Philanthropy

In 2011, the band performed on the BBC's Children  in Need 2011 charity telethon.              

In 2012, they extended their involvement with Children in Need as they opened the telecast with a performance of their single "Live While We're Young". A prominent annual event in British television, the group said it was "incredible" to be involved in Children in Need as it was something that they had "always watched as children".

In February 2013, One Direction released "One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)" as the 2013 single for the UK's other major charity telethon Comic Relief. For ITV's Santa charity Christmas campaign, they filmed a set of pleas to their fans and the general public, asking them to donate £2. The band have made numerous other appearances for charitable causes, including the 2011 Pride of Britain Awards where they presented 13-year-old quadruple amputee Danielle Bailey the Child of Courage award at her school assembly, and the 2014 Royal Variety Performance where they played in front of Prince William and Catherine at the London Palladium.

One direction and Danielle Bailey.

In September 2012, Niall Horan organised an event to raise money for Irish Autism Action and another charity, called Temporary Emergency Accommodation Mullingar, based in his hometown. Due to overwhelming demand to participate in the fundraising, the ticket website for the event broke down. Horan's brother Greg commented on the website crash, saying that "there were 500 tickets and they were all snapped up pretty quick".

In 2013, band members Liam Payne and Harry Styles partnered with Trekstock, a leading cancer charity to help raise money for cancer research. As ambassadors of the charity, the duo collaborated to offer the chance for one fan and a friend to win an evening out with them in return for a donation to the charity as part of an exclusive "#HangwithLiam&Harry" global campaign. They had originally set a goal of raising $500,000 and ended up raising $784,984. Trekstock later added that this amount would allow them to "complete funding of their Hodgkin's lymphoma trial, in the hope of offering a much brighter future to thousands of children and young people affected by this form of disease." 

One Direction were named the most charitable in 2013 behind Taylor Swift by social change organisation DoSomething. On 30 May 2013, the band announced a partnership with Office Depot on a limited-edition capsule collection of back to school supplies. They also confirmed that a portion of the proceeds from the alliance would go toward an anti-bullying educational program intended to promote kinder behaviour in schools.

Live, Love, Move

In 2014, One Direction donated £600,000 for the Stand up to Cancer campaign by giving portions of their ticket sales revenues from their Where We Are Tour. On 15 November 2014, One Direction joined the charity group Band Aid 30 along with other British and Irish pop acts, recording the latest version of the track "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to raise money for the 2014 Ebola crisis in Western Africa.

In 2015, One Direction launched 'Action 1D' campaign to raise awareness of global issues. The initiative aims to end extreme poverty, tackle inequality and slow down climate change with the help of their millions of fans. It is part of the wider action/2015 campaign, a global citizen's movement that is all about the idea that 2015 can be the year when the world can set the agenda to end major global issues. One Direction will be asking their fans to describe the kind of world they want to live in by sharing powerful pieces of creative content, including videos and photos, using the hashtag #Action1D. The quartet also starred in a campaign video, appealing to fans to join the movement.