Feel Good Friday - JJoy Foundation

In February, I'll be heading to Cambodia with the JJoy Foundation for my 9th volunteer house building trip, which inspired me to spotlight their incredible work this week.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the mission of JJoy Foundation is to improve the lives of children and families in underserved communities around the world through education, health, and housing programs.

JJoy's work spans multiple areas: they provide educational support and scholarships, deliver health and wellness programs, and build housing for families in need. My volunteer work in February will focus on their housing initiatives in Cambodia, where they partner with Volunteer Building Cambodia, a locally-run organization that's been improving living conditions for families in rural Cambodia for the past 11 years. Together, they build sturdy, traditional Khmer-style homes and latrines for families living in inadequate housing.

In rural Cambodia, 85% of families lack adequate sanitation and 35% don't have access to safe water. Dilapidated homes require constant repairs, stealing time and resources families need to focus on education, health, and livelihoods. When JJoy builds a secure home with proper sanitation, children have a safe place to study and sleep, parents can invest time in income-generating work, and the entire family gains dignity and stability.

The organization's volunteer-powered model brings people from around the world to work alongside local builders, creating not just homes but connections across cultures. These aren't just construction projects—they're foundations for better futures. Since JJoy began, volunteers have completed 104 project that have benefited more than 2,000 people!

If you'd like to support JJoy Foundation, there are many ways to do so. You can make a donation through my personal fundraising page (my goal is to raise $1,000 by December 17th), or amplify their message on social media. Follow JJoy on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel. I'll also be sharing photos and stories from my trip on my Hey Miss K blog—stay tuned!

Feel Good Friday - International Volunteer HQ

For everyone who enjoys traveling after the summer season and volunteering while on vacation, you’re going to love learning about today’s organization, International Volunteer HQ.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Taranaki, New Zealand, International Volunteer HQ (IVHQ) is the world’s leading volunteer abroad organization. If you’re short on time, this one-minute video gives a great summary.

IVHQ provides a fully-hosted experience, which means you pick your destination, volunteer project and duration and they take care of airport pickup, accommodations and logistics. There are 334 projects in 50+ countries across Africa, Asia, South America, Central America, North America, Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East and the Pacific.

The first step is to pick a destination and a project. You can make your decision by starting with the country you want to visit, or choose what type of organization you’d like to support. IVHQ partner organizations work with children’s education, animals, the environment, health and well being and community development. Specific examples of available trips include mentoring young women in Columbia, protecting and preserving endangered wildlife in Namibia, and working in a pediatric hospital in Cambodia.

Once you find a project that works for your interest, schedule and budget you apply online. If accepted you secure your spot with a registration fee, and prepare for your trip. You’ll also need to pay a program fee, which covers accommodation, meals, airport pick-up, 24/7 in-country support, in-country orientation and discounts on local activities. Prices vary depending on your destination. This page of FAQs can answer all of your questions.

Since they began, IVHQ has helped connect over 152,000 volunteers to opportunities around the world where they have collectively spent 8 million hours doing volunteer work! In 2024 alone 11,678 volunteers representing 125 nationalities volunteered in 56 locations. Get all the details in this short impact video.

One of the best ways to let more people know about IVHQ is to go on a trip and tell people about it! Share your photos and videos on social media and tag IVHQ or write a guest blog on their website to share your volunteer story. You can also stay in the loop by following International Volunteer HQ on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel. 

Feel Good Friday - UniversalGiving

I'm spending all my free time preparing for my upcoming volunteer trip with Habitat for Humanity, a group I've been involved with for the last 18 years. I want to help you find your Habitat and that's why today's Feel Good Friday organization is UniversalGiving.

I learned about UniversalGiving through their founder, Pamela Hawley, a fellow improviser, who created the organization in 2002. In their own words, "UniversalGiving is an award-winning website that helps people give and volunteer with top-performing projects all over the world." The best part about this is these projects are reviewed for their finances, management team, acheivements and many other categories AND "100% of each donation goes directly to the cause"!

It may sound impossible but it's true. UniversalGiving helps for profit companies scale their corporate social responsibility programs and fees for those services cover operations costs. That means any money you donate really does go directly to the organization you choose. This supports the vision to "Create a World Where Giving and Volunteering Are a Natural Part of Everyday Life."

So how do you make this a part of your everyday life? Visit the website and see the current opportunities! You can give a gift, such as books to support children's literacy, fund a project, like earthquake relief in Nepal, or volunteer! Anyone else want to go to Thailand to help elephants?

To keep current with organizations vetted by UniversalGiving and new volunteer opportunities that arise, you can like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @UnviersalGiving. As for me I'm off to find my convertible pants!

Feel Good Friday - Go Erin Go!

I can hear your questions already. Who is Erin, where is she going and why feel good about it?


Erin Michelson is an Adventure Philanthropist who recently returned from two years of traveling around the world, volunteering with local organizations and blogging about them on her website Go Erin Go. Not only did she donate her time, skills and spread the word about the works these groups are doing but she also invited her blog followers to decide how to donate her money. It was voluntourism on steroids!

If you missed that boat (like I did) you'll be happy to know she just released a book that recounts many of these stories. You can read my review here. Even better, you can find photos and short videos of the people she writes about on her website if you want to take your armchair experience to the next level.

Reading her book or her blog, you may realize:

a) you are an Adventure Philanthropist
b) you'd like to become an Adventure Philanthropist
c) you are quite happy as an armchair Adventure Philanthropist

Between the volunteer trips with Habitat, the Inspiration Safari filming in Africa (because even though that wasn't the name at the time, that's totally what it was) and Erin calling me one, I've realized that I'm an Adventure Philanthropist! I'd definitely like to keep it that way. Habitat Mongolia in 2014 anyone?

What next? You can watch two video summaries of Erin's travels below. After that, stay in the loop with her adventures by buying the book, subscribing to her blog or liking her Facebook page. That's what I'm doing!