Join us for transformational travel in the world’s most incandescent, storied places.
The Swahili word safari means "journey", originally from the Arabic noun سفر, safar, meaning "journey", "travel", "trip", or "tour"; the verb for "to travel" in Swahili is kusafiri.
What can emerge when we give ourselves the space to be curious and open to the world?
Designed as a cross between a study tour and leadership experience; expect to be engaged through your head, heart and hands. These Safaris are designed for those mobilising their resources, whether social or financial, toward our shared hopeful future. With an intimate cohort of no more than sixteen, deepen the way you interact with the world, while making lasting, supportive connections with a community of impact-driven leaders. Come away with a renewed sense of active hope, deepened understanding of your role in this moment and connection to humanity and nature.
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As an author, journalist and facilitator Alexander is focused on bringing new ways of seeing and being from the margins of culture into the mainstream. Through writing, and by creating transformative experiences that invite us to find ways to evolve and thrive in the chaotic times we live in. Author...
Above all it was the conversations I shared, the love, openesss and respect that shown by everyone from day one and laughing deeply in wild places - it’s a wonderful tonic.
Impact Safari Bhutan masterfully wove content, conversation, immersion, play and connections that nourished our physical, spiritual and intellectual lives within the beauty and awe that is Bhutan. The spirituality and beauty of this country, along with its commitment to the vision of GNH, permeates everything, and it is impossible not to be changed by this experience.. Impact Safari Bhutan filled my cup on every level - mind, body and spirit, and its gift will be to shift us towards our potential as humans working collectively towards a better future for our planet.
Impact Safari is intellectually, emotionally and spiritually challenging in all the right ways (albeit with incredible food and sightseeing experiences tossed in!) I arrived back to Australia very much changed and feeling connected to a new community of thought leaders.
The ripple effect of my Impact Safari journey is beyond measure
She is a daughter of the fourth King of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuck.
We love to weave our community and beyond into everything we do. If there is somewhere you want to explore together please reach out to our producer, Anna at anna@smallgiants.com.au
We like intimate affairs. No more than 18 participants per trip and 2 or 3 guides.
Your flights, your visa (if necessary,) travel insurance, yourself - for an adventure of a lifetime.
To secure your place on an Impact Safari you must register your interest through the website to be included in the secure your place offer letter or directly email our producer, anna@smallgiants.com.au
Impact Safari groups are curated to elevate diverse voices, push the boundaries of knowledge and shared meaning, challenge belief systems and engage with new, collective solutions to complex global challenges. Partial scholarship places on each trip enable this diversity of voices.
The trip cost covers all expenses in-country for the duration of the program. It does not cover your travel to the destination pre and post trip, travel insurance or travel documents.
Impact Safari is facilitated by the Small Giants Academy, lead faculty and expert guest guides such as Dr. Julia Kim in Bhutan or Aziz Abu Sarah in Israel/Palestine. The program content draws on a global network of guest speakers and case-studies presented by leading organisations.
Small Giants is located on the traditional lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
With thanks to our partners
As an author, journalist and facilitator Alexander is focused on bringing new ways of seeing and being from the margins of culture into the mainstream. Through writing, and by creating transformative experiences that invite us to find ways to evolve and thrive in the chaotic times we live in. Author of The Bigger Picture: How psychedelics can help us make sense of the world and popular Substack, The Bigger Picture.
Seth is an avid proponent of regenerative, diversified, and decentralized systems. As co-founder and CEO of 42 Acres, an agri-wilding estate and wellbeing retreat in the UK, he is devoted to developing living examples of the much-needed transformations of our times, through our connection with nature, self, and others. In 2019, he established the Be the Earth Foundation to merge impact investing and philanthropy through programs and partnerships that focus mainly on regenerative food systems. Seth serves on the boards The DO Group in Germany and Boschendal Farm in South Africa. Seth is also a musician and in early 2025 launched his debut album.
Based in Copenhagen, Liza Chong is an Impact Designer, Innovator and VC Fund Manager.
Previously, CEO of Index Project, Liza has sought to support and facilitate design focused on improving life around the world. Radical and humble, Liza has worked hard to build out and evolve the now very famous biennial Index Award, the world's biggest monetary design award.
Listen to Can Design Save us? With Liza Chong
Simon Harris exists to inspire people in meaningful ways so that, together, each of us can help our wild places to survive and thrive. As the director of For Wild Places Simon leads community into immediate action to protect places of environmental and cultural significance using sports activism as the vehicle for linking human happiness and environmental well-being. Alongside Bob Brown Foundation, Simon founded and delivers the takayna trail, sponsored by Patagonia.
Aziz Abu Sarah is a peace builder, cultural educator, entrepreneur, author and international speaker. Aziz’s educational and conflict resolution work throughout the world has earned him the titles of National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow.
He cofounded MEJDI Tours, originators of the Dual Narrative™ and a leader of socially conscious travel. Aziz was named one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Strategic Centre in Jordan.
A National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow, Aziz has founded and led countless global conflict resolution organisations including Bereaved Families Forum and the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University and co-founded (with an American Israeli-Jew) the first dual narrative tour company (led by a guide from each “side”).
Read: Can Travel Be a Force for Peace? This Tour Leader Thinks So
Dr. Julia Kim joined the Gross National Happiness Centre of Bhutan in 2013, after serving as a member of the International Expert Working Group for a New Development Paradigm. Julia brings a background in programs, policy, and research in the fields of global health and sustainable development with the UN. Julia co-hosts our safaris in Bhutan.
Tamsin is the Head of Programs and the Mastery of Business and Empathy at Small Giants Academy. She brings several decades of leadership experience and systems change in Europe, Australia and Africa. Tamsin believes the best way to predict the future is to create it, change moves at the speed of trust and the superpower of leadership today is our ability to listen. After working as a policy advisor to the Premier of South Australia over two successful campaigns, Tamsin went on to ignite and co-create a string of initiatives including co-founding: Workshop17 inclusive innovation hub in Cape Town; TheBoardroom Africa to bring board gender balance; and The Rallying Cry to shift investment at the intersection of gender and nature for climate outcomes. She is a strategic advisor to CEOs on feminine leadership, gender lens investing and embodiment and holds an MBA from the University of Oxford as a scholar of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.
Eleanor is a curator of immersive experiences, bringing people together to explore the ideas defining our time.
Eleanor is the Executive & Creative Director of TEDxSydney, most recently co-curated the Forest Economics Congress with MONA (Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania) and designed the Climate Leadership Accelerator for Small Giants Academy.
She was previously the Head of Programs at Small Giants Academy, co-creating deep impact learning journeys including the Mastery of Business and Empathy, Impact Safaris to Israel and Palestine (conflict & innovation), Bhutan (GNH & systems of measurement) and the Tarkine Rainforest (regeneration of people and place), as well as various courses exploring the interplay of wisdom and action required to meet global challenges.
Prior to this, Eleanor was the Managing Director of The School of Life Australia, a platform exploring emotional intelligence through philosophy, anthropology and culture, staging ambitious public programming with interdisciplinary thought leaders across the country.
Eleanor co-founded First Light to contribute to the growing global community investing in climate responses. She is a board director for Groundswell Giving and co-chair of the Atelier Council at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Kaj (pronounced Kai) is the CEO of Regen Melbourne, an engine for ambitious collaboration, in service of Melbourne. Powered by an alliance of more than 200 organisations, Regen Melbourne is the host of bold projects that are moving Melbourne towards a regenerative future.
Kaj is also the Director of Action Labs at Small Giants Academy where he leads the creation of new initiatives and collaborates on the Academy’s education and storytelling programs.
Danny Almagor is co-founder (with his wife Berry) and the Executive Chair of Small Giants. Danny was the inaugural Social Entrepreneur in Residence at RMIT, the founder and former CEO of Engineers Without Borders Australia and is the co-founder and Chair of the Impact Investment Group. He has founded over a dozen for profit and non profit organisations including The Sociable Weaver, The Impact Club, and Beyond Creative. He has served on numerous boards, including Tom Organic, The School of Life, The Cape ecovillage, Pacific Biotechnologies, Smiling Mind, The Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan.
He has studied Aerospace Engineering, Business Administration and outdoor education. He loves to cook, read, rock climb, talk about philosophy, garden, travel and jump on the trampoline with his three kids. He doesn’t like to run marathons, watch horror films, drink beer, spend time on social media, or invest in anything that isn’t impact.
An organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition.
Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughout lifestyles.
Listen to Dumbo Feather Podcast: Where Are We Headed? with Nate Hagens #1: Human Behaviour
Kerin Ayyalaraju has been Australian Ambassador to Denmark, Norway and Iceland since August 2021. She is a senior officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, whose extensive career has seen her deployed in many countries, frequently in crisis situations, and across a range of functions at headquarters in Canberra since 1994. In recognition of her strong consular, media and crisis management experience, Ms. Ayyalaraju has repeatedly been deployed as a member of DFAT’s crisis management team to assist in a range of international crises, including in Tacloban, the Philippines, following Typhoon Haiyan, and in Ukraine following the downing of Flight MH17. She has also been deployed in Bali, Shanghai, Ankara, New Delhi and as Chargé in Lisbon.
The throughline of his interests has to do with ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a virtuous relationship between the two as a goal.
Listen to Dumbo Feather Podcast: Daniel Schmachtenberger PART 1: social philosopher, thought leader, sensemaker
She was elected as a Member of the Swedish parliament in 1979 where she served for six years. From 1988 to 1998, she was successively Minister for Youth, Local Authorities and Consumer Affairs (1988-1991), Minister of Culture (1994-1996), and Minister of Social Affairs (1996-1998). The following year she became Executive Vice-President of Worldview Global Media before returning to European politics where she served as a European Commissioner for the Environment from 1999 to 2004, European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy from 2004 to 2010, as well as the first Vice President of the European Commission from 2004 to 2010.
Indy Johar is an architect, teacher and leader focused on systemically changing the way we build our urban environments through regenerative redesign, distributional care and democratising access to spaces. He is the founding Executive Director of both Architecture 00 and Dark Matter Labs and co-founder of Impact Hub Birmingham and Open Systems Lab. He was a Senior Innovation Associate at the Young Foundation, has lectured at many universities globally and is currently teaching at RMIT. His work includes concern for aligning our incentives across civic systems to more accurately orient our lives toward intrinsic value.
For more than 30 years and reporting from more than 60 countries, Stan Grant has offered his insights and inquiries to Australia and the world over through his journalism, writing and as a radio and television presenter. He is one of Australia’s most awarded journalists and as a Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharrawal man, Stan has used his voice and position to advocate for the rights and prosperity of First Nations people. (edited)
Kate Raworth (pronounced ‘Ray-worth’) is a renegade economist focused on making economics fit for 21st century realities. She is the creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries, and co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab.
Her internationally best-selling book Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist has been translated into over 20 languages and has been widely influential with diverse audiences, from the UN General Assembly to Pope Francis to Extinction Rebellion.
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