Charitable giving

Haiti needs clean water. You need something beautiful to hang on your wall. Donate $10 to help build five wells for two rural communities in Haiti. You might win a piece of fine photographic art. How beautiful is that?

I’m very excited to share that I’ve received a commitment from master photographer Michael Barton to donate one of his award-winning fine art images in support of Passports with Purpose 2012.

Passports with Purpose is the travel bloggers annual fundraiser, now in its fifth year. I’ve been a supporter since the beginning over on my travel blog Writing Travel, and this is the third year I’ve sponsored prizes for the event. Coincidentally, I’m hosting three prizes this year, one here and two more on the travel blog.

First, let me tell you about Michael Barton’s work and show you the three images he’s offering for the winner’s choice.

Master photographer Michael Barton‘s work has received numerous awards. He has been named Photographer of the Year seven times by the Professional Photographers of America, most recently 2012 Diamond Photographer of the Year, and he’s been a Top Ten Illinois Photographer of the Year every year from 2006 to 2012. He holds many other earned distinctions and degrees from the Professional Photographers of America as well as from the elite American Society of Photographers. But he’s not just about earning ribbons and medals; he’s also an extremely generous mentor and educator of other photographers. This is where I have to disclose that I’ve been studying with Michael since 2007 and that his studio, Indigo Photographic, is just 5 minutes from my house.

If you win, Michael will create an archival museum-quality 20″ giclée print on canvas of your chosen image. He will sign and mount the print so that it’s ready for hanging and ship the finished piece to your North American address.

Here are your choices:

Desert Phoenix, fine art photograph by Michael Barton

Urban Perspective, fine art photograph by Michael Barton

Confluence by Michael Barton — Confluence, fine art photograph by Michael Barton

So how does this work, and how can you win by donating? It’s pretty simple. Go to the Passports with Purpose Donate page, and check out all the cool prizes offered by more than 150 sponsoring travel bloggers. I’m writing before the launch, so I only know about the three awesome prizes I’ve procured, but I can tell you now that past prizes have included cruises, vacation packages, electronics and gear, and all kinds of amazing travel experiences.

For each tax-deductible $10 you donate between now and December 11, 2012, at 11:59pm EST, you’ll be entered to win the prize or prizes of your choice. The winner will be chosen randomly, but the more you donate toward a prize, the better your odds of winning.

This year, the aim is to raise $100,000 to benefit Water.org, with the specific goal of creating five new wells to bring clean water to two rural communities in Haiti. In previous years, Passports with Purpose donations benefitted Heifers International, built two libraries for children in Zambia in cooperation with Room to Read, constructed a village in India for 25 Dalit families with Land for Tillers’ Freedom, and established the Passports School with American Assistance for Cambodia. You can learn more about the history and mission of Passports with Purpose here. Detailed information about the 2012 fundraiser can be found in the press announcement.

This morning I received a couple of emails from a long-time friend who has just started a new job with Catholic Relief Services in the Congo. One of them contained a link to the website of the micro-loan project Kiva, with a note: "This is an idea for a Christmas present for someone who has everything.
It was given to me and I love it."

Last week, I celebrated my 4000th Twitter follower with a promise to award a prize "suitable only to that person."

This was a bit risky, as my follower number 4000 could easily have been a spambot pushing whiter teeth. Luckily, that wasn't a problem. I was overjoyed when I saw that my 4000th follower was @JoeDiazAFAR, co-founder of AFAR
Media and experiential travel expert. I can't think of a more suitable prize to award Joe than a contribution to Kiva in his honor.

Thanks for the follow, Joe! I enjoy reading AFAR and love that it takes me places I can only dream of experiencing.

As you finish your holiday shopping, don't forget Passports with Purpose as another end-of-year gift idea. They have met the initial target of $13,000 toward building a school in rural Cambodia with American Assistance for Cambodia and have doubled that target to include health services for the school. So far, there's enough money to build the school and hire a nurse. Additional funds are needed to create a garden and hire a gardener and cook to improve the students' nutrition.

Please consider donating. It's easy, in increments of $10 through Paypal, and every $10 buys a chance to win a great prize. See the list of donated prizes here.