How Do I Choose Which Charities Will Benefit From My Trails?

Why Choose Your Charities?

You don't actually need to choose any charities. AntStorm sets your user account up by default with 4 deserving charities to whom all your earnings will be distributed. However, if there are particular charities that you would like to support, you can easily change and customize your list of charities at any time.

How To Choose Your Default User Charities

Following are instructions on how to customize the set of charities to whom the earnings from trails you author individually will be distributed:

• First go to My Nest by clicking the My Nest link in the upper right corner of any page on the site.
  
• Once you are in My Nest, click the Preferences tab, and then click the Earnings tab under Preferences.
  
• To add a charity, click the "Add a charity" link at the bottom of the list of the current charities. A new window is opened enabling you to Choose a Charity. There are two ways to do this.
  
• On the right side of the window is a link to a list of twenty charities recommended by AntStorm. These charities span a wide range of issues, and the charities on the list have been rated highly by Charity Navigator and Charity Watch as charities that have good track records and use funds very efficiently. You can browse through this list and click the red Select button next to any of these charities. When you do this, the window will close, and the selected charity will be added to your list in Preferences.
  
• Alternatively, on the left side of the window is an area that lets you search for charities by name and location. If you're looking for a specific charity, type the name of the charity into the Organization Name box and click the Search button. If you get too many results, click the browser's Back button to go back to the search page, and type the city or state name where the charity is headquartered (or located in the case of local affiliates or branches), and click Search. Browse through the search results list and click the red Select button next to any of these charities. When you do this, the window will close, and the selected charity will be added to your list in Preferences.
  
• To delete a charity, simply click the "delete" link next to the charity name. Note that there must always be a minimum of at least one charity in your list.
  
• The earnings from the trails you have authored will be distributed according to the percentages displayed next to each charity. These percentages must add up to 100%. To change the percentages, simply type the values you want in each box and click the red Save Changes button.
  

How To Choose Your Default Group Charities

Earnings from trails that are owned by a group rather than an individual user will be distributed according to the group's default charity list. Following are instructions on how to customize the set of charities for a group:

• First go to My Nest by clicking the My Nest link in the upper right corner of any page on the site.
  
• Once you are in My Nest, click the Groups tab, and then click the "Show/hide group details" link for the group to be updated. You will see the list of charities that the group's trails currently benefit listed on the right side of the page.
  
• To add, delete, or change percentage allocations for the group's charities, follow the instructions for these tasks in the section above.
  

How To Override Your Default Charities for a Specific Trail

In certain cases, you may want to have a specific trail benefit a specific charity. For example, if you build a trail about breast cancer, you may want that trail to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, rather than benefiting your default charity list. To do this, you can override your default charities for a specific trail as follows:

• First go to My Nest by clicking the My Nest link in the upper right corner of any page on the site.
  
• Once you are in My Nest, click the Trails tab. Click the trail name link for the trail you want to override, and click the Edit command in the menu. A trail editing area is displayed with a yellow background.
  
• Click the "Set this trail to benefit a different charity" link. The charity picker window is opened, and you can search or browse charities as described in the earlier section of this help topic until you find the charity you want.
  
• Click the red Select button next to the charity you want.
  
• The window is closed, and the name of the charity you have selected is displayed in the yellow edit area for the trail.
  
• At the bottom of the yellow area, click the Save link to save your changes. Now 100% of the earnings from this trail will benefit the charity you have selected rather than being distributed to your default charities.
  
• If you change your mind, you can set the trail back to benefit your default charities by clicking the "Reset this trail to use my default charities" link under the override charity name in the yellow trail editing area.
  

Video Help

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