Give back! How you can use your credit card points to donate to charities this GivingTuesday

This GivingTuesday, you may want to leverage some of your reward points balances to help out your favorite causes and organizations.

As background, GivingTuesday was established in 2012 as a global generosity movement meant to help inspire people to do good in their communities and around the world. Many people use GivingTuesday as a day to donate to causes they care about. Others use it as a day to volunteer and donate their time or use it as a reminder to make someone smile and show the world some light.

If your budget is tight and your points are going unused, the ability to use those rewards to donate on (or after) GivingTuesday may be a good option for you.

Donate points with American Express

American Express has been the perennial front-runner when it comes to using points for charity. Through a longstanding partnership with JustGiving, Amex cardholders can donate Membership Rewards points at a 0.7-cent-per-point valuation to thousands of charities and causes in need.

Even better, the portal allows you to donate points for all or part of the donation amount without the need for a specific increment.

While it’s not the highest-value option out there, if you’re sitting on a ton of points and wondering what good you can do with them, this could be the option for you.

Donate points with Chase

Chase has a redemption option called Pay Yourself Back that allows folks to redeem their Ultimate Rewards points at preferential rates for specific types of purchases. For instance, if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, your points are worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeeming this way, while they are worth 1.5 cents each with the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Use Pay Yourself Back to offset purchases, like groceries. — Use Pay Yourself Back to offset purchases like groceries — but you can also use it for charitable donations. YAGI STUDIO/GETTY IMAGES

With both those cards, now through Dec. 31, the special redemption categories include donations to the following nonprofit organizations:

American Red Cross
Equal Justice Initiative
Feeding America
GLSEN
Habitat for Humanity
International Medical Corporation
International Rescue Committee
Leadership Conference Education Fund
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
National Urban League
Out & Equal Workplace Advocates
SAGE
Thurgood Marshall College Fund
United Negro College Fund
UNICEF USA
United Way
World Central Kitchen

To redeem points this way, simply donate to the nonprofit directly and then log in to your Ultimate Rewards account to redeem points toward the donation amount as a statement credit through the Pay Yourself Back tab.

Points earned through the Chase Freedom Unlimited, the Chase Freedom Flex and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card are also worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed toward donations made to these charitable organizations through Dec. 31, 2023.

Citi

If you have an excess of ThankYou Rewards points, Citi has several charity partner redemption options. These nonprofits now include:

American Red Cross Disaster Relief
American Red Cross International Services
No Kid Hungry
SmileTrain
Susan G. Komen
UNICEF USA
World Central Kitchen

world central kitchen citi portal — CITI THANKYOU/THE POINTS GUY

Each ThankYou point redeemed this way is worth 1 cent, and you must select among $10 (1,000 points), $25 (2,500 points), $50 (5,000 points) or $100 (10,000 points) donations. These set thresholds limit the usefulness of using points, but it’s still a good deal for Citi cardholders who get another redemption option.

Bottom line

These credit card partnerships make it easy to donate using your points.

Amex takes the crown when it comes to the sheer breadth of organizations to which you can donate. However, Chase cardholders now get potentially more value on a per-point basis for charitable donations — assuming they want to support the choices currently available through the Pay with Points feature.

Hopefully, all card issuers will provide even more flexibility and redemption opportunities for causes as we move toward the future.

Additional reporting by Emily Thompson and Stella Shon.