Best ME charity to support on Amazon Smile?

Saz94

Saz94

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I'm currently supporting Invest In ME on Amazon Smile. Do you think this is the best ME research charity to support, or is there a better one I should switch to?

ME Research UK is the only other option I think, as OMF doesn't seem to be available for me as a UK Smile member.

For those who don't know - Amazon Smile is where with each Amazon order, Amazon donates a small amount to a charity of your choice. So far I've raised £8 for IIME.
 
NelliePledge said:
I support ME Association on Amazon Smile which I reckon is a pretty good option given their support for the U.K. ME Biobank and other research
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Ah, that's interesting, I had been supporting ME Research UK through Smile, which I'm guessing is a good choice, but I know more about the ME Association and would like to choose them but didn't see them as an option. I do get a hit of "The Myalgic Encephalopathy Association Limited" upon searching on "ME Association", is that them??
 
EzzieD said:
Ah, that's interesting, I had been supporting ME Research UK through Smile, which I'm guessing is a good choice, but I know more about the ME Association and would like to choose them but didn't see them as an option. I do get a hit of "The Myalgic Encephalopathy Association Limited" upon searching on "ME Association", is that them??
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Yep.
 
EzzieD said:
Ah, that's interesting, I had been supporting ME Research UK through Smile, which I'm guessing is a good choice, but I know more about the ME Association and would like to choose them but didn't see them as an option. I do get a hit of "The Myalgic Encephalopathy Association Limited" upon searching on "ME Association", is that them??
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I have been doing the same. But I mostly forget to use smile rather than the normal link so don't end up donating much. But then these days I'm not buying much anyway.
 
Adrian said:
I have been doing the same. But I mostly forget to use smile rather than the normal link so don't end up donating much. But then these days I'm not buying much anyway.
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I just made sure that I changed the link I used to https://smile.amazon.co.uk/, although I do find that if I go to a product on Amazon via a different link then it will ask if I want to change it to the Smile link so that my purchase counts.
 
If donating to the ME Association, I don't think it will all go to research - partly research and partly advocacy and support - so it depends what your preferences are.

I just want to donate to a research charity - the options available to me are Invest and MER.
 
Sarah94 said:
If donating to the ME Association, I don't think it will all go to research - partly research and partly advocacy and support - so it depends what your preferences are.

I just want to donate to a research charity - the options available to me are Invest and MER.
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I think it's possible to donate directly to the MEA's research fund but not via Amazon Smile, so addressing the two available options here is my 'off the top of my head' brief summary of each.

Invest in ME - put the money raised towards setting up an ME research center in Norwich, and funding research with a focus on the gut microbiome.

ME Research UK - seem to have an approach similar to Solve, in looking to fund studies which have the potential to advance the knowledge base and can then be built upon with follow-up studies.


So your choice might depend on which approach you favour, a very focussed one on a particular area or one that takes the opposite approach, being willing to fund any study that they believe has merit.

And if you are interested in my opinion then personally I'm not convinced enough of the value of the focus on the gut, so if I had to choose between the two then I would go for ME Research UK.
 
Both MERUK and MEA make good decisions about use of funding. Important projects survive because of these two charities and as far as I can see they work side by side in a constructive complementary way. They approach things in slightly different ways, which is good. In reality I suspect that giving to one helps free up the options for the other so I would personally be happy to go through either.
 
Andy said:
I think it's possible to donate directly to the MEA's research fund but not via Amazon Smile, so addressing the two available options here is my 'off the top of my head' brief summary of each.

Invest in ME - put the money raised towards setting up an ME research center in Norwich, and funding research with a focus on the gut microbiome.

ME Research UK - seem to have an approach similar to Solve, in looking to fund studies which have the potential to advance the knowledge base and can then be built upon with follow-up studies.


So your choice might depend on which approach you favour, a very focussed one on a particular area or one that takes the opposite approach, being willing to fund any study that they believe has merit.

And if you are interested in my opinion then personally I'm not convinced enough of the value of the focus on the gut, so if I had to choose between the two then I would go for ME Research UK.
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Jonathan Edwards said:
Both MERUK and MEA make good decisions about use of funding. Important projects survive because of these two charities and as far as I can see they work side by side in a constructive complementary way. They approach things in slightly different ways, which is good. In reality I suspect that giving to one helps free up the options for the other so I would personally be happy to go through either.
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Ok based on that I think I will switch to MER UK. Thanks for the feedback. :)
 
Andy said:
I just made sure that I changed the link I used to https://smile.amazon.co.uk/, although I do find that if I go to a product on Amazon via a different link then it will ask if I want to change it to the Smile link so that my purchase counts.
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i do the amazon smile thing but it seems very haphazard sometimes it will link my account automatically and other times not . is their an easy way to make sure it allways goes through the smile part . thanks in advance .
 
Of course, there are other, non-Amazon, options, too :) I'm with another scheme called Easyfundraising, which presumably works similarly with other online retailers than Amazon - although admittedly I haven't looked to see whether it has any ME charities listed.
 
alktipping said:
i do the amazon smile thing but it seems very haphazard sometimes it will link my account automatically and other times not . is their an easy way to make sure it allways goes through the smile part . thanks in advance .
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Are you shopping with Amazon on a PC/laptop or a mobile device? If the former then use the link above, if the latter then go to the Amazon app settings and activate Smile there. Further instructions for using the Smile with the app here, https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=17337655031
 
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