How to donate your points and miles to charity

Your points and miles can do so many things, and one of those things is giving back. It’s not always the highest return per cent of your points, but even small donations can make a big difference in someone’s life.

The holiday season may make you think about what you have to be thankful for and how you can show generosity to help those who are poor and needy.

Before Giving Tuesday, here are some opportunities to put your points or miles to work to help charitable causes.

Related: Giving Tuesday: The 6 best credit cards to increase your charitable giving

Miles4Migrants

Founded in 2016, Miles4Migrants is a non-profit organization that accepts donations of points and miles and uses them to book airfare for migrants experiencing financial hardship. Using more than 775 million points and miles, Miles4Migrants has helped more than 43,000 people, from refugees to asylum seekers.

You can offer rewards, airline loyalty and credit card programs. This includes all major credit card and airline programs such as Air Canada Aeroplan, Alaska Mileage Plan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, JetBlue TrueBlue and United Airlines MileagePlus.

To contribute, most programs require a pledge of at least 1,000 points or miles. Once you send the pledge, the flight booking team at Miles4Migrants will match the donated miles to the person in need.

Remember that the matching process can take weeks. Miles4Migrants will notify you with a photo of the recipient and a story of how your donation has helped them.

You can donate travel vouchers and cash in addition to flyer miles. Miles4Migrants currently accepts multiple vouchers from Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue and Allegiant Air.

Additionally, cash donations also help cover any prize taxes, fees and surcharges.

How does this work

A former TPG employee pledged to donate 15,000 JetBlue TrueBlue points. Soon after, he received an email thanking him for the donation and information on next steps. He then filled out a Google Form with his contact information.

Sometimes, change is fast, so you’ll want to provide the best possible way for the organization to reach you. Miles4Migrants will also ask you if you have a choice as to who you would like your miles to be used for and how you would like the booking to be made.

You must sign an electronic donation agreement and provide the flight reservation team with your contact information so they can discuss using your miles with you.

JustGiving

JustGiving is a fundraising platform with over 1.5 million non-profit organizations, including the Malala Fund. American Express has partnered with JustGiving so you can donate your Membership Rewards points to a charity of your choice.

You must have an Amex Membership Rewards card to participate in this program. Once you’ve created an account and linked your eligible card, you can use your points at checkout. The donation amount can be fully or partially covered by points.

When you donate, your Membership Rewards points are worth 0.7 cents each, below TPG’s November 2024 rate of 2 cents per point.

Alternatively, donating points instead of spending cash at checkout can help reduce your contribution and is a solid option to consider.

Give a Mile

Give a Mile helps by helping loved ones get together to say their last goodbyes.

It served nearly 1,200 flights and contributed more than 54 million miles. Give a Mile works using Aeroplan points but accepts donations from United MileagePlus and other programs.

Donating credit card points to the poor

You can make donations using credit card points by using a fixed rate card to pay for donations and then using your points to “pay” your statement charge.

As part of Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature, Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card customers (and various other Chase Freedom and Ink Business customers) can use Ultimate Rewards points for donations to eligible non-profit organizations by 1.5 cents and 1.25 cents, respectively, until the end of the year.

Eligible nonprofits include the following mix of social and racial justice groups:

• American Red Cross
• Equal Justice Initiative
• Feeding America
• GLSEN
• Human Place
• International Medical Corps
• International Rescue Committee
• Leadership Conference Education Fund
• Make-A-Wish America
• NAACP Legal Advocacy and Education Fund
• National Urban League
• Outgoing and Equal Workplace Advocates
• SAGE
• Thurgood Marshall College Fund
• United Negro College Fund
• UNICEF USA
• The United Way
• World Central Kitchen

Citi also has redemption options for charity partners, including the American Red Cross and UNICEF, starting at 1,000 points. You can now donate ThankYou Rewards points for 1 cent each to a select list of nonprofit organizations.

Donating airline miles to charity

Frequent flyer programs offer the option of donating your rewards to partner organizations. Go to the airline of your choice for more information about the charities you can support with your airline miles:

Giving back through this relationship can be a great way to donate small points and miles balances. It’s also one of the easiest ways to keep your miles that don’t expire in programs that expire with miles based on account inactivity.

International airlines have similar charitable partnerships, so you’ll likely find options to donate miles to whatever domestic or international program you choose.

Donating to the hotel’s integrity points to the poor

In addition to airline loyalty programs, these hotel loyalty programs offer donation opportunities. Go to your favorite hotel program for more information about the charities you can support with your hotel points:

• Point Worthy: Link your Hilton Honors account and donate your points to a charity of your choice.
• Marriott Bonvoy Giveaway: Donate at least 2,500 Marriott Bonvoy points to various charities
• IHG One Rewards Giving: You can donate a minimum of 2,500, 5,000 or 10,000 IHG ​​One Rewards to various charitable causes

Bottom line

While the TPG team likes to use points and miles for travel, donating them can help someone in need, especially if you have rewards you can’t use otherwise, or want to help something but don’t have it. money to give to that right now.

Although points and miles donations may be considered tax deductible, it’s a good idea to double-check with a tax professional about a particular donation.