Giving Back

We use adven­ture trav­el as a force for good. We not only to con­nect our clients with their climb­ing and trekking dreams we con­nect them with phil­an­thropic oppor­tu­ni­ties in the com­mu­ni­ties we vis­it, all while striv­ing to take the most envi­ron­men­tal­ly and social­ly respon­si­ble approach­es we can. 

We believe that sus­tain­able approach­es to trav­el sus­tain all of us. Wher­ev­er we go, we invest in local train­ing, con­ser­va­tion, and social devel­op­ment pro­grams to help ensure that the net impact of our com­pa­ny is pos­i­tive. We also give back to com­mu­ni­ties and orga­ni­za­tions on our home turf. Want to do a climb that’s also a fundrais­er? That’s right in our wheel­house, too — let us help you make it happen!

Whether it’s plant­i­ng some trees for an orphan­age in Cus­co before your Inca Trail trek, bring­ing a bas­ket­ball hoop and gath­er­ing the sup­plies in Arusha to build a court for a local school before your Kil­i­man­jaro climb, doing a cloth­ing dri­ve for women porters in Ugan­da, or bring­ing school sup­plies and shar­ing the expe­ri­ence of a book or com­put­er with kids, the oppor­tu­ni­ties are end­less. Or if you have a shared pas­sion with an orga­ni­za­tion that does work abroad or domes­ti­cal­ly, you can orga­nize a fundrais­er climb or trek to raise mon­ey for their pro­grams. Take a look below at some exam­ples of things you can get involved with and give us a call and we’ll get the ball rolling.

Moun­tain Mad­ness makes strate­gic dona­tions to non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions at home and around the world, focus­ing on pro­grams with long-last­ing impact in the areas of the envi­ron­ment, human rights, and edu­ca­tion. Here are just a few of the orga­ni­za­tions we sup­port and have been involved with:

Changing Lives Nepal

Co-found­ed in 2008 by Moun­tain Mad­ness guide Deana Zabal­do, Chang­ing Lives Nepal is a non-prof­it that works with farm­ers to build sus­tain­able organ­ic cash crop pro­grams and also sup­ports a fam­i­ly-style orphan­age. Read a blog about our efforts here.

Rescue Freedom

Res­cue Free­dom International’s mis­sion is to pre­vent slav­ery in devel­op­ing coun­tries and pro­vide vic­tims assis­tance in reestab­lish­ing their lives. In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing auc­tion items at their annu­al fundrais­er, we pro­vide fundrais­er climbs.

Mateves Secondary School

Moun­tain Mad­ness is a staunch sup­port­er of the Mat­eves Sec­ondary School in Ngor­bob, Tan­za­nia, which brings edu­ca­tion to the thou­sands of stu­dents in the area. Each year, we help raise mon­ey and send sup­plies to sup­port the schools expand­ing enroll­ment. Our guests can par­tic­i­pate in var­i­ous ways here before or after their Kil­i­man­jaro climb.

Microsoft Global Citizenship Team

Thanks to a Glob­al Cit­i­zen­ship team at Microsoft that was estab­lished by a Moun­tain Mad­ness client, our staff and clients have deliv­ered over 60 donat­ed lap­tops to schools in Nepal, Tanaz­nia, and Peru. Read a blog about our efforts here.

Classroom in the Clouds

As part of an ongo­ing mis­sion to improve edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties in Luk­la, Nepal, we’ve been involved with fundrais­ers through Class­rooms in the Clouds to help build the Himalayan Eng­lish Board­ing School. This school lessens the cur­rent trend of school-age chil­dren of all ages flee­ing to Kath­man­du for a bet­ter edu­ca­tion, which usu­al­ly means a loss of their tra­di­tions, lan­guage, and cul­tur­al history.

EmBOLDen Alliances

EmBOLD­en Alliances believes every per­son deserves and has a right to life with health, dig­ni­ty, and an oppor­tu­ni­ty for ful­fill­ment. They sup­port orga­ni­za­tions, stu­dents, and indi­vid­u­als work­ing in Glob­al Health and Human­i­tar­i­an Assis­tance, so they can max­i­mize capac­i­ty and resources to actu­al­ize their com­mu­ni­ties’ visions. 

Himalayan Stove Project

The Himalyan Stove Project improves the health of the peo­ple in the trans-Himalayan region by pro­vid­ing free, clean-burn­ing, high­ly fuel-effi­cient cook stoves to indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties who cur­rent­ly cook with tra­di­tion­al, rudi­men­ta­ry stoves or open fires in their homes, con­sum­ing exces­sive amounts of pre­cious fuel and pol­lut­ing the indoor air to dan­ger­ous levels.

Pack for a Purpose

We are proud mem­bers of Pack for a Pur­pose, an ini­tia­tive that allows trav­el­ers like you to make a last­ing impact in the com­mu­ni­ty at your trav­el des­ti­na­tion. If you save just a few kilos of space in your suit­case and take sup­plies for area schools or med­ical clin­ics in need, you’ll make a price­less impact in the lives of our local chil­dren and fam­i­lies. Please click here to see what sup­plies are need­ed for the Chang­ing Lives Nepal orphan­age, and here to see what is need­ed for the Mat­eves Sec­ondary School in Tanzania.

Team Survivor Northwest

Team Sur­vivor pro­vides women fight­ing and that have recov­ered from can­cer through out­door adven­tures. Activ­i­ties include hik­ing, boat­ing, and climb­ing. Moun­tain Mad­ness has worked with Team Sur­vivor by pro­vid­ing guid­ed fundrais­er climbs.

We believe out­door adven­ture brings with it the oppor­tu­ni­ty for kids and young adults to gain con­fi­dence, con­nect with nature, and devel­op trust and team build­ing skills. Through fundrais­er climbs and Moun­tain Mad­ness being able to take kids out on adven­tures, we’re able to do this. Here are some of the orga­ni­za­tions we work with:

Big City Mountaineers

Big City Moun­taineers works with under-served kids across the coun­try pro­vid­ing out­door adven­ture not oth­er­wise acces­si­ble to them. Moun­tain Mad­ness is proud to be able to pro­vide our ser­vice and guides for fundrais­er climbs.

Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts join us year after year for rock climb­ing adven­tures in Leav­en­worth, WA where they learn the pow­er of trust and team building.

International Refugee Committee

The Inter­na­tion­al Refugee Com­mit­tee focus­es their work on recent­ly arrived refugee kids by pro­vid­ing a vari­ety of adven­ture oppor­tu­ni­ties. The IRC wel­comes them to our com­mu­ni­ties and intro­duces them to new activ­i­ties in a sup­port­ive environment.

Refugees Northwest

Refugees North­west works with refugee kids from across the globe. Team­ing up with their fos­ter-kid pro­gram we’ve had the priv­i­lege of tak­ing these teenagers on a vari­ety of adventures.

Moun­tain Mad­ness also has a long his­to­ry and sup­ports a wide range of oth­er non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions either through direct involve­ment by offer­ing our ser­vices, pro­vid­ing auc­tion items for fundrais­ers, fundrais­er climbs or treks, or dona­tions. These include the following:

Access Fund

CARE

Inter­na­tion­al Moun­tain Explor­er’s Con­nec­tion — Porter Assis­tance Programs

King Coun­ty Search and Rescue

Leave No Trace

North­west Weath­er and Avalanche Cen­ter (NWAC)

Room to Read

Seat­tle Parks and Recreation

She Jumps

Wash­ing­ton’s Nation­al Park Fund

Wash­ing­ton Trails Association