GoPhilanthropic

Copyright 2010 Contintental

April, 2010

Go Givers: Philanthropic excursions allow travelers to see their giving in action
Melissa Chessher

Original Article: Continental Magazine

Until four years ago, taking vacations and helping others were two unconnected parts of Toni Guidice's life. The 58-year-old newspaper editor from Syracuse, N.Y., loved her annual trips to Key West and possessed a much-stamped passport with entries from around the world. She also had a long-standing passion for helping impoverished children: for more than 15 years she sponsored children in Guatemala through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA), sending $30 a month to help pay for school, food, health care, and clothing.

After wishing for years that she could meet the children who sent her hand-drawn pictures and thoughtful letters, Guidice decided to visit Guatemala in 2006. She bought her plane ticket and took part with 25 other guests in a week of activities organized by CFCA. The group took daily outings to see the results of their giving, visiting a camp for displaced people, touring a coffee farm that was part of a fair trade initiative, and exploring an area devastated by mudslides. During the week, CFCA also organized a fiesta for the sponsors, the children, and their families.

"The highlight of the trip was meeting Maricela," Guidice recalls. "I knew her when I saw her across the room. She was holding a picture of me and my dog."

It took Maricela's family almost eight hours to travel to the party from their village, but that meeting and what Guidice saw fueled her commitment to giving. "I don't know what I was thinking when I went, but I had no idea how hard some people work for so little," she says. "It's not something you ever forget."

After a return visit the next year, Guidice bought a parcel of land for Maricela's family and began sponsoring another boy from the same village. She now also sponsors two children from Kenya, a country she will visit this fall.

Guidice's experience reflects a growing interest among travelers who want to see the results of their giving first-hand and educate themselves about how to give effectively. In addition to trips organized by charitable organizations, the philanthropic travel trend encompasses a broad range of options. Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel, for example, offers the opportunity to help support microfinance, education, and sustainable development projects in communities in Africa. The Ritz-Carlton's Give Back Getaways feature half-day programs that allow guests to work in a local food bank or participate in music therapy classes for disabled kids. Not surprisingly, there has been a rise in the number of companies specializing in philanthropic travel.

Hands-on Education

Philanthropic travel encompasses a spectrum of choices, from costs or required donations of a few hundred dollars to tour packages that cost thousands of dollars and devote a percentage of proceeds to local charities. For many travelers, the trip is about education and understanding. "The key to us is having people see for themselves the value of the work that goes on around the world," says Lydia Dean, president and founder of GoPhilanthropic. "It could be as small as bringing school supplies or as large as funding a computer lab in a school."

Dean sees her company as a "door opener," connecting individual travelers and groups with organizations around the world that are working to better their communities. GoPhilanthropic's trips typically focus on one of four areas: education, microfinance, clean water, and women and girls. The company leads trips to assist nonprofits such as Bead for Life, a Ugandan program that helps women turn colorful recycled paper into bead jewelry, and Journeys Within Our Community, a Cambodian nonprofit that supports and develops clean water and education programs.

Dean also works with families and individuals who are seeking to give in a way that possesses personal meaning for them. She recently connected a Vietnam veteran traveling back to the country with a portable library project in Hanoi. "He really felt that giving back in Vietnam was something he needed to do to complete the healing process," Dean says. "He returned to Vietnam to volunteer when a typhoon devastated the area."

For others, the category of philanthropic travel offers the chance to invest sweat equity in the stewardship of a locale they love. "In the past, I think vacation travel was primarily about escape and relaxation," says Tom Armstrong, corporate communications manager for Tauck, an 85-year-old tour company based in Norwalk, Conn., that offers nearly 100 different upscale cruises to 65 countries. "But I think more people are interested in connecting with the cultures of the places they visit, and they look at travel as a form of self-enhancement. They want to come home feeling more complete, that their boundaries have been pushed a little bit."

In 2003, based on a program that started with company employees, Tauck began offering guests on its trip to Yellowstone National Park an opportunity to spend a few hours working on projects from the park's "deferred maintenance backlog." Guests help paint historic structures in need of upkeep, remove non-native plant species, or repair damage from rain runoff. So far, almost 12,000 guests have participated in the program, and Armstrong says 94 percent of clients say they would volunteer again.

Armstrong recognizes that some might view a three-hour commitment as not all that demanding. "We feel good about being able to contribute to the upkeep of the parks," he says. "By not asking our guests to really carry a heavy burden, we're able to create a program that's of interest to a much larger percentage of those guests."

Protect and Serve

Philanthropic travel is fueled not only by an interest in personal growth, but also by the global economic crisis. "The reason we're seeing the concept grow is that government budgets and aid money are decreasing, essentially increasing the level of need around the globe," says Brian T. Mullis, president of Sustainable Travel International, a nonprofit based in Washington state that facilitates low-impact travel and philanthropic programs for travelers and tourism outfits. "More travel businesses are realizing they have to protect the destinations that they visit in order to improve their relations at the local level and improve their product."

STI and its partners have vetted more than 850 philanthropic projects around the world. The organization supports its efforts by working with businesses and individuals who wish to give. It assists with everything from starting a foundation from the ground up to developing a giving-back program. Mullis counts cruise lines (Royal Caribbean), car rental companies (Enterprise), hotels (Marriott), airlines (Continental), and resorts (Disney) among the 500 businesses he's worked with.

Guidice credits her trips to Guatemala with showing her that one person can make a difference. For tour operators like Dean, one trip can expand a person's understanding and their willingness to give. "My goal is to make that word — philanthropy — accessible to us all," Dean says. "You can't describe the value of water until you meet a group of kids who don't have it. And you will never look at $350 — which is what it costs to put in a water well in Cambodia — the same way again. You have to go."