Travelers with a Conscience and Passports with Purpose—One of the Coolest Things We’ve Ever Seen

We like to consider ourselves responsible travelers.  I mean, we throw our cigarette butts in our pockets instead of on the ground, and try to support local business whenever given the chance.  But, no matter how many articles we write about Eco hostels or reducing your carbon footprint, our efforts are nothing compared to Passports with Purpose (PwP), an annual online fundraiser that pairs with a select charity to help the less-fortunate around the globe.

Passports with Purpose was founded in 2008 by four travelers and writers living around Seattle, Washington and raised over $7,000 for Heifer International, a charity that promotes self-reliance through the gift of training and livestock¹.

PwP works by bringing together the ever-growing community of travel writers and their respective readerships to raise money through an online raffle.  Travel writers donate items—ranging anywhere from a three night stay in an Aqua hotel in Waikiki to an iPod Touch or even Tahitian Pearls—and then their readers (or anyone, really) enter drawings for the items they are interested in.

Each $10 donation enters you into the drawing for a selected item of your choice.  When the event ends on December 21, 2009, the prizes are raffled off and given to the winner.  All the money goes to the charity.  And, of course, larger sponsorships from writers and companies (such as BootsnAll Travel, who are sponsors this year) are encouraged and welcome.

This year, Passports with Purpose has paired with American Assistance for Cambodia, a charity founded in 1993 with the purpose of improving opportunities for Cambodia’s youth and rural poor².   They set out to raise $13,000 to start a school in the Cambodian countryside; and, not two-weeks into the event, raised over $15,000—over double what PwP raised in their freshman year.  But still, they haven’t stopped there.  They are now attempting to raise an additional $13,000 in order to provide clean, filtered water to the school, as well as a resident nurse and a garden, allowing the students one free meal a day and regular health check-ups.

While PwP has stopped accepting prize donations for the auction, you can still pay your $10 dollar donation to enter into the raffle, here, or become a sponsor, here.  They still have two Gold Sponsorships available for $2,500 each.

If you just want to spread the word, you can download a HTML widget to display on your webpage, here (like the one on our homepage) or a banner for your blog (like the one at the bottom of this article).  If anything, just tell your friends about it, because to see so many like-minded people working together to achieve such a feat is rare at best.

-Safe Travels

Photograph by Collins Paris

[1] http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.2665753/

[2] http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodiaschools/AAfC/About-AAfC.htm