One of my favorite quotes of all time came from an interview Matt Damon did a couple years ago.
In it, he said, "I think many of our problems as a country would be solved if people had thicker passports. There’s just no substitute for actually going and seeing things." For myself, and for the Gowalla community, these words ring loud and true.
Gowalla, as a company, is obsessed with the idea of discovering more about the world around you and sharing it with your friends. The more that we share the experiences that we have around the places that we go, the smaller the world becomes. As I see the Gowalla Passports of friends from around the world, I am having the opportunity to walk a mile in their shoes and see the world through their eyes, in real time. The stories that others tell through the places they go inspire me to see more of the world and the extraordinary in the everyday around me.
As Gowalla has continued to grow and to bring a new medium for telling these stories, we have sought out partners and organizations that also share the vision of inspiring people to go. From USA TODAY to Disney to Sundance Film Festival to delivering shoes to kids in Argentina this September with TOMS Shoes, there has been an overwhelming response to the opportunity to inspire people to tell better stories through the places they go. Our partners have shared their perspective on the world with our community and given our community the chance to discover more in the world around them.
This holiday season, we wanted to say thank you to our community for going out with Gowalla. We worked together with some of our partners from the year to create our gift giving guide for those on the go. The 2010 Gifts to Go calendar has been a tremendous success and we’ve had a ton of fun pulling it all together. But one thing that we wanted to makes sure that we focused in on for the giving season was the chance to give back to a project much bigger than ourselves.
Today, we are focusing all of our gift giving attention on the tremendous work that is being done by the team at charity: water. In the four years since Scott Harrison launched the idea, their team has raised over $27 million and brought clean water to 1.4 million people. But, as I heard Scott say just last week, there are still almost a billion people that need their help. The work has just begun. Because not all of us are able to grab our passports, hop on a plane, and see the pure joy that comes from someone drinking clean water for the first time, we are asking our community to help us raise money to support those that can and that do.
Every clean water project that is built from the Gowalla "Gifts to Go" campaign today will be added as a Spot on the Gowalla map of the world once construction begins. When the water projects are completed in 12-18 months, charity: water will share the photos and GPS of the projects built, connecting the Gowalla community to the people we will have helped.
These are the kinds of stories that Gowalla wants to be a part of telling and are committed to pursuing. As we enjoy this holiday season and continue to lay out big ideas for the new year, we are going to continue partnering with brands, individuals, and organizations that share our vision to inspire people to find the extraordinary in their world and share those stories with others.
Guest blogger Andy Ellwood works hard at "Connecting Good People with Great Opportunities" and heads up Business Development for Gowalla. Living in New York City, he doesn't slow down much, but when he does, he enjoys black coffee, breakfast tacos, and blogging at www.andyellwood.com.
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The Power of Social Media: Connecting for Good 
