from himself. I was so happy with him I gave him a fate point.

Then, once we turned in the money for that we picked up a new philanthropy collecting plastic bottle caps for a larger philanthropy. For every 500 we collect a cancer patient gets free kemotherapy. Seeing how well my it went with my group last time I decided to tell them that for every cap they give me I'll give them 1 exp, but for every 500 they bring me I'll grant them a fate point. I can't wait to see the results of this charity. Honestly, I don't mind being generous with in-game awards considering the end results of their actions. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a good idea for every holiday season when the charities are everywhere...

I do this a little now and then. This tuesday was World Aids Day, and I'm part of a non-profit-org that cooperated with the university to arrange a lot of 1hour information classes, open to the public. So I told my players that if they came and listened to the classes, not only would they gain some info and insight into one of our times most horrible illness, they would also loose some stupid prejudice and gain some xp. I've also been known to xp-bribe players to come help a mutual friend with moving house, although my ethics forbid me doing this when I'm the one moving.

I personally am rather reluctant to offer in game rewards for out of game activity unless it is VERY relevant to the game itself. Providing mineatures, much needed supplies for the session, generating artwork for the game, buying everyone a meal when half the group is broke... Stuff like that is definately worth some token reward of some sort. Non-game related mitzvot should really be their own reward.

I like this idea. I would be more than willing to give experience to my players for contributing to fundraisers or charities I support. I'd even allow them to nominate their own fundraisers/charities, and give the one doing the nominating a bonus if they met their (reasonable) goal. With the state of the economy in the U.S., charities are hurting more than ever.

While I personally haven't done this (and I doubt that I will), I think it's a great idea.

In my DH group (player) and my oWoD game (GMing) we typically award XP primarily for in-game reasons, but also (sometimes) for:

1) Giving a summary of last session (or however long a particular player has been missing).

2) Taking initiative. Say the GM requested that everyone have a character portrait (either homemade, professionally made and/or "stolen" off of the net) and no one did. If a player showed up with a bunch of drawings, pictures, imagefiles or similar and helped everyone pick out an image they liked they'd get some XP in my book. If the person offered to draw the characters to the other players' preferences, they'd easily outpace the others in terms of XP (I'm easily impressed with people who know how to draw).

3) Karma. If the dice obviously disfavoured you and it caused your character great discomfort or death you (or your next character) get some extra XP. In a World of Darkness game, a combat monster of a Brujah ambushed a non-combatant Nosferatu and should've been able to kill him in one round [ Note: they were both player characters], but the dice failed him and after three rounds of flailing around, the Nosferatu had subdued him. When the player had to make a new character, he got a couple of extra freebie points.

The thing about giving XP for charity or lectures is this: the forms of charity I'm a part of aren't really that visible and I believe people should do it because it's right, not because they want extra XP.
(I'm a blood donor, organ donor, bone marrow donor, I give money to improve the condition of workers in 3rd world nations and finally I contribute to Børnefonden, who ensure that children in 3rd world countries have food, shelter, education etc.)