Hearten Africa is our giving programme.
Not a rounding error on a balance sheet. Not a vague commitment to giving back. A named, measured, accountable programme that directs a portion of every safari we complete to organisations we know personally, trust completely and visit in person.
We built Hearten Africa
because we were tired of vague language.
Every travel company talks about giving back. Few of them tell you specifically what that means, where the money goes, who receives it, what it funds and how you would know if it was working.
We wanted to do it differently.
When a client asks us where their contribution goes, we do not generalise. We name the organisation. We tell the story. We describe the work being done on the ground and why we chose to support it. We visit our partners personally – not to take photographs for our website, but because we believe accountability requires presence.
That specificity is what makes a commitment real.
That is Hearten Africa.
How it works
Simple, transparent, real.
Every safari we complete generates a contribution to the Hearten Africa fund. That fund is distributed to a small number of carefully selected conservation and community organisations – chosen each year based on the quality of their work, the integrity of their operations and the depth of our relationship with them.
We keep the number of partners deliberately small. Not because there are not hundreds of worthy organisations across Africa – there are – but because we believe depth of support is more valuable than breadth of gesture. We would rather know our partners intimately and support them meaningfully than spread thin contributions across a long list of names.
You will always know who our current partners are, what they do and why we chose them. That transparency is non-negotiable.
Why Hearten Africa?
The name matters.
To hearten means to give courage, confidence and hope to someone or something.
That is exactly what we believe responsible tourism can do – for wildlife populations under pressure, for communities navigating the tension between development and conservation, for the wild places that need advocates as much as they need funding.
It is also what Africa does to the people who visit it properly. It heartens them. It sends them home with a sense of connection and purpose that ordinary travel rarely delivers.
The name works in both directions. We thought that was right.
Our 2026 partners
These are not sponsorships. They are relationships. We know these people. We have visited their work. We trust them completely.
How partners are chosen
Our selection criteria.
We do not accept applications, and we do not respond to sponsorship requests. Our partners are chosen because we have encountered their work in the field, assessed it honestly and decided it meets the standard we hold everything else in our business to.
What we look for:
Proven impact on the ground
Not projected impact. Not theoretical impact. Work that is visibly, measurably making a difference to wildlife, wilderness or communities in the regions we operate in.
Integrity and transparency
Organisations that report honestly on their work, including what has not gone to plan. We are more impressed by honest accountability than polished success stories.
A genuine relationship with local communities
Conservation that excludes or marginalises the communities surrounding it is not the conservation we want to fund. The organisations we support understand that human wellbeing and ecological health are the same conversation.
A personal connection
We visit our partners. We meet the people doing the work. We ask the hard questions. If we cannot stand behind an organisation with complete confidence, we do not direct our clients’ contributions their way.
The refer and reward connection
Keep the ripple moving.
For our current and past guests, when you recommend Encompass Africa to someone you care about, and they book their own journey with us, we gift you AUD $100 to donate to a charity of your choice from the Hearten Africa giving list above.
It is a simple thing. But it keeps the ripple moving – connecting more people to Africa and more support to the organisations protecting it.
A note on transparency
We will always tell you where it goes.
We update our partner list annually and communicate openly with our community about who we are supporting and why.
We do not publish specific dollar amounts – not because we have anything to hide, but because we believe the quality and depth of our partnerships matter more than the size of the number. What we can tell you is that every safari generates a real contribution, that every contribution reaches a real organisation and that every organisation has been chosen because someone from our team has stood in front of their work and decided it is worthy of your trust.
If you ever want to know more about any of our partners or how Hearten Africa works, ask us. We love talking about it.
Travel that heartens Africa.
And you.
The most common thing our travellers tell us when they return is that Africa gave them more than they expected. More perspective, more connection and more of a sense of what matters and what does not.
Hearten Africa is our way of making sure that the exchange runs in both directions, that the continent which gives so generously to everyone who visits it receives something meaningful in return.
Every journey, every time.
“Look up and not down;
look out and not in;
look forward and not back,
and lend a hand.”
– Author and historian, Edward Everett Hale