Today is Giving Tuesday, a day devoted to giving back, after the commercial excesses of Black Friday & Cyber Monday. Every little bit counts, even if it's only $5. If you, like me, spent way too much shopping online for the holidays yesterday or you just want to give year-round, you can even set up a recurring donation. That's what I did several years ago with OMF (see below) so that $5 is automatically donated from me each month - I don't have to think about it or do anything else, and my donation adds up to $60 a year! It only takes a few minutes to either donate or set up recurring donations.
And there are some amazing deals in place right now that will double or even triple your donation, turning $10 into $20 or $30! Any donations to groups that do ME/CFS research and/or support ME/CFS patients will also help those with long-COVID.
Where to Donate:
Here are some wonderful places to donate to support ME/CFS research and
patient support & advocacy--all are doing wonderful work and the
first three are the top ME/CFS research organizations in the world,
funding or conducting the bulk of the scientific research today:
- Open Medicine Foundation - #TripleGivingTuesdayOMF
- today is the final day of this generous gift by multiple donors, and every
donation is TRIPLED, up to $500,000! It's a great opportunity
to make your money go farther! This organization does some outstanding scientific research into causes, treatments, and cures for
ME/CFS and long-COVID. You can read about their End ME/CFS Project here.
- Solve ME/CFS Initiative - An anonymous donor for Solve ME has pledged to match up to
$25,000 in donations made TODAY. This organization does a lot of work in both ME/CFS and long-COVID research and advocacy!
You can read their newsletters here, including research updates and read more about their Long-COVID Initiative here.
- Simmaron Research - donate through their website and you can read all about their research projects here.
- #MEAction
- this organization is focused on advocacy
and outreach rather than on research, but they are doing some amazing
work with patients, communities, and governments! For instance, gaining
Congressional support in the U.S. is absolutely essential to increasing
research funding. Read more about them here, their home page includes ways that anyone can help and take action, and you can donate to the organization here.
- ME Association - This UK organization supports patients and research in both ME/CFS and long-COVID. Here's more about the organization and what they do, plus their current research projects.
- Emerge - the primary ME/CFS association in Australia that provides research and patient support and advocacy. They are now also helping to support the brand-new branch of Open Medicine Foundation - Australia. You can donate on their website at the link.
Host Your Own Fundraiser:
To have an even bigger impact on
these organizations, you can host a Fundraiser on Facebook. For Giving
Tuesday, Facebook has pledged to match up to $7 million dollars in donations! I
have hosted fundraisers on Facebook for my birthday, and it's very
simple to set up. Just go to the Facebook Fundraisers page
and click on "Select Nonprofit" (all of the ones listed above are
available), then follow the steps. You set your own fundraising goals,
share your fundraiser with Facebook friends, and then Facebook will
double whatever donations you bring in! More info on how it works and the matching gift today here.
Donate While Shopping:
And remember - especially this time of year - to make your shopping work
for you with automatic donations to your favorite ME/CFS charity every
time you shop!
Goodshop or iGive
have almost every online store covered between them - I always stop at
iGive first before doing any online shopping. You can also earn by using the site to search. To show you how well this
works, my iGive page currently shows that I have selected Solve ME/CFS
as my cause, that I have personally earned and donated $296.31 to them, and
that they have earned a total of $6583.88 from all supporters! Isn't that
amazing? Over $6500 just from clicking a button before we shop online.
Amazon is not a part of either program listed above but has its own charitable donation program: AmazonSmile.
Just sign up and choose your charity (most of those listed above are
options). My quarterly report from AmazonSmile from September 2021 says
they sent a payment of $1338 to Solve ME/CFS for the quarter and that to
date, the organization has received $22,792 from AmazonSmile! I added more to that yesterday. These
shopping links really pay off, with almost no effort and no cost to you.
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