Travel and Shop for Charity

This blog was submitted to us by: Elizabeth Davies at Quintessentially Foundation.  For more information please visit www.quintessentiallyfoundation.org.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret. If you head down, not to the woods, but to the Giving Lots website today, you’re most definitely sure of a big surprise. That’s because it is currently hosting the Quintessentially Reserve Luxury Travel Auction. Forget the summer sales; this is where those in the know pick up a bargain or two.

Featured in the Financial Times’ ‘How To Spend It’ magazine, the site is for people who truly know how to spend it, wisely. A two night stay at the luxury Faena Hotel and Universe, Buenos Aires? Bidding starts at £80 (although rooms usually cost from around $400 per night) whilst a similar lot kindly donated by Oasis Collections went for a highly competitive price. An overnight stay for two in a Master Mews suite at The Stafford, London? Expect to get it for around £300, down from £1155.

And the best news (if it can get any better)? It’s all in the name of charity.

Quintessentially Foundation was founded in 2008 as the charitable offshoot of Quintessentially, one of the world’s leading luxury lifestyle groups. Believing everyone deserves the same chances in life, it aims to help disadvantaged children, families and local communities worldwide to fulfill their potential through improvements to health, education and general wellbeing.

Since its creation, it has raised over £850,000 to help do so, with four main recipients. These are: SOS Children’s Villages (the world’s largest orphan charity which builds villages of homes for ‘families’ of orphans, headed by a ‘mother’), The Place2Be (an after-school counseling program run in the UK), Room to Read (an initiative aiming to provide children worldwide with books and learning materials) and The House of St. Barnabas (a local London charity which provides those who have experienced homelessness with important life skills). All are truly worthy causes, and need more help now than ever.

So, please visit www.givinglots.co.uk/event/QuintessentiallyReserve and the money raised from your fabulous holiday or little treat could become something wonderful. For example, the Quintessentially Foundation has recently built its first school in Nepal, in partnership with Room to Read, which will improve the schooling of around 250 children a year. In addition to this, their support of The Place2Be’s counselling scheme has helped it reach over 8,000 children in London and improve their emotional wellbeing.

The auction only lasts through July 4th, 2010.  This summer, shop – with heart.