At the moment, you can earn up to 50x American AAdvantage miles when donating to Stand Up To Cancer. This is a way to acquire AAdvantage miles for two cents each while doing good, so it's something worth considering. I plan to make a donation, and encourage others to as well.
Cancer is the worst. Easy donation to make, whether or not you take the tax credit. Good cause, get a few miles, everyone wins.
The offer itself is not the best (obviously not at Conservation International levels...), but still slightly better at 2cpm than buying miles outright through AA (my current offer is a 40% discount on 151k+ purchases, comes in at ~2.25cpm). I suppose it is actually slightly better once you factor in regular credit card rewards.
As for your LPs they are a short DD delivery away...
I work in a cancer institute and I love this ability to make a donation and earn some miles. Whatever it takes to get people to donate. There are some amazing breakthroughs in cancer treatment on the horizon and I hope one day to say I am out of a job. Please donate!!
Thanks, Ben! Made a 3 figure donation to a great charity. Nothing wrong with the miles as a bonus.
the tax implications of this are interesting....why I am not a tax expert (other than I pay a lot of taxes and I have an internet connection) - in general, to get a deduction you cant get anything in return. Like if you go to a benefit, sometimes they separate out the cost of the meal...anyhow since you are getting AA miles in return - I wonder how the IRS would treat this and what valuation they would give it?
maybe someone has more insight?
Done. Glad to be able to help and in return even get some miles for my “hobby”.
Uh. So, they say that they consider it $0.03 cpm for tax purposes. If I donate $500, I get 25,000 miles, which means they "value" it at $750.
Am I gonna get a 1099 for $250 if I donate this? I mean, I hope not, but... I don't know why they would value it at more than what people are paying...
For the record, I support both donating and fighting cancer. I just don't understand their valuation choice. 🙂
Cancer is the worst. Easy donation to make, whether or not you take the tax credit. Good cause, get a few miles, everyone wins.
The offer itself is not the best (obviously not at Conservation International levels...), but still slightly better at 2cpm than buying miles outright through AA (my current offer is a 40% discount on 151k+ purchases, comes in at ~2.25cpm). I suppose it is actually slightly better once you factor in regular credit card rewards.
As for your LPs they are a short DD delivery away...
I work in a cancer institute and I love this ability to make a donation and earn some miles. Whatever it takes to get people to donate. There are some amazing breakthroughs in cancer treatment on the horizon and I hope one day to say I am out of a job. Please donate!!
It's a worthwhile promo. Getting some miles is just a gift.
AA expressly notes this year that donations $75 and above are not tax-deductible. No idea what $75 has to do with anything from a tax perspective - you're either getting benefits that are more than the donation amount or not. Could donate $25 and if AA is valuing at 3cpm still getting $37.50 in value so not sure why anything would be tax deductible in that circumstance in the first place, unless I'm missing something (which I may be!).
Anyway, who cares, make a generous donation, get some miles at 2cpm and support a good cause!
FWIW last year my miles from this donation event posted on October 29 (earlier than the promised December 1).
It's a worthy endeavor. However, if AA wants me to partake and contribute, they will offer me both miles and LPs. Otherwise, I'll find my own mechanisms to be charitable to these worthwhile platforms.
I not a tax expert or even claim to be an intermediate .
I don’t think you should get a 1099 because then wouldn’t you get a 1099 for almost every mile you earn on American whether it is flying, shopping, hotels, etc because American is awarding you miles for something you purchased regardless.
And regardless on American valuation for charitable contributions to deduct, so people will find a way to use this as a business expense at full value instead of as a charitable contribution.
I could very very wrong on both above, but just my initial thoughts.
Great offer and worthy cause. Having said that - the new ads on the site make it borderline unusable. My laptop freezes up when I open any articles at this point. I'd happily pay you a membership fee to get rid of them
Ben….the ads are ridiculous!!!! Makes this site almost unusable, the ads cut in and out, the screen image is pushed up or down. With all due respect, longtime reader here, omaat as currently stands in mobile app is one of the worst sites I have been on in a long time. Mike mcguiness
Add me to the list of long time readers who has given up on the mobile site, and the about to give up entirely, due to the out-of-control ads. Yes, I know-the business model. I also know-just contribute a ton and then no ads. That's not happening, but I'd gladly pay to keep going on the site.
A worthwhile cause.
For those asking about tax implications, here's my perspective as a tax guy. You'll have to reduce your deduction by the value of the miles received, which will be listed on the acknowledgement letter you get in the mail or email. However, no, you aren't going to get a 1099 if the value of the miles received exceeds your donation. You just can't claim the deduction. Unless you want to take a chance and claim the miles are worth less than what SU2C tells you they are (good luck with that). For what it's worth, I charged the donation to my AA credit card for the 50x miles, and the acknowledgement letter I received shows that only the cost of the covered processing fees is tax deductible. Hope this helps.
As a tax guy, did you ever looked into their 990?
Their related parties, umbrellas?
Where does your hard earned donation dollars goes into?"
Not a tax person but that's always been my understanding, but what does a $75 limit have anything to do with that analysis? Why exclude all transactions over $75? If you are getting 50x the donation will always be more than AA's value of the miles, so no deduction, and if you are getting 25x theoretically you should be able to deduct the spread between paying 4cpm and receiving 3cpm, no? (Plus the processing fee if you choose to cover it).
Just baffled by the new $75 limit this year.
Not sure what the $75 is about honestly. It might be the threshold where they've deemed the value of the miles received "de minimis". To answer your other question, yes, if you're receiving the lower bonus, in theory you should be able to deduct the spread between the donation amount and the value of miles received, no different than a charity auction kind of thing.
I call it Quid Pro Quo.
If you can still find a working card.
As a guy battling two cancers and watching for 3 more, I should donate to cancer cure research!
Interesting discussion on tax implications. I pride myself from graduating law school and passing the Iowa bar exam without taking any tax courses or answering any tax questions 🙂
We sold our DC rowhouse last year with happily big capital gains. Our Financial Advisor recommended getting a tax preparation person which we did. In addition to doing the 2025 return, She found an error in 2024 that gives us more refund - more than her charges!