Please Support Up with People during Giving Tuesday
Dec. 1, 2020

As we approach this year’s Giving Tuesday, we find unprecedented disruption and very real needs everywhere we look. One thing people everywhere need, now more than ever, is hope for a more peaceful, caring and inclusive future.  This is why I am writing to ask you to consider making a monetary gift to Up with People – to enable us to continue our mission by building a program that will have maximum impact for social good.

Here is what this message is — and isn’t:

This is not a letter to update you: you know about Up with People’s suspension of recent tours and the resulting impact on our staff and budget. You can read the update here. As so many of you have expressed to me, you’re keenly aware that these decisions were the only prudent steps to ensure the safety of our students, staff, and the communities in which they would be interacting.  You can imagine how difficult these decisions have been on the organization’s fiscal state and the emotional toll they have taken on disappointed students and disrupted staff.

Rather, this is a letter of hope.

It’s the hope I read in the letters and emails I get from host families around the world whose lives were touched by sharing conversation with youth from countries they knew little about until they opened their doors to our exuberant young ambassadors.

It’s the hope I hear in the feedback from sponsors and donors who are not just providing us with the financial and in-kind support for our programs and tours: they recognize they are supporting the power of youthful energy and global awareness in building community, engagement, and international relationships—something more important now than ever.

It’s the hope I feel from the thousands of alumni around the world: a community of lifelong friends with a shared experience that changed their lives forever.

And, it’s the hope I place in the future of Up with People. The fact that we are surviving as an organization and actively planning for our future is a testament to the strength and support of the Up with People community and its friends.  Not just those of you who have given financial support, but also those who have participated in our Project 3.0 initiative and the dedicated staff members who have kept the organization running.  We are resilient – and our work is unfinished.

Your confidence means the world to us right now.

Thank you for your consideration of this request,

Vernon C. Grigg III