Co-Founded by Bret Love & Mary Gabbett, Green Global Travel is an ecotourism, nature / wildlife conservation & cultural preservation magazine. More about us.
Published November 21, 2011 | 
Travel Bloggers Give Back
TRAVEL BLOGGERS GIVE BACK
Use Your Blog To Make a Difference!
Last night, while watching a great documentary called Becoming Santa, I was struck by an intense desire to give more of myself this holiday season. While we’re hardly what you’d call well-off financially, we do try to give a little to our favorite charities every year, from World Wildlife Fund and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to a friend’s church that builds orphanages in Africa.
But last night I found myself wondering, “What else could we do to help make the world a better place this holiday season?”
Thus, the idea for Travel Bloggers Give Back was born. The concept is simple: We will use our time and energy to convince as many travel bloggers as we possibly can to post stories on their sites between now and Christmas Day about their favorite charity organizations. The goal? To use the power of our collective voice to convince our readers to give whatever they can to the charities nearest and dearest to our hearts.
Want to take part? Here’s what you need to do:
1) Let Us Know You’re Participating
Leave a comment below or hashtag #TBGB on Twitter (we’re @GreenGlobalTrvl) to let us know you want to lend your voice to the cause. We will immediately put a link to your website on our “Our Favorite Sites” page under a special Travel Bloggers Give Back section (reciprocal links appreciated, but not a requirement).
2) Post Something!
The story should include information about the charity’s history, mission, what they use donations for, and why they’re personally important to the blogger, with a link at the end to the donation page on the organization’s website. We’ll be posting one charity spotlight per week between now and Christmas, but every blogger can do as many or as few posts as they want.
3) Spread the Love!
Share your stories via Facebook, StumbleUpon and Twitter (making sure to hashtag #TBGB so everyone participating can see them). We will promote every single TBGB post via our social networks, and ask everyone participating to do the same.
Imagine the attention we could draw to various charitable causes! Imagine the money we could help raise! Imagine the impact it could have in establishing bloggers as people who care enough about this world we travel to use our clout to help make it better! We think it will be win-win for everyone involved, and very much in the spirit of holiday giving. Like the Whos down in Whoville, let’s raise our collective voice to help start a Movement of Giving! –Bret Love
If you enjoyed reading TRAVEL BLOGGERS GIVE BACK: Use Your Blog To Make A Difference, you might also like:
Water.org’s Mission To Bring Fresh Water To The World
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Fights For Marine Life
Heifer International Works To End Global Hunger
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69 Responses to TRAVEL BLOGGERS GIVE BACK- Use Your Blog To Make a Difference!
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Co-Founded by Bret Love & Mary Gabbett, Green Global Travel is an ecotourism, nature / wildlife conservation & cultural preservation magazine. More about us.Help Support Green Global Travel!
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Great initiative Bret. Always believed travel bloggers have the power to unite to make a difference.
You only have to look at the decimation of Africa’s wildlife to realise that if we don’t arrest the decline, there just won’t be any lions, leopard, cheetah or rhino left to go see. A trip to your local zoo may be the only place to see them, sadly.
So yep. I’m on board with this one!
That’s awesome, Jim, and thanks for your inspiration with this idea! I’ve always believed in the magical power of positive energy and effort, so I’m excited about reading everyone’s passionate posts on their favorite cause’s behalf. We love so many organizations– World Wildlife Fund, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Defenders of WIldlife, Water.org, Ocean Conservancy, etc.– for us it’s going to be very hard to narrow down which ones to write about. Regardless, I firmly believe that our collective voices can make a difference!
Great idea! I stumbled upon a great cause on a Thai island recently and eager to blog about it so this only makes it more worthwhile – will be RT-ing others’ TBGB posts too…
That sounds great! We run into so many cool people doing so many cool things on our travels, from people working to build orphanages in Africa to the guy in the Riviera Maya who was teaching Mayan kids their ancient pottery techniques and using proceeds from the sale of their pieces to financially benefit everyone in the village. We try to give a voice to those efforts on a regular basis, but with the holidays coming up it felt like the time to challenge ourselves to do more. So glad you’re joining us, and hopefully we’ll get many more bloggers on board in the days to come.
Thanks for joining us! If you let us know your name, we can add you on the TBGB Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/117577841689373. That way you can share your link there once it’s ready. Looking forward to reading it!
I’m in! Love it!
My support goes to….
http://www.traveldudes.org/travelblog/travel-bloggers-give-back-use-your-blog-make-difference/11/11/22
Thanks for joining us, Melvin! Means so much to have the support of experienced bloggers like you, Jim, Dave & Deb, Caz & Cam, etc. Thanks also for covering one of our favorite charities: We LOVE Greenpeace!
Thanks for joining, Melvin! It means a lot to have a blogger of your stature on board.
Brilliant cause here:
Post about to be tweeted.
@FlyFarandFast
Thanks much, Rob! We’ve added a link to your site to the Our Favorite Blogs/TBGB list.
That’s awesome, Rob. Glad to have you with us. Also glad you covered Wildlife Conservation Society in your list, which allows us to cross that one off OUR list!
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Great initiative! I’m planning to do that with my new gay travel site. I also signed up with this site http://52×52.org/ which has a similar premise.
Very cool, Adam! Great to meet you, and thanks for joining us.
Hey Adam, thanks for the props! If you’ll join us at the TBGB Facebook page (link below) and let us know your web address and Twitter handle, we can help expose your new site to our audiences. Always glad to help fellow bloggers!
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This is tremendous! I’ve been working on a post that ties in so well with this… Will definitely be sharing under the #TBGB tag as soon as it’s up on the blog. Thanks for helping “raise the collective voice” ~ excellent work.
We look forward to reading and sharing your post! Thanks in advance for helping to spread the word.
Thanks, guys! Make sure to join us at the Facebook page so we can share your posts across our respective social media platforms. You can also friend me on Facebook if you want: I’m Bret Love.
This is an incredible idea.
Lately, we’ve been spreading the word about Oxfam’s GROW initiative.
By about 2050, there will be around 9 billion people on the planet. We need a better food system – one that more effectively feeds a growing population (where about 1 billion are already chronically hungry).
Oxfam’s GROW campaign is a catalyst for such change. Check out what we wrote here:
http://www.novacationrequired.com/2011/10/table-for-9-billion-please/
Thanks guys! Join us on the Travel Bloggers Give Back Facebook page linked below and add your post there, so our group can RT and Stumble it to help spread the word about Oxfam and their GROW initiative. Feel free to add me (Bret Love) on FB if you want and I’ll tag your stuff there as well.
great initiative. will join this one, keep it up!
Thanks, Gael! I’ll go ahead and add you to the Facebook page and look forward to reading your post(s)!
So glad I stumbled upon your intitiative, it’s a wonderful one! I’ve joined the facebook group and am thinking there are several posts I have in mind for this, it will be nice to feel like we can rally together to make a change
Thanks, Ree! Glad you joined us. I really enjoyed your first post and have already shared it on all our social media networks. It feels good to see so many people from the community working together on this.
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Just wanted to share with you about our 4 year old initiative that brings bloggers and a chosen charity together to raise money for their cause. This year we’re supporting Room to Read, a literacy program, and you can learn all about our organization at:
http://www.passportswithpurpose.com
Hi Pam, nice to meet you! I am familiar with Passports With Purpose (actually stumbled upon it back in January when we wrote about Pack For A Purpose), and really admire what you guys are doing. One of my best friends was in the Peace Corps in Zambia for 2 years, so I’m sure the locals will really appreciate the library. Thanks for reading and sharing!
I love this idea! Count me in! I blog about rtw travel over at http://www.furtherbound.com and part of my journey is about wanting to found my own charity. I will now be writing about the charities that have inspired me to do this as part of this great initiative. Thank you
Awesome, Hannah! Feel free to join our TBGB Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/117577841689373, so we can add your blog and post to our master list. That way, everyone can get acquainted with you and RT/Stumble your post!
Great initiative blog. Basically its travel post are good and can motivate travellers for its charitable causes. nice blog and posts. http://www.ranthambore-national-park-india.com/
Thanks for the compliments!
This is such a great initiative, thanks for starting it. Supporting causes has always been a mandate on Breathedreamgo. I’m a volunteer blogger for UNICEF and I support The Intrepid Foundation / Deepalaya, World Literacy of Canada, World Wildlife Fund, Project Tiger and Blog Action Day. The cause I am most passionate about is children in India. I am trying to raise funds for this project, at the ashram I go to In North India: http://breathedreamgo.com/2011/04/adopt-a-soul-program/
That’s very cool, Mariellen. We’re big WWF supporters as well, and they’ve actually been using some of our “Wildlife of the Galapagos” videos on their travel blog. As for your ashram fundraiser, you should totally post that link of the Travel Bloggers Give Back Facebook page so everyone there can help RT and spread the word about it! I’ll add you there now. Thanks for stopping by!
What a great idea! We would love to participate! We just posted about Passport with Purpose’s fundraiser with Room to Read (http://www.idelish.com/2011/11/30/you-can-help-build-libraries-in-zambia-and-win-some-great-prizes-too/). We are also planning to set up a group supporting Kiva (micro-lending charity). We will share a post about that in the future once we have it set up. In addition to that, we support Oxfam (eliminating hunger) and Dogs for the Blind (providing a gift of “eyesight” through trained seeing eye dogs) among the many charities we donate and volunteer for.
Sounds great, Shirlene! Mary’s a big supporter of Oxfam and Heifer International, but I’ve never heard of Kiva before. Looking forward to reading more about them.
I support Passports With Purpose. This year they are raising money to build two libraries in Zambia. You can find out more here….
http://budgettravelerssandbox.com/2011/11/passports-with-purpose-2011-fund-raiser-building-libraries-in-zambia/
That’s great, Nancie! What other charity organizations do you support?
This initiative is great. I have been doing a series of posts on “alternative” gift giving this season. So far, I have posted four different ones:
http://www.50plusandontherun.com/2011/11/no-wrapping-paper-required.html (thehungersite)
http://www.50plusandontherun.com/2011/11/no-ribbon-required-either.html (Kiva)
http://www.50plusandontherun.com/2011/11/and-you-dont-have-to-go-to-mall.html (Smile Train)
http://www.50plusandontherun.com/2011/11/eat-some-ice-cream.html
Glad to be part of your effort!
Nancy
Glad you could join us! Please join the Facebook page so we can all share our posts with each other, and our respective readers!
bravo! besides supporting Passports with Purpose, we LOVE the Namaste India Children’s Travel Fund http://www.wanderingeducators.com/global-citizenship/social-and-political-action/namaste-india-children-s-fund.html) and Project Save Our Surf (http://www.wanderingeducators.com/performing-arts/theatre/indie-actress-tanna-frederick-champions-ocean-causes.html).
Thanks, guys! We support Surfrider, but have never heard of Project Save Our Surf. We’ll have to look into that one.
Brett,
A belated thanks for letting me post on your FB page about WOWi’s (Windows of Wonder Institute) project. I think what you are doing to promote so many wonderful projects going on around the world is awesome! You are inspiring all of us to try even harder to do better work in the world. I will post this on twitter about your organization too.
Thanks again!
Keith
No worries, Keith! We’re g;ad to provide the platform, and very appreciative of all the great bloggers who have pitched in to help support each other and the projects they believe in. Hopefully we can keep this idea going beyond the holidays and into the new year!
Terrific story! This is exactly the type of article that needs to be shared around the web. Sad on Google for not ranking this blog post higher!
Thanks, Giovanna!
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Hey there! Awesome idea. What we support isn’t exactly a charity, but close enough—it’s a documentary-in-progress about how mass tourism and modernization are changing the places we love (the film focuses on Cortona, Italy). The documentary needs another $10,000 to get finished… and the crew’s aiming for Sundance 2013! It’d be an amazing way to get some often-ignored issues, particularly over the challenges caused by tourism to sustainability, in front of the public eye. You might want to check out our blog post about the film, and our interview with its director, here: http://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/ethical-travel/cortona-italy-documentary-sustainable-tourism-development And the film’s got this page on IndieGoGo for donations: http://www.indiegogo.com/genius
Thanks again for the great idea!
Sounds like a cool project! You should definitely share it on our Facebook page for Travel Bloggers Give back to helps spread the word about the project.
Just wanted to submit and want to know where you got your design? I’m looking for one for my current blogging site and really like yours. Thanks.
Our design was a collaborative effort between Mary, me and two different graphic designers. Feel free to email us at info@GreenGlobalTravel.com for more info.
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Always believed travel bloggers have the power to unite to make a difference. This is tremendous! If you’ll join us at the TBGB Facebook page (link below) and let us know your web address and Twitter handle, we can help expose your new site to our audiences. Sounds like a cool project!
Thanks, Luz! Looking forward to your posts…
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Hi Bret, I’m just wondering, does this have to be about raising money or can it be about physically getting out there and doing something? Me ‘n the kids are big on marine conservation and I’ve just posted about our work with Tangaroa Blue in Australia ( in collaboration with the charity) We clean beaches of marine debris. It’s great that it’s something we can participate in as a family. I’m planning on posting about shark conservation too, I’m pretty disgusted by what’s going on. Can we get involved? I think this is an awesome idea, love it!
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Hey Alyson, ideally it should be about both raising money (through the charity organization) AND doing something. Your work with Tangaroa Blue sounds like a great example. The idea is to encourage more people to get involved, take action, donate, and help spread the word. I truly believe that the more we focus on giving back, the more good things come to us.
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This is an incredible idea. Mary’s a big supporter of Oxfam and Heifer International, but I’ve never heard of Kiva before. Glad to be part of your effort!
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What a great idea! Of course I will participate! My favorite charity organisations are
- Menschen für Menschen: http://www.menschenfuermenschen.ch/ Ethiopia: a charity organisation started to teach children in Ethiopia. It has many projects and one of them, a topic I feel very strong about: Female Genital Mutilation. This organisation was started by Karl Heinz Böhm, an Austrian actor and director of films, now living in Ethiopia with his Ethiopian wife.
- The Imran Khan foundation in Pakistan: http://www.imrankhanfoundation.org. Many fields of work, however most important is their Village Development Plan, which includes education and training, as well as donation of seeds, micro financing
and a few others.
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