How a safari company’s giving-back commitment became a foundation of its own
Indigo Safaris was founded in 2009 with conservation and community support built into the way it operates, and today fifty per cent of its net profits go to charitable causes. In 2025, that commitment was formalised into the Indigo Earth Foundation, a dedicated charitable body built on the belief that protecting wildlife and supporting the people who live alongside it are the same task. This post explains how the foundation came about, the five focus areas it works across, and the projects it currently supports.
Why the Indigo Earth Foundation Exists
Conservation that puts people and wildlife in the same frame
Christopher Bartlett founded Indigo Safaris in 2009, after several years working as a field guide and underwater guide in KwaZulu-Natal, having first travelled to Namibia in 1997. Conservation and community support have long been part of how the company operates, and its Giving Back page sets out how fifty per cent of net profits support charitable causes across Africa and the Pacific, from anti-poaching units and community kindergartens to marine research groups and disaster relief.
As that giving grew, it needed a structure of its own. The Indigo Earth Foundation was established in 2025 to bring the work together in one transparent place, with charitable entities planned in the United States, the United Kingdom and France so that donations can be tax-deductible in each. The foundation describes its approach as human-centred conservation, built on the view that wildlife is protected over the long term when the people who share the land with it have access to education, income and healthcare. Its stated aim is for one hundred per cent of donations to reach the chosen initiative.
What the Foundation Supports
Five focus areas, and the specific partners behind each one
Wildlife Conservation
Elephants, rhino and the communities beside them
Wildlife conservation is the area with the largest number of named partners. In Namibia, the foundation supports Elephant-Human Relations Aid (EHRA), which has worked since 2003 to reduce conflict between communities and free-roaming, desert-adapted elephants through protective walls, monitoring and its PEACE education project, alongside Save the Rhino Trust, which protects the country’s free-ranging black rhino population through anti-poaching patrols and community engagement. In Kenya, the Mara Elephant Project combines elephant collaring with anti-poaching work and the reduction of human-elephant conflict in the Maasai Mara region, where Indigo Safaris also runs safaris, including in the Naboisho Conservancy. In Zimbabwe, the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative has reintroduced white rhino to communal land bordering Hwange National Park, while Musekese Conservation protects habitat and biodiversity around Zambia’s Kafue National Park.
Marine Conservation
Sharks, turtles and reefs, from Mozambique to Papua New Guinea
The foundation’s marine work includes Bite-Back Shark, which campaigns against shark finning and unsustainable fishing through education and policy advocacy, and the Marine Megafauna Foundation, whose research focuses on large, threatened marine species. In Papua New Guinea, it supports Mahonia Na Dari’s reef education and research work in Kimbe Bay, and a turtle nest relocation programme on Lissenung Island that has run since 2013. Oceans Forward, which works on sea turtle habitat protection, and a dive training initiative for young people on Mafia Island in Tanzania, complete the marine portfolio. Indigo Safaris’ own marine-focused trips, including its long-running Dominica sperm whale expeditions, sit alongside this work as an example of tourism and conservation supporting one another.
Community Projects
Livelihoods that give people a stake in conservation
Community-focused partners include the Maa Trust in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, which funds healthcare, education and enterprise opportunities for local families, and a guesthouse and cocoa project in Asaro village, Papua New Guinea, which the foundation supports with business advice and website maintenance. In the Ngorongoro area, a women’s empowerment project known as Money for Honey helps build sustainable livelihoods, while village assistance programmes in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea improve access to essential services. Football equipment and coaching have also been provided to youth teams in rural Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea.
Education
Classrooms, meals and early learning in five countries
Education partners span several countries. Rainbow Kindergarten and Ischinde Kindergarten bring early-years education to rural communities in Tanzania, while the Peninsula School Feeding Association provides daily meals for schoolchildren in South Africa. In Madagascar, Ile Aux Enfants runs a kindergarten-to-high-school facility in Antananarivo that served more than three hundred children in 2023, and in Uganda, the Gorilla Junction Foundation combines skills training with education support for rural families, particularly women and children.
Humanitarian Aid
Shelter, clean water and malaria prevention
Beyond conservation and education, the foundation supports global humanitarian partners. ShelterBox provides emergency shelter and disaster relief, WaterAid works on clean water and sanitation access, and Malaria No More focuses on the prevention and treatment of a disease that remains a serious risk across many of the regions where Indigo Safaris operates. Animal welfare is covered too, through St Nicholas Animal Rescue in Dominica, which rehabilitates mistreated animals and promotes responsible pet ownership.
How You Can Get Involved
Volunteering, donating and travelling with purpose
The most direct way to see the foundation’s work is through one of its voluntourism programmes, which combine field-based conservation work with a safari. The Kenya Conservation Work and Mara Safari departs on 8 November 2026, from $3,580, with two days in Nairobi visiting conservation centres, five days volunteering in the Enarau Conservancy, and five days on safari in the Naboisho Conservancy and the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The same programme runs again from 7 to 19 November 2027, from $4,280.
The South Africa Conservation Safari runs from 2 to 14 May 2027, from 44,520 ZAR, combining field-based conservation work and community engagement with a Big Five safari across KwaZulu-Natal. The Zimbabwe Rhino Conservation and Safari programme follows from 3 to 16 October 2027, from $5,050, pairing wildlife conservation with community engagement. Dates and prices are those listed on the foundation’s website at the time of writing, so please check them before planning.
Donating or partnering without travelling
Ways to help from home
For those who cannot travel, the foundation accepts donations through its website, with preset amounts from €50 and the option to enter an amount of your own, or to sponsor a specific project by contacting the team. Organisations that would like to collaborate can use the Partner with Us route, and the foundation’s newsletter carries updates as new projects are added.
Enquire About a Foundation Volunteering Trip
A Foundation Still Building Its Track Record
What can and cannot yet be verified
The Indigo Earth Foundation is a young organisation, and its charitable registration is still in progress at the time of writing, so there are no audited accounts or long-term impact reports for the foundation itself yet. What can be checked today is the list of named partner organisations, more than twenty in total, from EHRA in Namibia to Ile Aux Enfants in Madagascar, each of which can be researched independently, and the company behind the foundation, Indigo Safaris, which has operated since 2009 and is a member of Sustainable Travel International. Anyone considering a donation or a volunteering trip should read the foundation’s website for the latest position on registration and reporting before committing funds.
Conservation That Starts With People
Find out where a donation, a trip or a partnership could lead
The Indigo Earth Foundation exists because Christopher Bartlett and the Indigo Safaris team see wildlife conservation and community wellbeing as one problem rather than two, whether that means a ranger in the Enarau Conservancy, a teacher at Rainbow Kindergarten, or a family affected by human-elephant conflict in Namibia. Its five focus areas, wildlife conservation, marine conservation, community projects, education and humanitarian aid, give that view a practical structure, and its growing list of partners gives it reach across Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean.
If you would like to combine a trip with the foundation’s work, a Safari Specialist can help you build an itinerary around it, or you can explore the foundation directly and decide how you would like to take part.
Explore the Indigo Earth Foundation
More From the Indigo Safaris Blog
The animals and places behind the projects
The partners named above work with elephants, rhino, sharks, turtles and the communities that live beside them. The posts below follow some of those animals, and the places they live, in more detail.