It is by unlikely coincidence that the founders of Passports with Purpose (Debbie Dubrow, Beth Whitman, Meg Paynor and yours truly, minus the currently traveling Michelle Duffy — we miss you!) were seated, yet again, in front of cupcakes at the Capitol Hill Cupcake Royale. We had made a concerted effort to meet in a cupcake free zone, rejecting two different locations before finding ourselves in the land of dense chocolate icing and crema. If we need cupcakes to make Passports with Purpose go, then let there be cupcakes. We joke, often, that our efforts are fueled by baked goods, but it’s true, they are. We eat snacks and drink coffee and then, we do stuff like plan to build a school in Cambodia or, this year, a village in India.

If you’re new to the concept that is Passports with Purpose, let me give you the Cliff Notes. Four Seattle bloggers met for treats, decided to join forces, and created the community that we now call PwP for short. Year one, we raised about 7500 USD for Heifer International. In year two, we added Meg for PR and we raised nearly 30,000 USD and built a school in Cambodia. We’re in year three and working with LAFTI, our goal is to raise 50,000 USD and house 25 families, families who have never had homes, in Southern India.

We do this by encouraging partnerships with travelbloggers. The blogger gets something great to give away, say a hand built koa ukulele and they blog about it. Their readers make small donations directly to our cause — again, this year, it’s LAFTI — and for each 10 dollar donation they make, they get a shot at picking up something fabulous (did I mention that last year, we had a koa ukulele?). The word goes out over our collective network — we had 90 bloggers signed up last year. Through hundreds of small donations — you’ve got ten bucks, I know you do — there’s magic and wow, did you know there’s a school in Cambodia now where there wasn’t before? It’s true. It’s called the Passports School and it serves about 400 kids. There’s a school nurse and a kitchen garden and books and about 400 kids now learning math and reading and science and building better futures because  you tossed in ten dollars and you wrote some blog posts and you gave some stuff away.

This is what comes of eating cupcakes with the right people.

Currently, the founders are making phone calls, doing interviews, trying to round up sponsors, tweaking the web site, and oh, yeah, also eating cupcakes. But while we’re involved in that, it turns out that 68 bloggers are committed to participate in this year’s fundraiser, and we’re not even making that much noise yet. I haven’t lined up this year’s ukulele, and I’m behind in updating the PwP website, but out there in the world, 68 people have signed up to help raise money for this year’s efforts. We have sponsors, too, HomeAway and Traveller’s Point. I kind of want to send cupcakes to all of these folks — they jumped right in and are ready to go, well before I am. Apparently, I have been too busy licking frosting and the foam from my latte off the back of a spoon to get it together.

This is a rambling, sugar infused way of saying thank you to the folks that have already committed to the success of our third year. (Wow, you guys, it’s our third year! Can you believe that?) And also, once I get that bit of chocolate out of the corner of my mouth, I’ll tell you that no, it is not too late to get involved. You want to be part of this. You want to be a sponsor, or you want to be a participating blogger, or you want to partner with a blogger to help them give away something amazing as incentive to give to this year’s cause. If you’re not sure how to do that, you could email me personally, and I will talk you through it, on the phone even, if you’re so inclined. Or you can check the PwP site, it’s full of information on how to get involved.

I recently read a terrific post by Chris Guillebeau on travel and privilege.  I’ll quote my favorite part — though you should read the whole thing.

I agonized over whether it was morally right for me to eat a stack of pancakes while conditions were much poorer where I had just come from. Then I realized, if I don’t eat the pancakes, will it make any difference back in Liberia? Nope, nothing would be different over there. Then I realized further that the goal of eliminating poverty isn’t to take pancakes away from people at the Courtyard by Marriott but rather to create a world where anyone who wanted pancakes could have them.

Do a find and replace on pancakes. Use cupcakes, of course. We are for a world that has cupcakes for everyone. We’d love that. But we’re not quite there yet. In our first year, we chose Heifer and provided livelihoods for a few beneficiaries. In our second year, we partnered with AAfC to provide education for 400 kids. In our third year, we’re working with LAFTI to provide housing for 25 families that have never before owned homes, never even had the hope of doing so.

It’s not quite cupcakes for everyone, but we’re trying. We need your help. Get in touch if you want to know more, or if you’re in Seattle, one of us would be more than happy to meet you at Cupcake Royale to talk.