Intrepid awards £340,000 grants to 16 NGO partners

More than £340,000 in impact grants have been awarded by Intrepid Travel’s non-profit arm to 16 NGO partners.

The Intrepid Foundation’s most extensive distribution to date sees grants unlocking additional funding for conservation, animal welfare, equality and community-building projects across 15 countries. 

They are backed by more than £140,000 in traveller donations, matched dollar for dollar by Intrepid, with additional support from corporate donor Eurail. 

Last year’s grant programme distributed more than £120,000.

The third annual grant programme invited its 54 partners across more than 40 countries to pitch project ideas that deepen community impact. 

Submissions were reviewed by an Intrepid panel of four team members from across the business, who shortlisted finalists before more than 700 Intrepid employees cast their votes. 

The Foundation also introduced a new public-voting Traveller’s Choice grant, which received more than 1,400 votes from travellers around the world. 

The Travellers Choice grant went to the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation in Vietnam, which works to fight the causes of human trafficking.

Eurail funded two grants which went to AMURTEL to support refugee and migrant mothers in Greece, and to Co-operative Coraggio in Italy, to train 20 young people in agroecology and eco-hospitality, with five earning paid internships. 

Other recipients include PAC Columbia, World Animal Protection Thailand and Sagamartha Next in Nepal. 

Intrepid Foundation general manager Biheng Zhang said: “It’s inspiring to hear how our NGO partners plan to use these grants to create impact on the ground – from helping restore marine environments in Thailand to creating an empowerment program for migrant women in Greece and enabling better health screenings in Colombia. 

“What makes it even more special is that this funding is largely thanks to travellers who chose to donate one per cent of their trip cost at the time of booking – a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when we come together and that even small contributions can go a long way to create meaningful change.”