Travel Elevates—Signature Travel Network’s nonprofit—has a couple major projects in the works that will make it easier to provide grants to more recipients every year, as well as ways to incorporate positive impact experiences into client itineraries.

Incorporating Travel Elevates Into Client Itineraries

Starting with the latter—as it will help lead to the success of the former—is a new visitor opportunity platform, which Vicky Gallion, communications and development manager for Travel Elevates, hinted at during Signature Travel Network’s Owners Meeting in September. Currently, Travel Elevates and its grantees have created about 80 such experiences.

Gallion told LATTE U.S. that advisors “want to build this into their business model. They love the idea.”

The most important factor, she added, is that these are all vetted programs, “so when you book this for your traveler, you can rest assured that there’s credibility on the ground.” Gallion added that the in-destination charity managers agreed to offer “concierge service” to Signature members (only), which could include volunteer experiences, tours and more.

Advisors can also turn the experience into the trip itself: Gallion said not only could an advisor book a one-off experience for a client who’s already traveling to a given destination, but the advisors can arrange hosted group trips to participate in a community project.

Beyond experiences booked through Travel Elevates’ charity partners, Alex Sharpe, CEO of Signature, said the platform could also be a place to highlight the work being done by the network’s supplier partners.

“It’s really about: how do we take what we know our partners are doing in-destination [and] make it available for the consumer and let us be the person that creates that value,” said Sharpe. This could come in the form of a surprise-and-delight, a booked tour or experience, or something else entirely. “But we know that it’s those things that change a trip into a memory of a lifetime,” he added.

Whether its through Travel Elevates’ grantees or Signature’s partners, his goal is to make it as easy as possible for advisors to include these experiences in their clients’ itineraries.

For the time being—like Signature’s Pack for a Purpose program—this visitor opportunity platform will live within SigNet. “But the vision is we’ll have a member portal down the road,” said Gallion.

Creating a Lasting Impact

The next step for Travel Elevates will be an investment initiative called Endowment 30. “The idea,” Sharpe said, “is we’ll have a $10 million endowment by 2030 and that will yield at least half a million dollars a year in perpetuity.” With this, Signature could give out 10 $50,000 grants annually.

Once the project officially launches in January, Gallion’s primary task will be raising about $1.5 million a year to reach the goal. (To put that into perspective, Signature raised $810,000 in one night alone at its Owners Meeting fundraising dinner.)

One such way is through a proposed Partner Incentive Program, inspired by the likes of AmaWaterways and Allianz, both of whom have offered incentives to Signature members with the promise of donating a portion of each sale to Travel Elevates. Not only has this turned out to be a success for Travel Elevates, but for Allianz and AmaWaterways, as well. Gallion reported that each of these companies saw an increase in sales during the month where they offered the promo, “so it’s a win-win.”

Gallion noted it could be a strategic offer for suppliers that may see a dip in bookings during a given month.

Does Sharpe feel Travel Elevates is in a good position to reach that lofty goal? In short, yes.

“We feel really confident we’ll get to $10 million by 2030—and that’s in addition to the good work we’re doing [now].”

At Signature’s current pace, Sharpe said the network would need to raise about $1.5 million a year to reach the goal. To put that into perspective, Signature raised $810,000 in one night alone at its Owners Meeting fundraising dinner.

Sharpe, always one to try and raise the bar, added that it’s not impossible to see this endowment increase. “When we get to $10 million, we might say $20 million is a better number—or $30 million.”

New Emergency Relief Funding

Increased funds also mean more ways to help. This year, Travel Elevates accepted eight grants but Gallion already sees an opportunity to potentially increase that to 10 in 2026. In addition, Travel Elevates would have the ability to earmark money for emergency funds, such as for relief in Jamaica following the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Currently, Travel Elevates is creating a set of criteria for what could be considered for emergency relief funding. While not yet finalized, Gallion said the team agreed the situation in Jamaica would qualify. She noted Travel Elevates worked with two charities that were already in operation through Sandals and ID Travel Group.