Scholarships for students to learn and volunteer abroad with Friendship Tours World Travel educational programs.

We recognize the value of experiential learning abroad for young people of all financial backgrounds. We know that if you’re inspired to explore the world on a life-changing educational adventure, your family and friends will support your vision. The Friendship Fund is a non-profit scholarship foundation affiliated with Friendship Tours World Travel: we facilitate individual student fundraising for their own education-abroad program in a country healing from war.

How does it work?

Students fundraise for their own immersive education-abroad experiences using a simple online crowd-funding platform. 100% of the funds-raised goes to support the students’ effort and offsets the cost of their trip. There is no minimum fundraising requirement: the more motivated the students, the more money they can raise! Whether students are traveling to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Cuba or Rwanda, funds raised are applied to their individual travel account with Friendship Tours. Students complete their fundraising by the 90 day pre-departure deadline, and feel accomplished that they have helped earn their own educational experience of a lifetime.

What’s Crowd-Funding?

Crowd-funding represents new-paradigm in fund-raising campaigns: students are empowered to “own” the cause of their education-abroad trip and appeal to others via online channels to help them reach a fundraising goal. We’ve done the heavy-lifting for you on the CauseVox.com platform. It’s FREE! All you need to do is personalize your page as an extension of our site, explain what your trip means to you, and send out to family and friends via Facebook, Twitter, and email. When your donors give money to your cause, it goes directly on your travel account with Friendship Tours. Donors receive a special “gift” from our non-profit artisans abroad as an expression of gratitude and symbol of their support for you.

More ideas

Create excitement for your trip and raise money with minimal time commitment. Students can do inspirational fundraisers alone, or get together with other travelers for extra motivation and fun! The Friendship Fund supports students who are determined to raise funds for their trip through ideas, introductory partnerships and administrative support. Contact Kristin with questions: Kristin@Friendship-Fund.org.

"For me, raising part of the money to take this trip was the best feeling of all. It made the whole travel adventure that much more meaningful—just setting my mind to the goal of raising $1,000—and then actually doing it was crazy! Now, I feel like I can do anything."

– Mariela, Sophomore, San Diego, California

"Why do I want to travel with Friendship Tours again? Because it is so much more than just a vacation, more than “temporary” cultural immersion, it’s so much more than ordinary community service. This program is an intense-insider’s experience. Creating relationships with real people-facing real issues is a boundary-breaking, perspective-shattering opportunity. The teachers on staff with Friendship Tours helped me find a purpose and myself."

– Sammy, Freshman, Los Angeles, California

"Before my trip, I never knew how easy it was to change lives. It always seemed like such an idealistic concept, something only the selected few could really achieve. But I have since learned the power of one individual, education, and independent journalism."

– Gabi, Junior, Santa Barbara, California

Excited but still have questions? Contact us. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can! Contact Kristin: Kristin@Friendship-Fund.org.

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How Can I Apply For Financial Aid?

Contribute to the Friendship Fund today with a donation of any amount. All proceeds are tax-deductible and will be used to support qualifying scholarship students fund-raise for their educational community service travel with Friendship Tours.

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The Friendship Fund is a non-profit scholarship foundation affiliated with Friendship Tours World Travel: we facilitate individual student fundraising for their own education-abroad program in a country healing from war. We exist to support motivated students to become informed, invested citizens of a global community through socially-conscious travel. Whether the student is traveling with us to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Cuba or Rwanda, Friendship Tours provides unprecedented hands-on learning, community service and global opportunities for social entrepreneurialism.

Your generous support will positively impact many lives:

-Local student motivated to engage in a socially-conscious education-abroad program

-Children living in a country recovering from war (Friendship Tours’ donates 1% of all student trip proceeds to non-profit NGO partnerships in the destination country.)