rtphilanthropy

Responsible Travel Philanthropy
related: responsible tourism, charity, rtweek editing: [|What is responsible tourism?]

Debates during the 2009 discussion of Responsible Tourism held during the week when the Belize Conference was to have taken places, sadly postponed because of the flu pandemic, have revealed some confusion about what constitutes travel philanthropy and how that relates to Responsible Tourism.

In the USA the **Responsible Tourism Movement** is being reduced to philanthropy – but on the contrary charitable giving is a tiny part of what is required for Responsible Tourism. The RT focus is much more on how the business does its business and the way the holidaymaker travels and spends their money. In the UK there has been considerable progress in moving away from the narrow focus on philanthropy, a trend evident more broadly in CSR in the UK.


 * Travel Philanthropy** defines charitable and philanthropic behaviour, the donating of money, in-kind resources or time, occasioned by or facilitated by travel. Travel Philanthropy includes donations by travellers and travel companies inbound and outbound where the charitable contribution is occasioned by, but secondary to the primary purposes which are travel or holidaymaking and the commercial operation of travel businesses. In reporting these contributions it is important to distinguish between contributions from travellers or holidaymakers and those made by inbound or outbound operators, whether donated for use in the originating place or in the destination.

Travel Philanthropy also includes **charity fund-raising** through, for example challenges and treks, where the travel is primarily motivated by, or justified by, the intention to raise funds for a charitable cause in the originating market or destination. Companies which organise charity challenges should beware of claiming that they have raised the money – they have not, thy have facilitated but not raised the money, they have not made the donation.


 * Volunteering** abroad or away from home, **Voluntourism**, is also a form of Travel Philanthropy. These forms of charitable activity facilitated through the travel industry, or where the desire for travel is a significant part of the motivation for the charitable activity, raise particular issues. Again it is important to distinguish between the commercial or facilitating activity, and the funding of that, whether by commercial companies, charities and not-for-profits and the charitable contribution, in the destination or in the originating market. Companies, not for profits and charities need to take particular care to report the net contribution – the difference between what is “donated” to the beneficiaries and any costs incurred by recipients. Voluntourism also raises the thorny issue of the real value, the quality and value to the recipient of the donation of time or skills and the costs which the community incurs by hosting volunteers.

It is however, in all cases, __very__ important to distinguish between the commercial or facilitating activity, and the funding of that (whether by commercial companies or charities and not-for-profits) and the charitable contribution (i.e. the amount of money that directly benefits the charitable cause / beneficiaries) in the destination or in the originating market. Companies, not-for-profits and charities need to take particular care to report the net contribution – the difference between what is “donated” to the beneficiaries, any costs incurred by recipients and that which is retained by the facilitating party.

So this leads us on to the title of the discussion group, Is __responsible__ travel philanthropy possible?

It is at this stage important to distinguish between “Restricted funds” gifts, specifically designated by the donor for a purpose, and “Unrestricted funds”, non-designated gifts used by the charity at its discretion.

As someone engaging in travel philanthropy you need to consider the need for restricted vs. unrestricted funds. For example, in the case of disaster relief often it is not practical or effective to encourage restricted gifts. In such cases the donor has to have a certain degree of trust that the money will be spent effectively by the chosen charity delivering the relief. From the Travel Industry perspective responsibility in this case is then perhaps around making its own corporate donations and encouraging its customers / staff to give to a widely endorsed charity at the centre of delivering relief efforts. In this case one large pot of funds administered effectively is perhaps better than lots of small ones.

More commonly, what we are seeing in the Travel Industry in relation to the discussion of travel philanthropy is around the use of “restricted funds”, gifts to specific projects. There is a strong desire (from consumers and businesses) to see the impacts of our giving and to choose what type of projects we want to give to; our motivations are varied as well as influenced by the places we visit. In order for the travel industry to engage in __responsible__ travel philanthropy we believe the following should be implemented:

1. Effective due diligence and delivery partner selection. 2. Absolute transparency of donations / commercial income. 3. Effectiveness, ensuring donations are handled in the most effective/economical way. 4. Adoption of a common platform to identify and donate to charitable projects. 5. Clearly defined project goals and targets (social and environmental). 6. Feedback for all donors on the completion of projects. 7. 3rd party assurance (without donation % deductions) to provide consumers the confidence to give.

Every travel industry business has an obligation to implement its own responsible tourism policy, however we do not believe every travel industry business has an obligation to engage in travel philanthropy. However, many consumers want to make charitable contributions to the destinations they visit and in this scenario the travel industry has a very powerful and important role in ensuring that they are given the advice and means to do so as effectively as possible. A common platform, shared resources and learning can only help this to happen.