When Giving-Gives Back
Giving comes in many ways, from donating your time, your money, or at best your resources. Research shows that making a donation of any kind increases the activity in the area of the brain that is linked to pleasure.
Pre Covid 19, the most common acts of giving had been to write a personal check or donate your time to a charity of your choice. Unfortunately due to the emotional effects of navigating through a pandemic, a great majority of people no longer have the additional funds to give or feel comfortable attending large events or activities. These factors have greatly affected the economy and a vast majority of people are now seeking new ways to give back or pay it forward.
Send Me On Vacation, Inc, the shared ownerships leading resource-driven charity is thriving because of its unique structure of donating a resource, an unused week, instead of writing a check or attending a function. When you donate a week that you feel you will not use to someone in need, the feeling of joy is immediate. Imagine receiving a postcard of thanks and gratitude from a breast cancer survivor saying “ because of your donation, I felt joy and adventure again after the fight of my life.”
The ability to make a real impact in the lives of another person in need without ever making a financial contribution is extremely powerful.
From providing a respite to a woman who has just survived chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery to fulfilling a bucket list vacation wish, your members and your resort can donate the resource of a room to change a life for the better.
Organizations like Grand Pacific Resorts, Lifestyle Holiday Vacation Club, Sunset World, Karisma Resorts, SFX Preferred Resorts, Condo Travel Club, Absolute World, and many others have donated both group and individual vacations.
Companies that donate group vacations have a vacation white labeled after their company without having to have dedicated personnel to manage charitable giving. This type of engaged giving strengthens the brand in the eyes of the members knowing that their vacation ownership company supports the act of using vacationing as a tool for healing. Going on vacation gives those battling breast cancer the hope they need to move forward. Members love to share weeks they cannot use with those in need. The act of donating their week to someone in need instead of banking weeks gives the act of membership increased value and meaning.
Companies like Grand Pacific Resorts have “weeks drives” at various times throughout the year, October being the strongest month in support of Breast Cancer Awareness.
Taking weeks off the books also reduces financial liability for the resort at the very same time it changes lives, one vacation at a time.
See the impact of these three ladies’ lives via Send Me on Vacations efforts.
- Meet Kathryn, October’s SMOV Survivor
- Meet Dillan, November’s SMOV Survivor
- Meet Sana, December’s SMOV Survivor
Learn how your organization can benefit from resource-driven giving. Just as IBM donates computers to schools to educate youth, and Home Depot donates to Habitat to Humanity to build homes for the homeless, the best donation a vacation company can make is the gift of a vacation to improve the quality of one’s life. Sharing the story and photo of a recipient that your company has sent on vacation in your member communication or highlighting a member who has donated their week, warms the hearts of existing members and encourages new members to buy into vacation ownership from a company that gives back.
