Support ME/CFS Research While Online Shopping

Every year, I intend to write a post about this great way to donate to ME/CFS research wile shopping...but when I do find time to write it, it is usually too late for most people's holiday shopping! So, I'm trying to be more proactive this year:

There are 3 easy ways to donate to your favorite charity while you shop this holiday season (and year-round). It costs you nothing at all - online stores have agreed to donate a portion of the money you spend on their site!

The one I use most often is iGive. You just start on their site (or use their app for mobile devices), choose your store or search for the item you want to buy, and then click through to the online store. iGive shows what percentage each store has agreed to donate, and they show a running total on your iGive page of how much you have donated and how much has been donated to your chosen charity in total. Right now, iGive has a member special going on - you sign up using my link, and they will donate a bonus $5 to my charity, Solve ME/CFS Initiative (then you can choose your own charity for your own shopping). This is an excellent organization that conducts dozens of hard-science ME/CFS studies every year, in fields like genetics, immunology, infectious disease, and more, with the goal of helping to develop diagnostic tools and treatments for ME/CFS...and hopefully, one day a cure! So far, according to iGive, my own shopping has donated $228 to Solve ME/CFS, with over $6000 total donated! And I didn't have to do a thing (except sign up).

GoodShop works similarly. You can sign up at the link, choose your charity, and then go through the site to your stores when you are shopping online. I use iGive more often, but sometimes a particular store will only be signed up with one or the other donation service. Both show available coupons for your store and also offer search engines.

Finally, Amazon has its own donation service called AmazonSmile. You sign up and choose your charity. Then, anytime you start from AmazonSmile, a portion of the money you spend on Amazon goes to your charity. Since we buy all of our supplements through Amazon, this can add up fast!

These are my three go-to sites for easy donation while I shop. Do you know of others?

Sign up today, and while you do your holiday shopping this season, you can be contributing to ME/CFS research! It's like giving ourselves an extra holiday gift.