THE ADVENTURE COMPANY FOUNDATION
Our Foundation
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If you have just returned from a trip and would like to make a donation to our Foundation then please call 0845 450 5310.
As well as our aim to have each of our trips supporting a specific project or charitable organisation, The Adventure Company Foundation has long been a means of supporting a wide range of overseas projects which centre on community development and environmental protection (see below for a list of projects recently supported by The Adventure Company Foundation).
How does it work?
From the feedback we received about our projects, we discovered a high level of interest among you, our clients. Because of this, and because we always want to help more, The Adventure Company set up its own foundation, which administers funds donated by you.
A small donation of £1 per person is taken when you book a holiday with us, we carefully select four projects a year that would benefit from a one-off donation and the money is then put to good use! We hope you think this is worthwhile, however, there’s no pressure – if you don't want to make the £1 donation, just tell us when you call.
In addition to the projects our trips support and the money donated by you to The Adventure Company Foundation, we also do a lot of fund-raising work here at the office – we’re always thinking of new ways to raise money for our Foundation, to put something back in, too.
Our clients and our staff believe in The Adventure Company Foundation, and working together we’re sure we can reach and even exceed our aim of £8000 for charitable projects this year.
In 2009 we will be putting our money where our mouths are and we will be matching every £1 donated by you at booking so that we can double the support for the people that need it most! Watch this space…
What projects does The Adventure Company Foundation support?
Generally, the projects we support through The Adventure Company Foundation are small-scale, grass-roots initiatives that do not receive a high level of funding from other sources. Some-times, these will also be specific projects organised by our charity partners such as Born Free’s campaign to rescue bears suffering in Vietnam and China at the hands of the cruel bear bile trade. You can visit many of these projects while travelling on a trip with The Adventure Company – whether it’s a school, a children’s home or a conservation initiative. Any donations (monetary or otherwise) made directly to projects by our clients are usually gratefully received and, indeed, many enjoy the company of our clients when they do visit.
So how is the money used?
Every three months we take the money we’ve collected over that period, and give it to one of our projects. A Responsible Tourism team at The Adventure Company chooses the project for that time period. Sometimes the project chosen is one that’s known to us, and is in need of extra money, or otherwise it’s a new idea that’s been brought to us by staff or clients, checked out and taken into our portfolio. Sometimes it’s a project run by our charity partners that needs extra support.
By doing it this way, it means we can channel funds to those projects that need it most, quickly – for example; one of our first elected projects was a tsunami housing project in Sri Lanka. The project was short of funds, and people promised a house after the devastation that hit the coast were, more than a year later, still without shelter. We can direct funds to those that need it most, at the right time.
The money is held in a separate account, away from company funds. By holding the money in this way, we keep administration charges to a minimum (any small banking charges or staff wages associated with the Foundation are paid by The Adventure Company) and we can guarantee that 100% of the money donated goes to the project it’s designated to.
So far, The Adventure Company Foundation has so far supported these projects:
• May – Jul 2006: Sri Lankan housing project, post tsunami - £411
• Aug – Oct 2006: Moroccan school funding to install heating - £1165
• Nov – Jan 2007: Nepal community centre - £958
• Feb – Apr 07: Ecuadorian school providing furniture – £1717
• May – Jul 07: Tanzania Community centre providing playground equipment - £1581
• Aug – Oct 07: Uganda Orphanage building a primary boarding school - £2611
• Oct – Dec 07: Vietnam/China – Born Free’s bear rehabilitation project - £1133
• Jan – Mar 08: India deaf and dumb school support - £1475
• Apr – Jun 08: Bulgarian Best Practice environmental leaflet for hotels - £TBC
• Jul – Sep 08: TBC
For those clients travelling between April & June 2008 we will be using any money collected to pay for the creation and publication of a leaflet that advises Best Environmental Practice for refuges and small hotels in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a developing country in terms of tourism and as a result we have a real chance in conjunction with our agents to influence this development. In is essential to try to instil these values into such establishments at this stage and hopefully we can see the growth of Bulgaria as a destination occur with a commitment to protect the environment as well. This will enable those hotels to not only improve their impact on the environment but in many cases to save money through improved water usage, energy efficiency and reducing wastage.
For those clients travelling between July & September 2008, the Responsible Tourism team are still deciding on the best way to spend the funds. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to email our Responsible Tourism Coordinator using the address at the bottom.
We know The Adventure Company Foundation is small at the moment. But we hope that by setting up such a venture we have the basis to be able to grow our support to good causes around the world, with your help, for many years to come. As mentioned above, 2009 will see us matching the £1 donation made by clients at booking – extra support that will go along way to making better places for people to live in - and for people to visit.
People returning from our trips have often asked us if through us they can make a donation to a specific project or cause that they have seen while on one of our holidays. We regret that we are unable to do this and can only take donations towards the projects we support already. We do, however, always welcome suggestions and if you would like to recommend a project or initiative to support, please email Nick on nickb@adventurecompany.co.uk
