For those of us who take advantage of various offers out there that require a credit or debit card to be used a certain number of times per month, I thought it would be handy to have a list of organizations that are happy to take monthly donations as small as $1.00.
Whether you are looking to make 10 transactions per month to qualify for a reward checking account at State Bank of Toledo, or one transaction a month to keep a 0% for life balance transfer rate, you can make it “automatic” and also do some good in the world!
If you are going to add to the list, and the organization does not specifically advertise the availability of $1.00 monthly donations, then please do not add the organization unless you confirmed with them ahead of time that they will welcome such small donations. Here are the ones to which I was able to make a donation:
Safe Harbor International Note, there are a number of "causes" that you can donate $1.00 a month to at this website, including Darfur, a pastoral sponsorship, hurricane dean relief and if you click around the site you can easily find 10 people/causes to donate a dollar a month to).
V Foundation Four Stars from Charity Navigator. (Allows monthly or weekly donations) Thanks Choe!
To enter a coupon code in your post please enter the following info:
Coupon Code:
Coupon Offer:
Merchant:
Expires (optional):
Restrictions (optional):
saving...
If you are going to add to the list, and the organization does not specifically advertise the availability of $1.00 monthly donations, then please do not add the organization unless you confirmed that they will not reject such a donation.
This is not the thread to debate the pros and cons of a particular charities missions, programs, etc. If you wish to discuss such things, please do so here.
With unknown tax consequences, you can donate to thousands of charities at CanadaHelps.org
And they all have a minimum of one (1) dollar.
And they all accept monthly donations.
And they all count as POS transactions. [shock] !!!
AIDS Research Alliance 3 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted. Comment sent with donation asking to be alerted if $1.00/month not cost-effective for them.
Amnesty International 2 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted.
Bay Area Rescue Mission Richmond, CA "Helping the Homeless & Impoverished Since 1965" 4 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted. Comment sent with donation asking to be alerted if $1.00/month not cost-effective for them. Update: "We are thankful for whatever you feel that you are able to give." "...just remind us that a formal thank you letter is not needed." (It costs too much to do that for a $1.00 donation.)
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area "Serving Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties" Not found in Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted.
Blind Childrens Center Los Angeles area. "Lighting the Way Since 1938" 4 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted. Comment sent with donation asking to be alerted if $1.00/month not cost-effective for them. Update: "One dollar a month is very much appreciated." "Every dollar donated goes directly to the program. Our administrative coasts are covered by an endowment fund given several years ago by a donor."
Earth Day Network "every day for everybody" 4 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted.
EarthRights International "The power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment" 4 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted.
Family Research Council 3 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00 donations accepted. Paper receipts mailed.
The Fund For Animals This payment will repeat on a monthly recurrence for the next 12 months. You may cancel at any time. (Note: Whatever date you sign up is the date each month that the donation is made).
Piedmont Environmental Council "promoting and protecting the Virginia Piedmont's rural economy, natural resources, history and beauty" 4 stars from Charity Navigator - $1.00/month donation accepted.
Safe Harbor International Note, there are a number of "causes" that you can donate $1.00 a month to at this website, including Darfur, a pastoral sponsorship, hurricane dean relief and if you click around the site you can easily find 10 people/causes to donate a dollar a month to).
V Foundation (4 Stars from Charity Navigator). You can setup monthly donations for $1.00. Can even set up weekly donations if you like. They don't take Discover.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation 2 star rating with Charity Navigator. "Best in America" from Independent Charities of America (one of only 1500 awarded out of more than 50,000 charities)
The following are Non-Tax-Deductible Organizations:
Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) - minimum $5.00/month. "Although we welcome gifts of any amount, due to the cost of processing, we ask that credit card contributions be a minimum of $5.00."
Make-A-Wish Foundation of America - minimum $5.00/month.
National Breast Cancer Foundation - no monthly setup found - unknown minimum.
The Nature Conservancy - minimum $5.00/month.
PATH - "David, thank you for thinking of PATH for your charitable contributions list. Unfortunately, it would, indeed, cost us more to process $1.00 contributions than it would be worth. I'm sorry we can't participate effectively in your program."
Peninsula Open Space Trust - unknown minimum.
Sea Shepard Conservation Society - Minimum $5.00/month
The Sierra Club Foundation - no monthly setup found - unknown minimum.
Snow Leopard Trust - minimum $5.00/month.
Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation - minimum $5/month.
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (via Independent Charities of America) - mininum $10/month
UNICEF - minimum $5.00/month.
Message edited by: barefool on 2008-09-02 11:22:32 CDT
zoop76 said:You can set up a recurring donation for: WOODCENTRAL'S 2007 FALL FUND DRIVEThanks! I added "not tax deductible" to the summary. Frankly, 12 bucks a year won't make a difference to anyone's taxes, but depending on how many of these things one has to sign up for, can't hurt to let everybody know!)
I joined the Humane Society today for a $2 monthly donation. I thought the membership was a good thing in light of my recent BoA Humane Society money market account. Won't be paying with my SBoT card as I don't have it yet. But I am paying with my Chase Perfect card, who maybe also wants to support the Humane Society and takes care of small monthly balances like this (combined with the perfect card monthly rebate).
jennatx said:I joined the Humane Society today for a $2 monthly donation. I thought the membership was a good thing in light of my recent BoA Humane Society money market account. Won't be paying with my SBoT card as I don't have it yet. But I am paying with my Chase Perfect card, who maybe also wants to support the Humane Society and takes care of small monthly balances like this (combined with the perfect card monthly rebate).I sent an E-mail to ask them if they'd also accept $1.00 and wanted to be added to the list. If they say yes, I'll add the link.
jennatx said:I joined the Humane Society today for a $2 monthly donation. I thought the membership was a good thing in light of my recent BoA Humane Society money market account. Won't be paying with my SBoT card as I don't have it yet. But I am paying with my Chase Perfect card, who maybe also wants to support the Humane Society and takes care of small monthly balances like this (combined with the perfect card monthly rebate).Humanen Society E-Mail said:...while our website lists $2 as the first option, we have many monthly donors who give $1 a month, as this is an available option to donors. We certainly know that $1 per month is very helpful to contributing to our programs. If you visit our monthly giving donation page again at https://secure.hsus.org/01/sustainingmember?qp_source=gabaho (where you set up an online monthly pledge), you can use the "Other" field to list $1 as your monthly giving amount.Note, again, this is not the case with all charities and I have been told by at least one (not on the list, of course) that they did not wish to take $1.00 donations because of processing fees. But its good for the Humane Society!
not that I disagree with you, but can you post the math that justifies spending $120 per year on this checking account vs a 4.9% APY checking like ING?
psychtobe said:not that I disagree with you, but can you post the math that justifies spending $120 per year on this checking account vs a 4.9% APY checking like ING?Nope. But I can give you soft numbers... $15,000 x 6.01%=$901.5 $15,000 x 4.9%=$735
Difference between the two is $166 which seems to be $46 more.
$100,000 x 6.01%=6010 $100,000 x 4.9%=4900
Difference between the two is $1,110 which seems to be $990 more.
I don't know if that is a precise calculation or not, but it seems the way to do the math, no? Plus the $120 does not cost you $120 if you itemize your deductions. Plus its good to give to charity.
psychtobe said:not that I disagree with you, but can you post the math that justifies spending $120 per year on this checking account vs a 4.9% APY checking like ING?Additionally, you don't have to "waste" money on charity to take advantage of the account, of course! You can buy your food or whatever you normally buy anyway. I was just coming up with a way to avoid the "hassle" of making ten purchases.
DavidScubadiver said: $100,000 x 6.01%=6010 $100,000 x 4.9%=4900
Difference between the two is $1,110 which seems to be $990 more.
I don't know if that is a precise calculation or not, but it seems the way to do the math, no? Plus the $120 does not cost you $120 if you itemize your deductions. Plus its good to give to charity.
thanks. don't forget the $1110 is not $1110 in your pocket, either, because of taxes. but i see your point. The 10 debit transactions are a killer for me, esp from a small bank whose rate may not be sustained. It's just oo much hastle, even for $50 per month after taxes. There are easier ways to make $50 than running 10 debit card transactions (or occasionally forgetting 1 and paying for it with a lower APY).
psychtobe said:DavidScubadiver said: $100,000 x 6.01%=6010 $100,000 x 4.9%=4900
Difference between the two is $1,110 which seems to be $990 more.
I don't know if that is a precise calculation or not, but it seems the way to do the math, no? Plus the $120 does not cost you $120 if you itemize your deductions. Plus its good to give to charity.
thanks. don't forget the $1110 is not $1110 in your pocket, either, because of taxes. but i see your point. The 10 debit transactions are a killer for me, esp from a small bank whose rate may not be sustained. It's just oo much hastle, even for $50 per month after taxes. There are easier ways to make $50 than running 10 debit card transactions (or occasionally forgetting 1 and paying for it with a lower APY).No sweat. It all depends on the size of your balance, as you can see. For me, its a no-brainer. On $100,000 I am making $82.50 a month. If I donate $10.00 a month, I make $72.50. The beauty is that it is a free checking account with free bill-pay and free atm usage in the united states. But this is not a thread about SBoT per se, but for any offer that requires minimum usage of a debit card where you don't want to worry about "forgetting" to use the card to blow the offer. Basically, I don't see an easier way of earning $50 a month after taxes than setting up 10 dollar donations to be made every month. The whole point here was to avoid the hassle of "running" transactions every month. Its automated if you donate. And no way to forget really either. You can make 10 $1.00 donations to the same charity on 10 different days and have them go every month automatically and use a charity that does not require you to "renew" the autopilot program.
I’m not a tree hugger or anything but I do find at times PETA actually does some decent stuff. Some times PETA goes buckwild and I completely disagree with them. I do not like PETA and ultimately think they should not be tax exempt and they blow a lot of things out of proportion. Anyways – I tried to donate $1.01 a month to them for the whole bank of America keep the change deal. I did about 50 transactions – I spent $50 and I got $50 back from BOA so in my mind BOA basically donated $50 to PETA by me doing this. I did this in a day and the next day I tried again – PETA put a block on the site and now only allows $5 donations online.
This may actually end up costing the charity more then the $1 you donate. I would try to select a charity you hate like me – PETA.
psychtobe said:not that I disagree with you, but can you post the math that justifies spending $120 per year on this checking account vs a 4.9% APY checking like ING? Look at it this way: You normally contribute at least $120/year to charity every year, right? If you don't want to spend an additional $120, just re-allocate from those $$ to do this. You're helping worthy causes and yourself (even more). Seems like a win-win to me.
WhiteGuy said:I’m not a tree hugger or anything but I do find at times PETA actually does some decent stuff. Some times PETA goes buckwild and I completely disagree with them. I do not like PETA and ultimately think they should not be tax exempt and they blow a lot of things out of proportion. Anyways – I tried to donate $1.01 a month to them for the whole bank of America keep the change deal. I did about 50 transactions – I spent $50 and I got $50 back from BOA so in my mind BOA basically donated $50 to PETA by me doing this. I did this in a day and the next day I tried again – PETA put a block on the site and now only allows $5 donations online.
This may actually end up costing the charity more then the $1 you donate. I would try to select a charity you hate like me – PETA.I did not include the charities that told me a buck was too little. I included at least two that advised me directly that a buck was good. The rest specifically allowed monthly subscriptions specifying a buck as an option. Therefore if you pick from my list you are helping.
glxpass said: Look at it this way: You normally contribute at least $120/year to charity every year, right? If you don't want to spend an additional $120, just re-allocate from those $$ to do this. You're helping worthy causes and yourself (even more). Seems like a win-win to me.
Edited to allow for additional generosity. But remember, that by splitting up your usual $120 donation into 120 separate donations, you are significantly driving up the overhead costs of the charity and leaving them with significantly less money to use for their charitable activities than if you had made a single $120 donation.
The next time you see an "expose" on the local news during sweeps month about how much overhead certain charities have, keep this in mind.
clampuke said:glxpass said: Look at it this way: You normally contribute at least $120/year to charity every year, right? If you don't want to spend an additional $120, just re-allocate from those $$ to do this. You're helping worthy causes and yourself (even more). Seems like a win-win to me.
Edited to allow for additional generosity. But remember, that by splitting up your usual $120 donation into 120 separate donations, you are significantly driving up the overhead costs of the charity and leaving them with significantly less money to use for their charitable activities than if you had made a single $120 donation.
The next time you see an "expose" on the local news during sweeps month about how much overhead certain charities have, keep this in mind.I believe you are incorrect vis a vis the charities on the list. They aggregate the monthly donations and process them all at once, and perhaps get a discount from the banks. Plus its automatic and they can count on the income in their budgets, etc. And if you want to stick with the 4 star charities do so. But the "news" is not going to "dis" dollar donations. If everybody contributed a buck a month, we could save the snow leopard by providing funding to eliminate need for poachers.
DavidScubadiver said: American Cancer Society "The American Cancer Society does not have restrictions on donations, we are happy to accept any amount that you may wish to give."
American Cancer Society is a horrible organization for what they are now doing. They are spending their whole advertising budget to push for universal health insurance. If you want your dr to be similar to a person u meet at the DMV donate. If not please donate to a real cancer organization (as someone who's mom died of cancer recently) or another good cause. Just not an organization making like it's for a good cause and really a liberal organization in disguise.
$1 is good to donate. Just not when it cost you the freedom of choice with health insurance!
Disclaimer: By providing links to other sites, FatWallet.com does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to FatWallet.com.
