Posts categorized under Responsible Giving

31 January 2010 ~ 3 Comments

A Different Kind of Prize

In the social venture world, there seems to to two types of prizes, money and/or a chance to learn from and connect with experts about their work.  Many prizes are designed to reward people by supporting their ideas of how to “scale” or “become financially sustainable”, but I wonder….. are there prizes or support out […]

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14 January 2010 ~ 8 Comments

Donating to a non-profit: Is it all about the free gift?

I see a slippery slope ahead and I fear that donating to non-profits is becoming more and more like shopping for a magazine in the UK.  About 10 years ago I lived in London, and when I would stop at a news stand, I noticed that nearly all of them were wrapped in plastic and […]

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22 December 2009 ~ 37 Comments

More orphanage tourism (No!)

I recently tried to post a comment in response to this listing on Trip Advisor which encourages visits to orphanages while traveling in Siem Reap. As my comment was not  a review of the area, it was not approved, so I am posting it here. — I am writing in response to a post stating […]

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05 October 2009 ~ 54 Comments

A Protest Against Orphanage Tourism

I try to avoid spending much time on “bar street”, a place in Siem Reap which is full of, yep, bars.  The main reasons I avoid it now are no longer just the noise, the embarrassing displays of lack-of-clothing on gap-year tourists, the drunken fools, nor the begging, though those reasons alone should be enough…. […]

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30 September 2009 ~ 0 Comments

Are PEPY Programs “Sustainable”? Part 1 of 2

What is this “sustainability” thing all about?  It is a word that gets thrown around so often by NGOs, donors, and most people working in development, yet what is means in the reality of our day to day decisions is less often understood.  I wrote part one of a two part look at PEPY and […]

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23 September 2009 ~ 1 Comment

Travel Operators & Development Work

Most of us who criticize, publicize, support, or question “voluntourism” follow that word on google alerts, and so we were all alerted when Abercrombie & Kent (a high-end tour operator) announced their philanthropy tours.  Alexia, aka Voluntourism Gal, put up a post about this topic which sparked a lot of discussion and asked for my […]

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13 September 2009 ~ 2 Comments

Learning (and thinking) Resources for Travelers

It’s exciting when people look past the bottom line of their own company and spend their time and resources to take action to improve the whole field in which they work.  Priscilla Macy of Global Sojourns is someone who does that on a regular basis.  Priscilla and her company offer a range of adventure travel […]

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