Giveback
Discover great ways to give back to the places you visit
We've been super busy since our last update.
Giveback is now our main focus and we're building it with the help of our growing community and through a Scottish government funded accelerator programme.
We now have over 200 amazing projects listed in the database located in over 50 countries, with more projects being added every week.
If you know of any projects that you think would be a good fit for our database, you can submit them for consideration.
And, if Giveback is of interest to you and you'd like to show your support, you can now join for free.
Over the past few years, we’ve become increasingly aware of a need to change the way we travel.
Our desire to make changes has been fuelled by a number of issues. We are all affected by climate change and the travel industry does have an impact on this global emergency. Within the tourism industry itself, issues such as overtourism, animal exploitation and social and cultural erosion are also on our minds.
In response to our growing concern over all these issues, we’ve not just wanted to reduce the negative impact of our travels, we’ve wanted to positively contribute to the people and places we visit.
In other words, we’ve wanted to Give Back.
Whenever we were planning a trip to somewhere new, we would always spend time searching for social enterprises, environmental organisations, charitable tours, community cleanups and animal sanctuaries in our chosen destination. This was always a very frustrating process. We would often stumble upon projects that had long since been abandoned or we’d find something, only to struggle to find out how or if we could get involved.
Above all, there wasn’t one single repository to find such projects, especially one aimed solely at tourists.
That is, until now.
Give Back (https://heretotravel.com/giveback) is a growing database of 🐘 animal sanctuaries, 🏝️ beach cleans, 🤝 cultural exchanges, 👩👩👦👦 social impact projects, 🚏 tours, 🌳 tree planting, 🧘 wellbeing experiences and so much more.
We built it to address all of the issues mentioned above. We’re still doing all the meticulous research we were doing for our own travels, but we’re now sharing the results of our research with travellers just like you.
Best of all, we’re sharing it for free!
Each listing contains all the details you need to get involved, including locations, URLs, photos and descriptions. Many of the projects are free to get involved with, with others requiring a donation of fixed fee (we’ve included this info too).
All of the listings are run by passionate people who want their projects to have a positive impact on their communities and their local ecosystems.
By engaging with the projects listed in the Give Back database on your future travels, you can bring about positive change to the people and places you visit.
Making a positive difference can be as easy as choosing to have a coffee at a social enterprise cafe (there are lots already listed in the database). Whether you only have an hour or two or a day or two to spare, there’s plenty to get stuck into.
Hi everyone! I'm Matt and I created Give Back, which is part of my travel website, Here To Travel (https://heretotravel.com).
I created Give Back upon discovering how difficult is was to find community litter picks and beach cleans. Having volunteered my time taking part in these kinds of activities, I know first-hand just how valuable they are, not just to local ecosystems and communities, but also to myself.
Helping to clean places up creates a great sense of personal accomplishment and also gives you the opportunity to meet and interact with locals who are passionate about their communities and the planet.
Helping and giving back to people, places and the planet is community building and it's something that I hope Give Back will help to promote.
Already in the directory, we have beach cleans and litter picks located all over the world that you can get involved with. As well as this, we also have opportunities to help animals in need and visits to ground-breaking eco-tech projects.
So, next time you're visiting somewhere new, do take a look and see whether there's a way for you to give back to your chosen destination.
In these early days, I'm very receptive to feedback and suggestions. And if you know of any organisations that you think would be a good fit for the directory, give me a shout.
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