I read Christine Arena’s book titled, “The High Purpose Company” about a year ago and enjoyed it.   So when I saw mention of it in my Google Alerts today, I clicked through to read the review of the book posted 1/31/2008 on a blog called Understanding Travelers Philanthropy.  The blog gives a nice review of the high points of the book so I strongly encourage you to check it out, especially if you don’t have time to read the whole book.  “THE HIGH PURPOSE COMPANY illustrates to readers that a corporation does not have to choose between being socially responsible and making a profit. Rather, being a high purpose company leads to success.” 

Also on the site, you will find links to other information about travelers philanthropy - a subsector of the travel industry that has been around a while but is growing rapidly.  Eight years ago, a friend and I signed up to do an Earthwatch Expedition in Thailand for two weeks.  We paid our way there plus a fee to help fund the project, and volunteered our time.  While in Thailand, we worked with an international team of archaeologists and the Thai Government to excavate and process dig finds – pottery, jewelry and other items of material culture.  It was great – very educational for us – and we provided need dollars and manual labor to help their effort to document the history of the NE region.  And it was partially tax deductable….win/win/win!  

In addition to nonprofits like Earthwatch Worldwide, there are numerous businesses that specialize in helping people arrange volunteer or philanthropic travel.  For example, GAP Adventures (a company I have used for a couple of my international trips) also offers volunteer trips.   In addition, GAP offers other ways that their travel clients like myself can support the local communities where they travel through direct donations to the Planeterra Foundation, a non-profit organization developed by G.A.P Adventures as a way to give back to the people and places they visit on their tours.  “Through fundraising efforts and donations, we support community projects, local non-profit organizations and international charities that work in the places that we operate. The projects we support focus on the areas of health, education, community development, environmental conservation and employment skills training. By identifying projects that specialize in different areas, donors are provided with a variety of worthwhile projects to choose from and support.”  They also offer a “Dollar a Day” add-on to all their trips – an option I used during my recent trip to India.

What can you do? Where do you want to go on your next trip?  While I went on Earthwatch as an individual, this could be something for your company to consider as well.  Could you offer employees a philanthropy/volunteerism trip as a reward for their performance on the job or as part of a teambuilding effort?

Tags: Earthwatch, travelers philanthropy, voluntourism

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