What Sets Us Apart

What sets GIVE apart?

With over 10 million people volunteering abroad each year and more than a thousand different organizations offering volunteer trips, it’s no surprise that one of the most common questions we hear is, “What makes GIVE different?” In fact, it was this very question that inspired Jake Allison to found GIVE in 2011. After several years of witnessing the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly sides of the volunteer tourism industry, he ultimately determined that there is real potential for volunteer travel to have positive impacts around the world, but it would require a fresh, focused approach to truly foster sustainable change. This experience inspired him to establish The GIVE Promise: a commitment to always put people, projects and principles above profit.

“Each day I spent with GIVE assured me more and more that I made the right decision to travel with this amazing organization. GIVE is very environmentally friendly, culturally aware, and the communities we volunteered in were so thrilled to have us there.”

– Jenny, Tanzania Volunteer

Our PEOPLE

Volunteer Experience

GIVE boasts 4.9/5 stars on Tour Radar Reviews and a 30% return rate of past volunteers signing up to travel with us again. The action-packed, all-inclusive, boutique experience we provide is a value unmatched by any organization in our field, but it’s the community-driven approach and lifelong friendships that keep people coming back!

The GIVE Family

Almost every member of the GIVE Family started as a volunteer, expanded their role as an intern, and now works as a guide or project coordinator overseas. We truly believe that happy people sail fast and that goes for GIVE staff, volunteers and host community members.

Spreading the Wealth

To expand our impact in host communities, GIVE takes enormous pride in spreading the tourism revenue generated by our volunteers to as many families as possible. Income from laundry services, souvenir sales, crafts lessons, snacks and drinks sales, local guiding, and so much more provides a significant boost to the local economy.

Keeping Our Family Safe

To provide the safest experience possible, GIVE exceeds every industry standard in our Comprehensive Risk Management Plan. Rest assured that from the moment you step off the plane until your trip is finished, you will be fully supported by trained and experienced GIVE guides.

Post-Trip Engagement

The GIVE experience doesn’t end once we’ve dropped you off at the airport. Past volunteers receive year-round support to join GIVE groups, launch awareness and fundraising campaigns, network with like-minded individuals, volunteer in their own communities, and serve as GIVE Ambassadors around the globe!

Local Support

GIVE taps into and enhances the existing social capital within our host communities. By establishing relationships with local community leaders, law enforcement, and government officials, we’re able to ensure year-round support in each of our locations.

Our PROJECTS

Methodology

GIVE was founded from a development perspective, not a business perspective. Our commitment to Asset Based Community Development ensures a sustainable impact in our host communities.

Local Ownership

We don’t tell communities what they need; we simply listen to their successes and motivate them to achieve even more. Locals are eager to share their skills, knowledge and labor with our volunteers on the worksite.

Pioneering Projects

Whether it’s eco-bricks construction, bio-sand water filtration, or permaculture farming, our projects strive to combine local resources and know-how with innovative, eco-friendly techniques.

GIVE Oversight

Unlike larger companies that contract their projects out to 3rd parties and maintain little local presence, GIVE ensures quality by remaining closely involved in every single aspect of our projects.

Our PRINCIPLES

Real Growth Begins Where Comfort Zones End

Central to GIVE’s mission is the concept of personal growth. Through pushing people far beyond their comfort zones on off-the-beaten-path, culturally immersive adventures, we are able to foster genuine personal growth in our volunteers.

Transparency and Adaptability

Our success is a result of learning from both our successes and our failures. We will never exaggerate GIVE’s impact or tell you what’s right and wrong in the world; we simply hope to open your eyes to the realities of global inequality and empower you to form your own conclusions.

Learn Before You Can Help

For both GIVE as an organization and each of our volunteers, we must all learn before we can possibly help. Through community meetings, family interviews, local language lessons, nightly discussions, and our accredited, academic course, GIVE empowers you to truly learn from experience.

Empathy Over Sympathy

GIVE firmly believes that our host communities do not need our sympathy, nor do they want it. They simply want to be listened to and respected. Only through empathy can we identify local strengths in a community and establish the trust and respect necessary for our projects to succeed.

GIVE is committed to equality and inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, identity, and experience. It drives us forward every day. We are welcomed into diverse host communities around the globe and this fuels the GIVE spirit. Ensuring that we are always recruiting, retaining, and promoting a diverse mix of travelers who are representative of the diversity in our local communities gives us a great opportunity to have access to a broad range of ideas and engagement.