Today is Giving Tuesday,
a day
devoted to giving back, after the commercial excesses of Black Friday
and Cyber Monday. Every little bit counts, even if it's only $2 or $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 years ago with OMF (see
below) so that $5 was automatically donated from me each month, and last
year, I increased it to $10 a month. I don't
have to think about it or do anything else, and my donation now adds up
to
$120 a year! It only takes a few minutes to either donate or set up
recurring donations. And every little bit counts.
And there are some amazing deals in
place right now that will double or even triple your donation, turning
$10 into $20 or $30! All of the groups listed below that do ME/CFS research
and/or support ME/CFS patients are now also helping 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 great 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 - #TripleGivingNovemberOMF
- Thanks to generous gifts by multiple donors,
every
donation made in November (through today, December 3) is TRIPLED, up to $1,000,000! It's a great opportunity
to make your money go farther! This organization does some outstanding,
groundbreaking scientific research into causes, treatments, and cures for
ME/CFS and long-COVID, with doctors, scientists, and researchers in Collaborative Centers across the globe. You can read about their End ME/CFS Project here.
- Solve ME/CFS Initiative - Donations
made to Solve ME today will be doubled, thanks to donations from
their Board of Directors! And today only, on Giving Tuesday, another
generous donor has offered to also match donations up to $25,000, so donate today and your money will be tripled! 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 Solve Long-COVID Initiative here.
- Simmaron Research - Donate through their website and you can read all about their research projects here, including the first-ever biomarker-based treatment trial.
- #MEAction - This organization is focused on advocacy and outreach rather than on research, and 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, ways that anyone can help and take action, and you can donate to the organization here. They also have information on Long-COVID and ME.
- American Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society (AMMES) - they focus on meeting the needs of patients and caregivers through support, advocacy, and education. They have an informative newsletter, loads of useful information on their website, and advocacy programs. They also, uniquely, have a Financial Crisis Fund that I recently donated to, to help patients in
dire need of food, housing, medical care, or other support. You can donate to AMMES 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.They also have an online shop featuring all kinds of books, t-shirts, cards, and more, with proceeds supporting the organization. And you can donate here.
- Emerge - The primary ME/CFS association in Australia provides research and patient support and advocacy. They are now also helping to support the Australian Collaborative Research Center of Open Medicine Foundation. Donate here.
Host Your Own Fundraiser:
To have an even bigger impact on
these organizations, you can host a Fundraiser on Facebook. I
have hosted fundraisers on Facebook for my birthday every year, 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,
and share your fundraiser with Facebook friends.
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. And use that iGive link I posted in the previous
line, and we'll earn an extra $5 for Solve ME!
To
show you how well this
works, my iGive page currently shows that I have selected Solve ME as my
cause, that I have personally earned and donated $314.10 to them, and
that they have earned a total of $6,611.39 from all supporters! Isn't
that
amazing? Over $6600 just from clicking a button before we shop online.
Amazon is not a part of either program and got rid of its own charitable
donation program last year, but you can find most other online stores
on at least one of these.
You can leave a comment below.
