Bonus Skymiles for Charity
Tl;dr: Earn at least 1000 Skymiles when you donate $50 or more.
One of my goals for this year was to improve my charitable giving, which I haven’t been as good about as I would have liked as I got my career underway. As I’ve ramped that up, it’s been disappointing that the credit card companies that gladly give you tons of bonus points to eat at fancy restaurants or fly to Italy generally offer no bonuses for charitable giving. Apparently it’s not as if they’re giving the charities a break on the transaction fees either–I often end up ponying up a little extra to cover those myself.
So I’m always happy to see opportunities to get extra points or miles for those charitable contributions. Generally these come and go, although AA has been offering bonus miles for donations to Stand Up to Cancer for a while now. United has offered miles for donations to World Central Kitchen, one of my go-to charities, in the past, and offers donation opportunities intermittently, and more often for those who have one of their co-branded credit cards.
Right now, Delta is offering a huge pile of miles for donations to the United Way. 1000 Skymiles for donations between $50-124, 2500 for donations between $125-299, and 5000 for donations over $300. This structure is a bit unfortunate, as it encourages the minimum donation in each tier: donating $50 will earn you 20 miles per dollar, whereas donating $124 will only earn you an 8:1 ratio. A standard 10:1 ratio like the AA offer above seems better to me. But still, any opportunity to get some extra points for your charitable giving (if you’re feeling particularly generous, you can turn around and donate those as well!). This offer is like getting $10-15 back on a $50 donation, a pretty good return by any measure.
As for the specific charity here, the United Way is pretty well regarded, and as Charity Navigator puts it, “if this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.” That said, it’s generally better to concentrate your giving on just a select few organizations, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend donating just for the sake of donating or earning miles. But if the United Way is part of your charity profile, this could be a great opportunity to earn some solid rewards for your next donation. Just be sure to donate before the opportunity ends on August 31st.
And if the United Way isn’t the charity for you, you can always make your donations with a card with a good general earning rate like the Capital One Venture X, or do what I do and wait until Rent Day and donate with the Bilt Mastercard.