Fund for good
As part of our commitment to being a force for good in the travel industry, in 2023 we decided to set up the TravelLocal Fund For Good.
This fund will be distributed to charities around the world that are doing crucial work to alleviate challenges like environmental degradation, wildlife conservation, and access to clean drinking water.
Each year we are donating a proportion of our revenue (in 2023/2024 this will be approximately £60,000) to these charities. The proportion will remain over time, so as we grow, the donation amount will also increase.
We selected the charities for 2023/2024 to cover our four main “pillars”:
- Environment
- People & Society
- Animal Welfare
- Business As A Force For Good
(People & Society includes tourism-related charities, whereas Business As A Force For Good includes non-tourism-related charities)
We considered more than 6,000 charities worldwide in an effort to find those that would engage our customers, our Local Experts, and the TravelLocal team.
The final selection is set out below.
Just a Drop was founded by Fiona Jeffery in 1998 after she learned that a child died every 17 seconds (it’s now every two minutes) because of dirty water – and that just £1 could provide a child with clean water for 10 years.
In their own words: “We believe everyone, everywhere, should have access to clean water as a basic right. We want to see a world where everyone has clean water and adequate sanitation, and the increased health and prosperity this brings.”
Just a Drop supports marginalized people across the world through community-led development, rather than aid; with a focus on sustainability and quality, ensuring each Just a Drop project has a transformative impact for decades to come.
Read our interview with Just a DropPeople & Society: Foundation for Amazon Sustainability
The Foundation for Amazon Sustainability (FAS) works for the sustainable development of the Amazon through activities such as education and citizenship, health, research and innovation, environmental conservation, and entrepreneurship. The charity’s mission is to contribute to the conservation of the biome and improve the quality of life of the populations of the Amazon.
In 2023, FAS completed 15 years of operation with outstanding achievements, such as a 202% increase in the average income of thousands of families, and a 40% drop in deforestation in areas served between 2008 and 2021.
Animal Welfare: Wildlife Alliance
Wildlife Alliance is a well-known wildlife charity based in Cambodia, with representative offices in the USA and Australia. The charity performs a variety of critical functions towards animal conservation in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on animals rescued from traffickers. We will be directly supporting Phnom Tamao, a wildlife rescue and conservation center near the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, that is open to the public – so you can visit.
Read our interview with Wildlife AllianceBusiness As A Force For Good: Tree Aid
Tree Aid was established as a charity in 1987 by foresters, in response to famine in Ethiopia. The charity wanted to provide a long-term solution to environmental degradation once emergency relief efforts ended. Trees offer exactly that – hence, Tree Aid was born.
Tree Aid has since restored 171,164 hectares of degraded land, supported 38,650 people to develop enterprise groups selling seeds, fruits and nuts from trees for sustainable income, and grown 30,165,417 trees across the Sahel region.
In their own words: “Our projects make an impact right now, and are helping protect everyone’s future. They provide food and income for communities, tackling poverty today. They also offer long-term change, improving the environment and soil fertility, and tackling the effects of the climate crisis, for tomorrow.”
Read our interview with Tree AidWe hope you’re inspired by our choice of charities to support. We would love to hear from you with your own suggestions for future charities we can support. Please do email us at: sustainability@travellocal.com.
You can also visit some of our charities – in particular the Wildlife Alliance projects in Cambodia, the Just a Drop projects in Uganda, Kenya, Cambodia and India, and some of the community projects in the Amazon region around Manaus, Brazil.
