Donating Marriott Points to most US charities!
 

So I did a search, but didn't see any posts about this...

I'm a big SPG fan and was/still worried about the effect of the Marriott takeover...however, things are working out better than I thought (first stay at Marriott Brussels was nice) and the new way to donate points, basically is power by Network for Good, so most US registered charities are possible receiptants of donated points (starts 2,500 points = $5).

MRgivingUS.com

This seems like a great way to be able to get some orphan points to good causes and just flexible for each of us to direct what we want to give towards. Hopefully it helps the small group in Rwanda to get some extra donations too (Ihangane Project) since our mission is big but budget is small!

Donating points is great, but if you want to maximize their value, consider donating them to organizations that can use them for hotel stays. Then your 25k point donation can save the group $100-300, rather than just bringing in $50 in income to the organization. School teams (sports, debate, robotics, etc.) often travel to competitions and have to pay for hotel stays. The same is true for urban debate leagues, that provide opportunities for debate competition to low income public school students. Reach out to a program or school in your area to see if they could use some free hotel nights.

Small non-profits also frequently send their employees to meetings and conferences, so I expect that they could use your points for hotel stays as well.

The only downside is that this sort of donation is a bit more work on your part. You have to make the contact and book the room. But given that this renders your donation from 2-6x more valuable, it seems worth doing.

If you can't think of a program in your area that could use some free hotel nights, PM me and I can probably help you find one.

He was talking about a 2,500 point donation & getting rid of orphan points.

Cheers.

Yeah, I'm sure enough hotel points would be great for stays (we could use them at times), however, I'm not sure there is a mechanism for a small organization like ourselves to have a way for people to donate to us? Does anyone know a way?

In the end, though we need cash, not points. Not a great redemption value if you do the math, but for us $5 does a lot.

The only way I know is for the donor to book the stay using their points, and add the name of the guest to the reservation. I have done this several times. This would not work for a large organization that has a huge donor base, but it works well for smaller groups with which the donor maintains pretty close contact.

I've also done the same with miles, booking flights for kids to attend competitions. Another time I used points to book a hotel stay that was used for a prize in a fundraising raffle.

Clearly I'm not talking about orphan points that would just be wasted. But if you ever want to donate a larger chunk of points, this is the most bang for the points that you can get.

That requires use to know people with lots of miles/points and willing to book travel for us.

Anyone willing to help a great but small organization? We do lots with very little! LOL

That's great. Helping to the orphans through charity donation is really a great cause of humanity. I remember a few days back one of my cousins also helped the orphans by raising donation through this site for a great cause.