Travel brings us up close to some of our planet’s greatest natural wonders and connects us with cultures around the globe. We value & support our travel partners that have made a commitment to sustainable travel practices. Today we wanted to take the time to share charities that support conservation, community and culture around the world.
- Pack for a Purpose: This is a way to make a big impact in the communities you visit when you travel. Keep a small amount of space in your luggage to pack supplies needed by community projects around the world. Since 2010 Pack for a Purpose travelers has taken over 428,522 pounds of supplies meeting essential needs in over 60 countries.
- Sustainable Travel International: Their mission is to protect and conserve the planet’s most vulnerable destinations by transforming tourism’s impact on nature and people and maximizing its positive benefits for people, cultures, nature, and wildlife around the globe. “Through our work, governments, companies, NGOs and local communities can unite and use tourism to achieve the right balance between economic development, green growth, and protection of their natural and cultural assets.”
- Sierra Club Foundation: Founded in 1960, the Sierra Club Foundation works with individual and institutional donors to maximize financial support for strategic campaigns, provide flexible funding for innovation, help build capacity in the environmental movement and create partnerships with a broad spectrum of allied organizations that further shared environmental goals. They provide charitable grants to non-profit organizations to support scientific, educational, literary, organizing, advocacy, and legal programs to further their goals. They promote efforts to educate and empower people to protect and improve the natural and human environment.
- Palmetto Bluff Conservancy: The Conservancy at Palmetto Bluff was founded in 2003 with a mission of protecting the lush maritime forests and winding tidal creeks that define the spectacular geography of the land that is home to Palmetto Bluff. Every home site or home sale funds a non-profit organization that is dedicated to protecting the natural resources on the property. The Conservancy oversees the natural and historical world of Palmetto Bluff, and the organization responsible for educating everyone involved in the development of a piece of property.
- Buy an Acre: This program seeks to provide rainforest protection by non-residents purchasing tracts of land to support the efforts of traditional rainforest inhabitants to gain recognition of their ancestral rights and traditional ways of life. It is not uncommon for loggers, oil companies, farmers, cattle ranchers or miners to invade regions rich in trees and minerals, even if they are supposedly protected by park status or land deeds. Protect an Acre supports projects all over the world, wherever there are forests to be protected.
- Plant A Tree: A non-profit organization on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting a tree. One Dollar = One Tree. Trees help clean the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to over 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. They also provide jobs to over 16 billion people, absorb harmful carbon from the atmosphere, and are key ingredients in 25% of all medicines.
As travel resumes, if you want to support tour companies that support sustainable charities, we recommend the following companies who are constantly taking action to minimize their carbon footprint: Globus Tours, Cosmos Tours, Trafalgar Tours, Tauck Tours, Collette Tours & G Adventures. We recently shared with readers Globus Joining the Global Plastic Initiative and TTC’s Make Travel Matter Pledge. If you prefer cruising, we suggest river cruises or smaller ships including Uniworld River Cruises, Avalon River Cruises, AmaWaterways River Cruises, Star Clippers, Windstar Cruises & Virgin Voyages Cruises.
