Filling the Gaps in Philanthropic Travel

By Caliopy Glaros of Philanthropy Without Borders

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Transformational travel experiences do not have to be accidental or left to chance – they are be crafted and curated. When I'm working with nonprofits and travel advisors on creating journeys that inspire gifts of time, talent, and treasure, I'm conscious of how we can use science and strategy to motive others to action. 

Charities and nonprofit organizations face many challenges with their donor and volunteer programs. Many struggle to recruit travelers for their trips as they are unsure of whom to target and how to effectively market the program. Charities are experts at inspiring people to give to a cause, but marketing a travel program is a different sort of task that many organizations felt ill equipped to undertake. 

Another challenge is that even nonprofits with well-established travel programs continue to wrestle with strategy, resource allocation, and the return on investment of their trips. Often times the travel program does not achieve its objectives or bring in the kind of revenue the organization had anticipated. 

Lastly, for humanitarian aid organization  ethical issues arise when connecting Western donors with vulnerable populations in the Global South. Some tours make local communities out to be tourist attractions, and local people feel put on display while visitors photograph them endlessly. Nonprofits struggle to find ways of creating transformational encounters that connected people across cultures, while also avoiding the marginalization already vulnerable groups.

The challenges faced by charities in philanthropic travel are also mirrored on the operator side. Traveler recruitment is also a big challenge for operators. Many of them do not charge organizations to implement their travel programs, relying instead on fees obtained from traveler registrations. If a trip doesn’t sell, then the operator loses money. Because the recruitment is essentially out of their control, all they can do was send promotional materials and hope that the nonprofit knows how to effectively market the trip. For other organizations, agents spend large amounts of time trying to help the nonprofit recruit in order to save a trip from being cancelled.

Second, travel agencies also recognize that many nonprofits need strategic guidance on their travel programs and a heavy hand in traveler stewardship, but many operators are unable to provide such assistance in their scope of work, as it would be unprofitable for them to spend hours upon hours coaching the nonprofit. 

Lastly, operators were conscious of the risk of exploiting vulnerable groups through travel, and validated the difficulty of catering to travelers’ desires while preserving local community interests.  

Realizing that there were several critical gaps in the philanthropic travel industry and ample ways to elevate and optimize travel programs for nonprofits, travel agents, and the guests themselves, I sought to meet these needs by creating a consultancy that provides strategic guidance to nonprofits and travel advisors. By partnering with both, I can bridge the gap between the two to create effective and ethical travel programs that elevate a nonprofit’s work, while decreasing the risk and time burden on operators. Focusing on things like traveler recruitment, travel program strategy and metrics, intercultural communication, and ethical engagement with beneficiaries has allowed me to do the work I love and do best: help socially-conscious organizations elevate their work through the transformative power of travel.