Check out Airbnb’s new Community Fund—and vote now to pick your top choice organization

[Airbnb]

Photo credit: The Freedom Story

Last year, Airbnb announced the creation of a new Community Fund, which will distribute $10 million dollars in 2021 to local organizations, with more to come in the future. The Host Advisory Board has been active in determining how the fund should work by selecting this year’s grant focuses -- COVID-19 relief, economic empowerment, and education -- and helping identify the organizations making an impact in those areas.

Now it’s your turn! Head to your local Host Club on Facebook to vote for the organization that you want the Community Fund to support. If you’re not in a local Host Club, you can find them here. If there isn’t a club in your area, consider becoming a Community Leader to start your own and be involved in opportunities like this in the future.

What local organizations do you support? What themes do you think the Community Fund should focus on in the future? 

[Anna1403]

There were literally so many amazing organisations to choose from, from those offering aid, to emergency medical help and food bank provisions - all of which were so humbling and incredibly admirable in their focus and front line mission - but it was the empowerment of HERA (Her Economic Rights and Autonomy) directly working with woman who have experienced unimaginable trauma through human trafficking to be entrepreneurial, to believe in themselves again with the right training and mentoring that really got me excited.

Reading some of the stories of the 1026 women survivors (343 in London) who HERA have worked with and who have broken the cycle, some even setting up their own venture and employing women themselves in regions with the highest rates of trafficking in Central / Eastern Europe was truly remarkable.

The resilience, the bravery, the strength and the power these women have regained was so incredibly moving and truly impactful.  

I know that the rest of the HAB will agree with me - it really has been such an honour to be involved in this process and for our fellow hosts to be a part of this too!

Thanks so much!

Anna 

[Ria16]

KiaOra 

It seems a little unfair that only people that have a Facebook account can vote.

Why not just do it here in the Air community hub ? 

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Thank you for raising the question, @Ria16 . The Host Advisory Board helped to select the current list of NGO’s which will be funded. This huge list is subdivided in small groups of organizations, according to the Host Club and Community regions. E.g. in our region we get a selection of just four organizations, all locally.

The CC is global. Many years ago Airbnb decided to organize the local communities in FB groups rather than in the former CC subdivisions.

For that simple reason the final voting process will take place in the FB groups.

[Ria16]

@Till-and-Jutta0  Thanks for the answer. What a shame. Obviously there can’t  be enough hosts in New Zealand to form a group. Oh well. 

[Helen427]

@Airbnb @Till-and-Jutta0@Christine615 @Hovi10 @Ria16  

I agree with @Ria16 in relation to having a vote here in ABB CC as this is a reasonably accessible platform and let's face it and be upfront, it's not like Facebook have a very good reputation with compliance to Privacy and other Data Protection Regulations that are in place, do they?

[Sarah977]

@Till-and-Jutta0  Why not provide both options? The CC and local Facebook groups. 

You are essentially depriving and penalizing any hosts who do not want to join Facebook from having a voice in this.

Airbnb users should not have to join a social media platform they may want nothing to do with in order to participate in Airbnb projects. 

[Christine615]

I don't know if I have a local community fund, but if Airbnb wants to make a huge difference, I recommend this fund. These are the children of the sherpa who lead expeditions up Mount Everest. They still live in rural villages but education is important so many make a trek to school which is 3 hours (by foot) in each direction: Apa Sherpa holds the Worlds record for summits, and his foundation supports the school and pays for teachers, teaching supplies and food for the students:

https://www.apasherpafoundation.org/

[Hovi10]

Thanks for sharing.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

I am pleased that the Host Advisory Board has been able to help distribute the start-up funding of the Community Fund according to the formulated goals.

I looked closely at each of the organisations assigned to me, carefully studied all the information about the projects and checked them against our established criteria. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it because I learned a lot about where good is being done all over the world, and in what form. Sometimes it was easy for me, but sometimes it was difficult, because not all organisations can be considered, but we had to set priorities.

I also listened to myself, consulted my feelings —not just my head. And so I gladly made use of the fast-track option in order to be able to consider the two projects that particularly caught my eye and grew on me. On the one hand, there is Afghanistan Libre, an aid organisation that has been fighting for 25 years against the curtailment of women's and girls' rights under the Taliban regime in a badly battered country and has been raising them to become pillars of a new society. On the other hand, I was emotionally touched by Woman's Voice, an organisation that works in northwest Nepal against the brutal inhuman exclusion of "impure" girls and women during menstruation and after childbirth and provides them with safe shelter and sound education so that they can defend themselves against this form of gender-based violence in the future.

Personally, it is important to me that the promotion of communities is not only about purely material matters, but also about what community work can achieve in the hearts of people in a sustainable way.