Our Mission

Our Mission & Methodology

GIVE’s mission is to inspire growth, empower global citizens, and ignite sustainable change worldwide.

Our Methodology

In order to truly inspire growth and achieve sustainable travel internationally, GIVE has adopted the Asset-based community development (ABCD) model which is a set of proven best practices in sustainable development that mobilizes a community’s own assets and resources as the basis for development. Furthermore, through providing hands-on and eye-opening learning experiences that foster authentic connections between volunteers and host community members, we are able to empower global citizens who will continue to spread GIVE’s values and ignite sustainable change worldwide.

Empowering communities to help themselves

In contrast to the traditional needs-based development model which focuses on local problems and relies on outside agencies for help, asset-based community development is a principle of international sustainable travel that emphasizes existing strengths and potentials within a community and empowers its members to take action. When identifying projects, we first assess the resources, skills, and knowledge already available in a community, unite the community around issues that inspire its members to act. Then we work alongside local leaders to form a plan of action to yield a positive impact.  GIVE’s ultimate goal is for our host communities to take full responsibility of our international volunteer projects as soon as possible.

Awakening a Generation of Global Citizens

As valuable as GIVE’s projects on the ground may be, they are just tiny drops in a vast ocean of global inequality.  Solving the world’s greatest challenges and ending extreme poverty will require a lifetime of collective action from ordinary people around the world.  Since 2012, by establishing genuine connections between our volunteers and host community members, educating volunteers on the world’s biggest challenges, educating them in sustainable tourism and inspiring them to take action, and providing alumni with post-trip tools and resources to increase their impact upon returning home, GIVE has become a powerful catalyst in activating thousands of global citizens across the planet.  These people will become the next generation of social entrepreneurs, parents, community leaders, educators and so much more – working together to end extreme poverty and uplift every member of the human race.  GIVE’s past volunteers are living proof that we should all stop viewing our contributions as just drops in the ocean, and started viewing the ocean as a collection of drops.

What to read next: What Sets Us Apart?

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