Philanthrotourism

Jill Gordon, 52, had been volunteering in inner-city Chicago schools teaching literacy for years when a friend invited her to the talk of someone who started a girls’ school in Afghanistan. That’s when she knew she wanted to take her volunteer work global. She joined the Chicago Women’s Initiative of CARE, a worldwide global poverty nonprofit, and helped organize semi-annual talks and fundraisers for global education programs.

Then, a few years ago, she got to see some of that money at work when she visited remote parts of Peru. This year, she visited rural India, where CARE funds schools and nutrition programs. She and the other women on the trip were allowed to feed infant children their first bites of solid food in the sacred Annaprashan ceremony. They sat in a circle and talked to the women about their lives and how they keep their hair jet-black, no matter their age. (Answer: Black shoe polish, says Kathy Lane, a CARE Chicago staff person.)

“I don’t know if I would have gone to India otherwise,” says Gordon. “We got back and my husband and I are already planning our next trip. I just loved meeting the real people in India, the kids and the mothers groups. We got to see what India’s really like.”

While the trip wasn’t cheap — it cost about $2,500 excluding airfare — that price was all-inclusive. CARE organized travel, meals and accommodations, and packed the trip with information and opportunities to meet and talk with women benefiting from the program.

There are lots of nonprofits that offer such trips — they vary from Christian groups to United Way, which has an Alternative Spring Break program that encourages teens to give their spring break to the organization to do service. To find one, ask groups you support if they offer such trips, and how they’re funded, so your fundraising goes to the people who need it, not your trip.