American Express Membership Rewards cardmembers can earn up to 10,000 bonus points per year for donating their time to participating volunteer projects. For each hour of your time, you can earn 500 bonus points. You can search for volunteer projects by keywords and location at www.takepart.com/membersproject. For example, we searched for local opportunities in Colorado Springs, Colo. and found organizations such as the Colorado Mounted Rangers, Catholic Charities, Dreampower Animal Rescue and Silver Key Senior Services participated in the American Express TakePart program. To earn points, log your volunteer hours on the Members Project Volunteer page. Pending hours must be approved before you receive your points and approvals are given every three months, so you may have to wait up to 12 weeks to earn points.

Members can earn a maximum of 10,000 points, which is the equivalent of 20 hours of service. You can also donate points to over a million participating charities at http://www.AmericanExpress.com/give