Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria caused billions of dollars in damages and devastated communities in the Caribbean, Latin America, the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico. Wildfires in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington burned hundreds of thousands of acres of land, reducing homes and other structures to smoldering rubble.

Severe flooding in China and Peru drowned hundreds, while landslides wiped out hundreds more in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sri Lanka. Add a major earthquake in Mexico City and it’s easy to see why 2017 felt like a particularly bad year for natural disasters.

Hurricane Harvey has done unimaginable damage to Houston and the surrounding areas. It’s the wettest tropical storm ever recorded in the contiguous United States, dumping more than 40 inches of rain in just four days. Storm damages are estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.

Have some spare change that you throw in a jar after work each day?  Looking to use that change to help change lives across the globe? Compassion International is an organization that could use your help to transform the life of a suffering child.

Tim Glenn, Compassion International’s USA Communications Director, said he is proud to work for a company that makes such a difference in the world.  “How many careers allow you to change the course of a child’s life in a positive way?  For 1.8 million children every week?  That’s incredibly rewarding,” he said. With just pennies a day, you can make a difference for your sponsored child, and even take the trip of a lifetime to visit them through the company’s sponsor tours.

A two-week vacation in Sun Valley, Idaho. A three-night stay in a tropical villa in Belize. Seven nights in a cottage in West Cork, Ireland. Roundtrip airfare to Nashville and tickets to the Grand Ole Opry. These are only a few of the amazing experiences featured on The Charity Network’s online auction and sweepstakes websites Charitybuzz and Prizeo — with each one connected to a remarkable charity and worthy cause.

So now that you’ve put in time and effort to earn a bunch of frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points, you definitely don’t want to let those miles expire. Each program has it’s own expiration policy so check with your program to find the exact rules. In this post we’ll share some strategies for keeping your miles from expiring when that deadline appears on the horizon.

During a visit to Nepal, John Wood was simultaneously struck by the enthusiasm of the local students and the lack of resources in their schools. That led him to leave his senior executive position at Microsoft and start Room to Read in 1999. The organization’s scope has grown over the years, but its mission remains essentially the same: transform the lives of children in developing countries through education.

Dream Foundation began fulfilling Dreams for terminally-ill adults in 1994. Since its founding the organization has fulfilled over 25,000 Dreams. You can donate miles or points from United, Alaska Airlines and Southwest to help support their important mission.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is a nonprofit that raises funds and awareness for children’s hospitals across North America. Since its inception in 1983, the organization has raised over $5 billion for its 170 member hospitals. Those donations help provide medical care for the 62 children who enter a CMN Hospital every minute. You can support this important work by donating your Delta SkyMiles.

The Student Conservation Association (SCA) strives to inspire youth to engage with nature and to become lifelong stewards of the environment through hands-on service opportunities. Student volunteers learn important life skills while doing crucial work to help preserve national parks and other public lands. You can donate Southwest Rapid Reward points to this valuable organization.

Real Options for City Kids, or R.O.C.K. for short, is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides active and enriching programs to youth living in the working class neighborhood of Visitacion Valley. R.O.C.K. gives kids in this underserved community a chance to participate in activities they wouldn’t normally have access to, such as sports, outdoor adventures and a variety academic programs. Thanks to a partnership with United Airlines, you can donate MileagePlus miles to this worthy charity.

In 2010, U.S. Marines William McNulty and Jake Wood put together a small team of military veterans and first responders to head into Haiti after the earthquake. They were in Port-au-Prince three days after the quake, providing much needed medical services and supplies while many relief organizations were still waiting to enter the city.

Team Rubicon was born, and it has since grown its ranks to 40,000 volunteers who have participated in over 120 operations around the world. You can support their disaster relief efforts by donating your Southwest Airlines points.

Delta is surprising us with a Cyber Monday mileage sale; it’s not often that Delta lowers the price of a mileage ticket. And JetBlue is helping us to feel extra thankful this season by matching our TrueBlue point donations to charity.

Hero Miles provides free flights to wounded, injured and ill service members and their families. You can give American, Delta, United, Alaska and Frontier miles to help support this worthy cause.

In 2002 GlobalGiving introduced a new model of charitable giving that connects individual donors with grassroots nonprofits around the world.

Through this crowdfunding website, you can choose the projects you want to support, knowing that your donations will have a direct impact on those communities. And thanks to Hilton’s partnership with GlobalGiving, you can give HHonors points to help support these causes.

This is the ideal time of year to donate to your favorite charities. The holidays are upon us and it’s natural to give thanks for all we have and to want to help those who are less fortunate. Many nonprofits could really use an infusion of goodwill as the year comes to an end.