Each Friday, the another jennifer blog shares stories of those who incorporate philanthropy into their everyday lives – personally and professionally – in a creative and unique way. If you have a story you’d like to share, please email Jennifer.
Hands Up Incentives cares deeply about three things: fun, great memories and making the world a better place. Sounds good, right? The company specializes in reward and team building trips that fuse volunteering with adventure and relaxation.
Christopher Hill started the company as a result of his own travel experiences. While on a trip to South Africa in 2002, he helped build a house in one of Cape Town’s townships. Sure, he also went on safari, enjoyed the winelands and explored the many other attractions of Cape Town. But the experience of building that house had a profound effect on him. As he puts it “blew away a lot of misconceptions I had about township life.” He admits it changed his life.
While Christopher’s background was investment banking, he saw an application for these type of trips for companies to incorporate some philanthropy into their rewards to employees. Incentive trips, in particular, could be enhanced through a community development component, especially with team building and employee engagement.
Hands Up Incentives works with companies to plan amazing trips. They actually take the time to understand the company’s mission and objectives in order to match them with the right humanitarian program and location. And, they handle everything from the planning to the program implementation. In addition, Hands Up Incentives is committed to sustainability throughout the entire process.
The cool thing is that most of the people who end up attending these trips report that the humanitarian project is the highlight of the trip. One volunteer project, completed by a company named Softcat with local builders and families, involved building a new library and refurbishing existing classrooms and gardens in Cambodia.
Sounds like a great way to reward top performing employees.
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