One day I received the private message below from the TripAdvisor Support Team about how they wanted to do charitable donations on behalf of their destination experts. I thought it was a great thing they were doing and wrote back and asked if I could blog it when the results were in. I got a yes and they would let me know when they were ready to let the cat out of the bag.

In appreciation of your dedication to our travel community, TripAdvisor has allocated a large fund to be donated on your behalf to some internationally recognized and respected organizations that do great work for the benefit of people and destinations worldwide. You’ve volunteered so much of your time helping other travelers plan memorable and enjoyable trips to the destinations that you know and love, and we’re excited to be able to make a contribution to the betterment of those destinations through this effort. We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be making a donation of $250 (USD) on behalf of each and every Destination Expert. All you need to do is tell us where you’d like your donation to go. You may choose to allocate your donation among one or more of these organizations: Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, The Nature Conservancy,  Conservation International or FINCA.

Thanks again for your continued dedication to the TripAdvisor Community!

Best regards,
The TripAdvisor Community Team

After a few follow ups I finally got an answer back that the results were in and I could share them with you. It was no surprise that the whole effort took longer to orchestrate and turned out to be more complicated than anybody could have imagined. They did a great job though and 5 great organizations are got  generous donation as a result.

• Doctors Without Borders:  $207,500

• Save the Children:  $112,000

• Conservation International:  $22,000

• The Nature Conservancy:  $74,000

• FINCA:  $34,500

TripAdvisor was very pleased to announce that the TripAdvisor Charitable Foundation has donated a total of $450,000 (USD) on behalf of their destination experts. Want more details? You can read more about the foundation effort on  – Charity Donation Results — Finally! TripAdvisor article by TA_MikeW

Here is a great video of The Whale Shark Zone, Gladden Spit in honor of The Nature Conservancy which is the organization I picked for for their work protecting Marine Habitats in Belize.  It is rich with marine life in addition to Whale Shark sighting it makes for a great dive experience. My second choice was Conservation international.

Whale shark with divers picture used as featured image is courtesy of Hatchet Caye.

Whale shark with divers courtesy of Hatchet Caye