Every year, the Tuesday following Thanksgiving is celebrated as Giving Tuesday, a global movement encouraging people to give back to causes they care about. After the hustle of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, Giving Tuesday offers a chance to focus on goodwill and philanthropy.
There are myriad travel-related non-profits where donations can make a lasting impact, including those that focus on connecting people to the outdoors, help underprivileged youth experience travel for the first time, support vital conservation efforts, and promote sustainable travel initiatives.
Below, we’ve highlighted some of the many charities dedicated to making the world a greener, more inclusive place—ensuring that nature’s wonders are accessible to all and preserved for future generations to come.
Big City Mountaineers
For 35 years, Big City Mountaineers has provided free, fully equipped, and professionally guided outdoor programs to teens from disinvested communities. The programs aim to improve their social-emotional well-being and help them become better stewards of our planet. The programs include day trips, overnight adventures in the outdoors, and multi-day backcountry expeditions, during which participants partake in activities such as hiking, backpacking, camping, and canoeing.
Large-scale reforestation efforts are made possible by donating to Eden: People + Planet.
Courtesy of Eden: People + Planet
Eden: People + Planet
Eden: People+Planet (formerly Eden Reforestation Projects) is a non-profit organization dedicated to combating global deforestation and alleviating poverty through large-scale tree-planting initiatives. By partnering with local communities in places like Honduras, Brazil, Nepal, and Madagascar, Eden creates sustainable employment opportunities while restoring vital ecosystems.
Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina
This non-profit based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been sending food delivery trucks to the areas of Asheville and western North Carolina hardest hit by Hurricane Helene. The charitable organization is also making ready-to-go meals for impacted citizens and families.
Land & Life Foundation
Land & Life Foundation is focused on community-based conservation projects in Kenya and Tanzania that protected nearly 5.5. million acres of critical wildlife habitat in 2023 while also supporting more than 800 students through education initiatives. Since its inception, the group’s Wildlife Warrior Program has allowed more than 700 students to attend conservation education retreats, which combines hands-on learning with wildlife experiences to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders within local communities. Women’s empowerment is another key focus area. This year, Land & Life has trained more than 500 female beaders in financial literacy and product development to fuel sustainable income opportunities.
Learning Afar
At Afar, we believe travel is one of the best forms of education. We have teamed up with the Global Leadership Adventures International Foundation to sponsor immersive travel programs for students who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to see the world. Previous programs have included sending a group of students who are part of the Son of a Saint organization (a non-profit that provides mentorship to boys who have lost their fathers to death or incarceration) to Ghana, where they volunteered in local communities.
Maui Cultural Lands
Maui Cultural Lands is a non-profit focused on restoring Hawai’i’s native ecosystems and preserving cultural heritage in west Maui (where devastating wildfires engulfed the city of Lāhainā in 2022). This organization leads hands-on volunteer programs that protect cultural sites and restore native forests by reintroducing native plants that combat erosion, promote biodiversity, and aid long-term land recovery. Visitors to Maui can also volunteer with Maui Cultural Lands, as well as with Feed My Sheep, a mobile food distribution program that is making around 69,000 meals per month and needs help with packing and handing out food. Volunteer shifts can be found at HandsOn Maui, which also lists other opportunities with organizations throughout the island.
Miles4Migrants
If you have more frequent flier miles than you know what to do with, consider donating them to Miles4Migrants, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people displaced by conflict, violence, and climate disasters reunite with loved ones or start a new life. To date, the organization has provided more than 43,000 free flights to refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced persons in need.
Glacier National Park in Montana, with its namesake icy masses, is among the national parks that are under threat due to climate change—support for the National Park Foundation can help.
Photo by Harrison Steen/Unsplash
National Park Foundation
The National Park Foundation, the official non-profit partner of the National Park Service, works to protect, conserve, and improve America’s more than 400 national parks. That includes projects like making the parks more resilient to changing weather and rising temperatures, conserving biodiversity, expanding accessibility in the parks, and finding ways to remove barriers to access the parks, with initiatives like Open OutDoors for Kids, a program designed to encourage fourth graders in underserved communities to experience the parks in person. The hope is that these efforts will ensure that these iconic landscapes and historic sites—some of the greatest public treasures in our country—remain accessible and well-preserved for many generations.
NatureBridge
NatureBridge is a non-profit organization that aims to break barriers to outdoor access while inspiring the next generation of conservationists. Each year, NatureBridge connects more than 30,000 students—including many from underserved communities—to environmental science and leadership programs in iconic national parks like Yosemite and Olympic.
Ocean Conservancy
The Ocean Conservancy is dedicated to preserving marine ecosystems, reducing trash and plastic pollution, advancing sustainable fisheries, and advocating for effective climate action to protect our oceans. Contributions support initiatives like beach cleanups, the protection of endangered marine species like the green sea turtle, and efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change on marine environments.
The Outdoorist Oath
Have outdoor gear that you no longer use? You can donate it to The Outdoorist Oath, a non-profit that supports BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people getting into the outdoors through educational workshops. The Outdoorist Oath has partnered with Outside’s Gear Up Give Back program for the gear donations. Just box the items up, print a free shipping label, and mail it in. It doesn’t need to be in tip-top shape either as they’ve also partnered with Gear Fix, a Bend, Oregon-based company, to repair minor damage (like small holes or broken zippers) before giving the item a new home. It helps keep gear out of landfills and supports inclusivity in the outdoors. The Outdoorist Oath also accepts cash donations to further its cause.
Rainforest Trust
This non-profit purchases and protects some of the planet’s most threatened tropical forests in order to save endangered wildlife and ecosystems—and they do it all through local partnerships, community engagement, and donor support. Since the inception of Rainforest Trust, the group has protected more than 50 million acres by establishing rainforest reserves across more than 62 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. On Giving Tuesday, funds raised will go towards their project in Pantanal (an area spread across Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay that is currently burning), with the goal of creating and protecting a new 326,000-acre Taquari Wetlands State Park in Brazil, safeguarding essential habitat for caiman, jaguars, hyacinth macaws, and hundreds of other species that rely upon the Pantanal for their survival.
Tourism Cares
Tourism Cares is a non-profit dedicated to the positive impact travel can have when the industry and travelers give back to the communities they serve and visit. Its mission is to create more meaningful travel experiences through volunteering, as well as training and professional development to inform more responsible travel initiatives throughout the world.
World Wildlife Fund
As one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been dedicated to protecting the planet’s most vulnerable species and ecosystems since 1961. They’ve been a part of myriad successful wildlife recovery stories, such as the black rhinos in Africa and the tigers in Nepal, and have helped drive the conservation of forests and other habitats important to animals around the world.
