TWSF
The Wild Source is a mission driven safari operator. They specialize in wildlife biologist planned safaris, using travel as a conservation tool to empower local people and conserve wildlife and wild places. They're known for a remarkable guiding team, serious wildlife viewing and creating camp ownership opportunities for local people.
The Wild Source has a wide range of innovative, responsible tourism programs that focus on enriching the lives of the local people while also conserving wildlife and wild places where they operate safaris. In April 2020, we announced the launch of The Wild Source Foundation (TWSF), a 501(c) 3 nonprofit, which accepts donations to fund community led programs in the countries where the team lives and works.
The Full Story
Since the inception of The Wild Source in 2008, we’ve been on a mission to conserve wildlife, using travel as our means to do it. Contributing to the regions where we operate has always been an essential part of our culture. We’ve supported wildlife research, job skills development, and creating ownership opportunities for local people within safari guiding operations and safari camps.
When the safari industry was brought to a halt in 2020, we faced massive challenges. It became evident that our ability to support our mission-based projects would be severely affected. We also knew the communities we worked with would be facing economic devastation and potential health risks.
Past travelers began reaching out to us with their concern for the wonderful people they had met on their safaris and asking how they could help. In response, The Wild Source Foundation was formed.
We are so grateful for the generous support we received in 2020 and how we’ve grown since. We have achieved remarkable results through programs that not only sustain the lives of many local Africans but also help conserve wildlife that had temporarily lost the protection typically afforded by tourism.
As we have all moved forward from the initial crisis-driven founding of TWSF, you have continued to support the wide array of projects that have been successful in our first few years. As funding allows, TWSF hopes to move toward selecting long term projects that we believe maximize our conservation impact and continue building on the benefits that have been created.
We’re excited that TWSF has been able to shift from being reactionary to a much more strategic state. We’re diving into cutting edge new wildlife conservation research initiatives, as well as transformative economic opportunities that will be multi-year pursuits. We remain grateful for the rapid and generous response of our donors during such a challenging time and ongoing support in the five years since the Foundation was born.
Bill Given
Founder of The Wild Source and The Wild Source Foundation
