How to Build an Adventure Volunteer Tour Company

Bonus Material: Download the Companion for this Episode

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Coming out of college, Adam Kunes was working for the Man on that 9-5 grind that just provided him with zero satisfaction. One day, he came home from work and asked his roommate Andrew if he would be interested in joining him on an RV trip across the United States. Over the span of three and a half weeks, they traveled across the country multiple times, participating in various volunteer projects along the way.

After creating and dissolving a nonprofit and creating and selling a for-profit media digitization business, Adam wanted to embark on another one of those trips. He and another friend went on a three-day “Weekend Warrior” road trip, culling volunteer projects along the way. In 2016, they had the idea to plan and execute more of these Weekend Warrior-style trips, which is where Have Fun Do Good was born.

Have Fun Do Good offers epic group sustainable travel experiences in the United States and abroad. Each experience incorporates a chance for participants to give back through volunteerism. The team emphasizes the fact that they are not a voluntourism company, but rather, they provide travel experiences that incorporate volunteer projects. Their aim is to change the idea of the traditional vacation mindset, hoping to provide attendees with an opportunity that will encourage them to continue to give back and make a difference once they arrive back home.

Have Fun Do Good currently has six different trips that they offer and have additional destinations and initiatives in the works. One cool initiative they recently launched is Drink Beer Do Good, an event series where they partnered with local breweries across the United States to make sandwiches for local homeless shelters.

In today’s conversation, we talk about the inspiration and origins behind Have Fun Do Good. We discuss the benefits of volunteering, both what Adam himself has extracted from his own volunteer experiences, and what he sees in the participants of the experiences. We dive deep into what the process of launching, building, and growing a company with this social impact element was like for Adam, and how he blended both his experiences of running a nonprofit and running a successful for-profit venture that he sold in order to do so.

Bonus Material: Download the Companion for this Episode

“A lot of brands try to emulate something that they’re not, and they end up failing. While it’s been slow, I feel like it’s been a good path” -Adam Kunes

Topics Discussed: 

• The inspiration and origins behind Have Fun Do Good
• The benefits of incorporating volunteering into a more traditional vacation
• How Adam blended his experience with starting a nonprofit and a for-profit business to run Have Fun Do Good
• The recent launch of their new initiative, Drink Beer Do Good
• How a Semester at Sea changed Adam’s life

Links from the Episode:

• Adam on LinkedIn, Instagram, and his email
• Have Fun Do Good on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram
  • Video of their first Arizona trip
• Drink Beer Do Good
• TOMS
• Pencils of Promise
• Charity: Water
• Causeartist
• Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
• The Last Dance (Michael Jordan docuseries)