Best US Charities to Donate to?

OrganicChilli said:
How can you ensure the charity follows through? Wouldn't you need a legal agreement?
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Yes, if a substantial donation is made, you could have a legal agreement or at least a simple Memorandum of Understanding.

Organisations should take agreements of intent seriously. Probably a donor would not want to take a patient charity to court, paying lawyers rather than researchers. But, if the patient organisation did not use the money in the agreed way, their reputation could be significantly affected.
 
I don’t know how much they listen to such requests, but maybe one could make a donation to the OMF, specifying that the money should go to the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration led by Chris Armstrong and his colleagues.

After all they are supported by the OMF in general and the research being carried out there seems more interesting to me than most of what’s going on in the US.

If they can guarantee that the money ends up in Melbourne for me personally it would be a far better option than donating to e.g. ‘Solve ME'.

One more thing: if you’d like to donate to the OMF, be sure to do so in November, as they often run a campaign where sponsors double or triple donations.
 
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Silip said:
I don’t know how much they listen to such requests, but maybe one could make a donation to the OMF, specifying that the money should go to the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration led by Chris Armstrong and his colleagues.

After all they are supported by the OMF in general and the research being carried out there seems more interesting to me than most of what’s going on in the US.

If they can guarantee that the money ends up in Melbourne for me personally it would be a far better option than donating to e.g. ‘Solve ME'.

One more thing: if you’d like to donate to the OMF, be sure to do so in November, as they often run a campaign where sponsors double or triple donations.
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OMF Australia have a separate donation website:

www.omfaustralia.ngo

ME/CFS and Long COVID Research - OMF Australia

Open Medicine Foundation Australia funds collaborative ME/CFS and Long COVID research through Chris Armstrong's Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration.
www.omfaustralia.ngo www.omfaustralia.ngo
 
Silip said:
I don’t know how much they listen to such requests, but maybe one could make a donation to the OMF, specifying that the money should go to the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration led by Chris Armstrong and his colleagues.
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I have made donations to OMF with conditions that they NOT fund certain researchers. (Researchers that I felt were in over their heads).

There are good researchers funded by OMF beyond Chris—e.g. Systrom, Mike Snyder and Ronald W. Davis!
 
neurophusion said:
OMF Australia have a separate donation website:

www.omfaustralia.ngo

ME/CFS and Long COVID Research - OMF Australia

Open Medicine Foundation Australia funds collaborative ME/CFS and Long COVID research through Chris Armstrong's Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration.
www.omfaustralia.ngo www.omfaustralia.ngo
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Yes, I know. But as he asked about the US I thought it may be better to donate through the US OMF. As you can see in their financial report from last year, they also used some funds from the general OMF account to fund the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration.

https://www.omf.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2025-Audited-Financial-Statements.pdf

Jaybee00 said:
I have made donations to OMF with conditions that they NOT fund certain researchers. (Researchers that I felt were in over their heads).

There are good researchers funded by OMF beyond Chris—e.g. Systrom, Mike Snyder and Ronald W. Davis!
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I didn't want to state that there is nothing else the OMF is funding that could be interesting, but that I would trust for example the researchers in Melbourne to do something useful with donations. In fact I also think that the Davis lab has some interesting projects like the neutrophil assessment or the red blood-cell deformability.

Systrom though I am personally not a big fan of, if only because of his continued fixation on Mestinon and LDN even if it was clear from the outset that it would certainly be no help for those severely affected. I generally believe that anything which has no chance of ever helping to bring change for those severely and most severely affected should be strictly deprioritised. But that's just my personal opinion of course.
 
Silip said:
Systrom though I am not a big fan of, if only because of his continued fixation on Mestinon and LDN even if it was clear from the outset that it would certainly be no help for those severely affected and I generally believe that anything which has no chance of ever helping to bring change for those severely and most severely affected should be strictly deprioritised.
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I actually don’t disagree with this assessment. I tried mestinon once and it was horrible. But conversely I do feel like Systrom has expertise in circulatory dysfunction, and there could be something there for some patients.
 
Hutan said:
and of course I am a huge supporter of WE&ME and encourage anyone who can to donate to that foundation. I wonder if WE&ME could set up a US fund, maybe dedicated to funding US researchers.
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Further on this:

WE&ME is working on setting up a fund with Myriad USA so U.S. donors can support WE&ME with tax-deductible donations. WE&ME expect the facility to be available in Q1 2027. It's a work in progress, things are subject to change, but I'm sure you will hear about it on the forum when it is ready.
 
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DHagen said:
a number of them are looking specifically for US-based organizations
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Are you able to say if this is for tax reasons or just a preference to support work that is US based? The SequenceME&LC team are exploring options and it might be in the future that there would be a way to donate directly to SequenceME&LC via a partner US-registered charity or a SequenceME&LC US-registered charity account. It would be helpful to gauge what interest there might be that sort of solution.
 
Andy said:
Are you able to say if this is for tax reasons or just a preference to support work that is US based? The SequenceME&LC team are exploring options and it might be in the future that there would be a way to donate directly to SequenceME&LC via a partner US-registered charity or a SequenceME&LC US-registered charity account. It would be helpful to gauge what interest there might be that sort of solution.
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As far as people in my life, they much prefer donating to US charities because of the tax deduction or because their job does some donation matching that only covers US registered non-profits.

Edit: I'm not exactly sure how the proposed SequenceME plan would work, but I'm not sure if that would solve the part for donation matching. I think how the donation matching works is the workplace just provides a list of all US nonprofits, and you can pick one. So it'd only work if specifically SequenceME was listed as its own 501c3 organization.

Then again, I'm not sure if that many places offer donation matching, and it's limited to a relatively small dollar amount anyway. Just offering the tax deductible option will probably be very valuable. Offering an option that doesn't include significant currency conversion fees would also help.
 
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Silip said:
I don’t know how much they listen to such requests, but maybe one could make a donation to the OMF, specifying that the money should go to the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration led by Chris Armstrong and his colleagues.

After all they are supported by the OMF in general and the research being carried out there seems more interesting to me than most of what’s going on in the US.

If they can guarantee that the money ends up in Melbourne for me personally it would be a far better option than donating to e.g. ‘Solve ME'.

One more thing: if you’d like to donate to the OMF, be sure to do so in November, as they often run a campaign where sponsors double or triple donations.
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Just to follow-up on this. I mailed to OMF, they said that here will be a campaign in November and most importantly they said:
"your donation can be restricted to our ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center in Melbourne by including a note with your donation asking us to do so."
 
Silip said:
"your donation can be restricted to our ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center in Melbourne by including a note with your donation asking us to do so."
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In these situations, how can you be sure the recipient charity doesn't just shuffle money around behind the scenes? General question but using OMF to illustrate. So they get general donations and donations tagged to a specific project. If they get a big donation tagged to Melbourne, Melbourne gets it, all good

But does Melbourne also still get its usual share of general donations? Or are more of the general donations redirected to other projects that didn't get so many tagged donations? In which case you could still be indirectly supporting projects you don't like. I hope this makes sense

Do charities have rules or policies for this sort of thing?
 
forestglip said:
As far as people in my life, they much prefer donating to US charities because of the tax deduction or because their job does some donation matching that only covers US registered non-profits.

Edit: I'm not exactly sure how the proposed SequenceME plan would work, but I'm not sure if that would solve the part for donation matching. I think how the donation matching works is the workplace just provides a list of all US nonprofits, and you can pick one. So it'd only work if specifically SequenceME was listed as its own 501c3 organization.

Then again, I'm not sure if that many places offer donation matching, and it's limited to a relatively small dollar amount anyway. Just offering the tax deductible option will probably be very valuable. Offering an option that doesn't include significant currency conversion fees would also help.
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Same. Larger corporates do offer matching in the thousands up to tens of thousands.
 
Andy said:
Are you able to say if this is for tax reasons or just a preference to support work that is US based? The SequenceME&LC team are exploring options and it might be in the future that there would be a way to donate directly to SequenceME&LC via a partner US-registered charity or a SequenceME&LC US-registered charity account. It would be helpful to gauge what interest there might be that sort of solution.
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Any chance @Andy this will be set up for end of this year? Fine if not, but if there will be I will tell my family/friends to wait!
 
Ravn said:
In these situations, how can you be sure the recipient charity doesn't just shuffle money around behind the scenes? General question but using OMF to illustrate. So they get general donations and donations tagged to a specific project. If they get a big donation tagged to Melbourne, Melbourne gets it, all good

But does Melbourne also still get its usual share of general donations? Or are more of the general donations redirected to other projects that didn't get so many tagged donations? In which case you could still be indirectly supporting projects you don't like. I hope this makes sense

Do charities have rules or policies for this sort of thing?
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I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how it happens if the total amount at the end of year donors have ringfenced for one project is smaller than the allocated budget. But I think charities also gauge interest/whats working an what isn’t by what people are allocating their donation to. So I still think it can have influence.
 
Official response from a member of the University of Edinburgh USA Development Trust team. Work is also being done to get this information up on the Uni of Edinburgh's website, so there will be an even more official source in time, and I'll post an update here once that is done.


"Workplace matching: Yes, absolutely. Donors can use their employer’s matching scheme for gifts to the Trust, and we already have donors who do this for monthly gifts. Donors can also set up a recurring donation if they’d like to.

Directing gifts to the project: Donors don’t need to contact us to make a gift. If they’d like it to support the Sequence ME & Long Covid project, we just need a short email from them that says:

“It is my request but not my requirement that my gift be used to support the Sequence ME & Long Covid project.”

That wording is important. The gift is legally made to the USA Development Trust, which is an independent US charity (a 501(c)(3)), not to the University. Under US tax rules the Trust’s Board has to keep the final say over how funds are used. In practice the donor’s wishes are honoured, but the “request, not requirement” phrasing protects the Trust’s independence and the donor’s tax deduction.

Here are the details on how to give in case they’re helpful to have on hand.

The Trust’s legal name is The University of Edinburgh USA Development Trust, Inc. Its EIN (US tax ID) is 52-1802057, which donors may need for workplace matching or donor-advised fund requests.

  • Online (including recurring gifts): development-alumni.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-trust/make-gift. Click “Give today” to donate via PayPal.
  • Check: made payable to the University of Edinburgh USA Development Trust and mailed to:
    University of Edinburgh USA Development Trust
    1350 Avenue of the Americas, Floor 2, Suite 266
    New York, NY 10019
  • Bank transfer (ACH or wire):
    • Account name: University of Edinburgh USA Development
    • Bank: JP Morgan Chase, 26 Astor Place, New York, NY 10003
    • Account number: 817662221
    • Routing/ABA number: 021000021
    • SWIFT/BIC (for wires): CHASUS33
  • Stock, retirement accounts or donor-advised funds: please get in touch and we’ll help coordinate the transfer.
All gifts to the Trust carry a 3% administrative fee, which covers the Trust’s legal, audit and banking costs. Online gifts through PayPal also carry a 2.5% processing fee.

We’re always here to help, and donors are welcome to get in touch if they’d like to give another way, have questions about how their gift will be used, or run into any issues. I’m always happy to have a quick call with anyone who’d like to talk things through. But donors certainly don’t need to reach out if they’re happy to give on their own."
 
Andy said:
"Workplace matching: Yes, absolutely. Donors can use their employer’s matching scheme for gifts to the Trust, and we already have donors who do this for monthly gifts. Donors can also set up a recurring donation if they’d like to.

Directing gifts to the project: Donors don’t need to contact us to make a gift. If they’d like it to support the Sequence ME & Long Covid project, we just need a short email from them that says:

“It is my request but not my requirement that my gift be used to support the Sequence ME & Long Covid project.”
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That's great, thank you. I'll let my family know in case they want a place to donate again.
 
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