Travel Web Sites That Help You Give Back

If you want to make a difference while you travel, there are resources out there to help make that happen. And surprisingly, they don’t require a whole lot of effort on your part!

The Web site PackforaPurpose.org invites travelers to pack necessary supplies for projects in their destination.

And we’re not talking a lot of space.

Five pounds in your luggage can equal 400 pencils or five soccer balls and a pump to be donated to a school or orphanage.

Just click on your destination, and it will alert you on what supplies are needed.

Or you can make a difference when booking travel. GoodShop.com is an online shopping mall partnered with travel providers like CheapTickets.com and Hotels.com.

For each purchase, Goodshop gives a percentage to a recipient of your choice–everything from the American Red Cross to your local school.

Then there’s MassiveGood, a major initiative from the Millennium Foundation that allows users to contribute $2 towards global health issues when buying a plane ticket, hotel room, or car rentals.

This option is becoming more and more common on online booking sites.

And who was the first person to click on MassiveGood after its launch? That would be former President Bill Clinton.

Donating a couple of dollars at a time may not seem like a lot of money, but given that over 2 billion airline tickets are sold every year – every little bit counts.

To learn more about MassiveGood, check out this radio interview with Dr. Bernard Salome of the Millennium Foundation & MassiveGood.

For more ways to help out around the globe, check out our Voluntourism section.

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