Birthing GoPhilanthropic Travel
In 2007, motivated by the simple ideal that small personal actions can make a difference, Lydia created GoPhilanthropic Travel, a socially-conscious travel company offering a rare opportunity to learn about and gain an intimate understanding of the issues facing our world while also exploring how we could each take an active role in being a part of solutions.
Working in sync with GoPhilanthropic Foundation (a US-based non-profit she co-founded in 2001), travelers were given access to a carefully vetted portfolio of community-based organizations facing extremely challenging issues such as human trafficking, child marriage, and a lack of equal access to healthcare and education. Travelers engaged one-on-one with NGOs, social entrepreneurs, and community leaders — the frequently lesser-known change-makers of the world who are actively making the world a more just place.
Offering deep knowledge within both the philanthropic travel and NGO sectors, GoPhilanthropic Travel offered a safe and responsible bridge between traveling and giving back. The guidelines and ethos for delivering their philanthropic journeys were generated from years of experience.
After years of guiding philanthropic travel, I realized these life-changing journeys sat within a larger, more beautiful, and expanded context.
In 2022, as the world was emerging from the trauma of the pandemic, Lydia and Travis Day (also a former GoPhil Travel guide) wanted to continue to develop on the opportunities surrounding positive, transformative travel. Ethos Journeys was created with these ideas in mind.
“While philanthropic travel specifically focused on how we could be of support to people in need, Ethos Journeys would explore how we can live in support and synchronicity with life as a whole.”
Ethos Journeys offer access to experiences, visionaries, and luminaries that help us activate our fullest potential while acknowledging our belonging to each other and a more significant, extended existence. Offering a wide range of disciplines that stimulate both mind and heart, it encourages a more profound understanding, communication, and participation in life.
Ethos Journeys focus areas include:
- Earth Wellness: Our innate connection and responsibility to Mother Earth.
- Spirituality: Sacred spaces, places, and practices that connect us to something greater than ourselves.
- Scientific Wisdom: Regenerative sciences and technologies spanning medicine to cosmology.
- Indigenous Wisdom: Our interconnection and sense of “wholeness” with life.
- Mind, Body, Soul: Aligning ourselves with our most authentic, best selves.
- Humanitarian Action: Connecting with people and programs actively responding to the needs of our time.
- Sacred Community Building: Deepening our sense of belonging to each other.
