Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Charity Miles + Strava

If you have been around my corner of the InterWebs for a couple months, you may remember that I did a little thing called #Carlees34. For the 34 days leading up to my 34th birthday, I did at least one intentional act of kindness a day. It was my attempt at putting a little extra love and goodness back into the world around me. #DoGood #SpreadKindness


One such act came when I signed up for Charity Miles. If you haven't heard of Charity Miles, let me tell you about it.

Since I was sharing my acts on social media (to help encourage others to join in),
this was a shot of my first run using the app (and my attempt at what the logo looked like)

Charity Miles is a socially-driven company connecting charities, individuals, and corporate sponsors to create social change. Their product is an iPhone/Android app enabling you to earn money for charity every time you walk, run, bike, skip, dance or do any human-centered activity. So far their members have earned over $2.75 million for charity!

Source

Just choose from 1 of the over 40 charity partners like Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity, She's The First, National Park Foundation or World Wildlife Fund and get moving. When you finish, you have the option to share your activity on Facebook or Twitter, which helps build awareness about the cause you supported and to say thanks to your sponsor.

Source

Based on how far you go, you will earn money for charity just by using the app. The money comes from the corporate sponsors who are re-purposing their advertising budgets for good. The app uses your phone's GPS to track your exercise. Each time you open it up, you can select a charity. You'll then earn 10 cents a mile for biking and 25 cents a mile for walking and running. While the app is open, they show you an ad from the sponsor donating the money.

It's literally like free money donated to a charity for doing something you were going to do anyway! I mean, everyone wins!

When I first signed up for Charity Miles in August, the only option was to have the app open and tracking while doing your activity. Since then (as recently as in the last week or two), Charity Miles has integrated with Strava and now you can sync your activity from Strava. I find this extra awesome because before, when using the Charity Miles app, I found my battery was quickly dying from having my GPS location service running constantly, but now that isn't a requirement. (And because it would drain my battery I was only using it on my shorter runs and therefore not getting as much money for charity as I could've been.) What's even better is that Garmin Connect (the app that syncs all of the info from my Garmin watch) links with Strava, which then transfers the info to Charity Miles - so essentially I don't have to run any apps while running (saving my battery life for important things like my camera or map services) and can still raise money for charity! [NOTE: This is currently only an option on iPhones, but they are working on the integration for the Android market as we speak!]


In fact, as of Friday of last week, Brooks teamed up with Charity Miles for a partnership to help underfunded high schools get the gear they need to perform at their best! They’re hoping to collectively run 10,000 miles to unlock a special donation to the Brooks Booster Club. This special donation would provide grants to two under-resourced high schools in addition to the 25 they donate to currently. The grant each school will receive includes training and racing shoes, racing uniforms and warm-ups for a 30-person team and $2,000 to help with expenses including pay-to-play fees, meet entries, transportation costs, etc. Through its Booster Club, Brooks will have invested more than $1.2 million in cash and product by the end of the year, providing for upwards of 3,500 young runners since the program’s 2015 inception. #AMAZEBALLS

What I saw when I was scrolling through my Charity Miles app

I hope this post didn't come off like I was trying to sell you on an app or anything... Like I said, everything is FREE for you... Now that you don't even have to remember to open the Charity Miles app before heading out on a run, who wouldn't want to use it?! Go out for your run or ride like normal and get FREE MONEY for a charity of your choice! If you were going to get active anyway, you might as well get active and raise money for a cause, right?! It's like a win-win-win! 


**UPDATE - Because many of you have asked (and apparently I didn't spell out the steps in the original post - sorry about that), here's HOW to link your Strava account with your Charity Miles account {which will transfer the info on its own}:
Step 1: Open Charity Miles App
Step 2: Click the "cog" wheel in the upper right hand corner for your settings
Step 3: Select "Strava" by clicking the plus sign next to the app {there should be a plus mark by three different apps you can sync together (Walgreens Balance Rewards, Just Giving, and Strava)}
Step 4: Go through the steps of authorizing the sync between the apps
As I mentioned, when I upload my workout from my watch to my Garmin Connect app on my iPhone, my miles sync automatically with Strava, then with Charity Miles. I don't have to do anything once I've approved the syncing of apps.

What's your favorite charity?

17 comments:

Unknown said...

How do you connect your Strava account to your Charity Miles account please? Simply join the Charity Miles group on Strava? There seems to be very little information on how to do this on the Charity Miles website :(

Anonymous said...

I would also like to know how to link the strava account to charity miles. Thanks!

kiskandar said...

me too..

Kim said...

Me too

Unknown said...

All you have to do is open the charity miles app on your phone, hit the settings button on the top right hand corner and there should be a plus mark by three different apps you can sync together (Walgreens balance rewards, justgiving, and strava). Once you hit the plus button it will go through the steps of authorizing the sync between the apps. this is on Android and don't know if it's any different on iPhones

Steve Biggs said...

Thanks Chevonne. When you explain it like that it's actually quite simple! Doh! :) It's connected. I'd never noticed the settings cog in the top right-hand corner before. Looking forward to trying it out tomorrow.

Terry McFarlane said...

It seems like charity miles will move activities to strava, but i am uncertain that strava will move miles to charity. I have been looking for a way to get my indoor bike miles to count and thought strava might be the answer.

Carlee McDot said...

Terry - Your Strava should move your miles over to Charity Miles as long as it is linked on your Charity Miles app. I know for my "indoor biking" on my Garmin I don't actually accumulate miles because I am not using a foot pod with my watch. If your Strava shows miles for your indoor bike workout, then that should definitely transfer over to Charity Miles.

Dx8 said...

Interesting.. for me miles are moving from charity to Strava, not the other way.. I tried deleting and reinstalling the apps, still no luck.. will continue to watch

Anonymous said...

Ok, now Strava is syncing my miles into Charity miles, can see the miles in my profile. But miles are not posted/counted /contributed to my teams

Steve Biggs said...

Gene Gurkoff the Charity Miles founder contacted me when I raised the team issue with support. Currently any miles transferred over from Strava do NOT count towards teams but they are working on remedying this

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the headsup Steve.

Unknown said...

Any updates on the Android integration?

Anonymous said...

I'm running a Galaxy Note8 and the Strava integration appears to be available (will test later). The CM app designers kind of hid the settings cog in the guy's shirt kissing the puppy in the photo, but it's right there on his trapezius lol.

Anonymous said...

Note8 update: It successfully recorded a 3 mile test run from Strava. $0.75 to ASPCA yay lol

gosselindustin49 said...

One of the best ways to sync your fitness data from strava to Charity miles is using the Garmin connect app. If you are using a Garmin watch, you can easily do it using the Connect app. The best part of doing so is that you don't have to run any additional app while running, dancing or doing the other physical activity. The watch will record the data which can be synced later to Strava and then to Charity miles. To get detailed procedure, click here. In case you need any further assistnace you can contact Garmin Experts anytime.

for more: https://garmingpsmap.net/how-to-sync-your-activities-automatically-to-strava/

Tom Hayden said...

Interesting.. for me, miles are moving from charity to Strava, not the other way. I tried deleting and reinstalling the apps. Still no luck.. will continue to watch.