We’ve rounded up some interesting news and stories around the Web this week:

Spring Break Only for College Students? Think Again (CNN)

New and Improved in France for 2010 (Chicago Tribune)

China’s Wild Wall (Intelligent Travel)

How to Evaluate Volunteer Opportunities in Haiti (Good Intentions are Not Good Enough)

10 WWOOFing Opportunities in Ireland (Matador)

Want to satisfy your wanderlust cravings and do some good at the same time this spring break?
A surge of alternative spring break (ASB) trips have emerged in the last few years to satisfy a growing number of socially-conscious young people and those who are no longer happy with the typical spring break party vacations. Opportunities are plentiful. There are numerous destinations and ample ways to contribute and do something meaningful and gain insights into community and environmental development. You can volunteer in a low-income school, help out on an archaeological …

Want to build a personal portfolio of favorite charitable causes to give to? With so many organizations to choose from, is the donating process overwhelming? Are you looking for a new model of convenient giving?
Texas-based non-profit Givv.org has made setting up a personal giving portfolio simpler. It organizes all your charitable giving to your favorite organizations from one location and with a single monthly payment.
With three easy steps, your personal giving portfolio is ready to do some good! You complete a free registration, set up your monthly giving budget and …

This is a guest post from Daniela Papi of PEPY:

Our trips during our first few years at PEPY were all about service. We were enthusiastic about offering travelers a chance to give back to the places they visited, otherwise known as voluntourism. Tour participants taught classes at local schools, visited orphanages, and repaired educational buildings. Often times, the needs the travelers were filling were not the biggest needs for the projects we were partnering with but were instead the things they were able to physically contribute to. When our guests …

There has been considerable excitement (and press) about green travel certification initiatives. Everyone agrees that sustainable practices in tourism is important and good. But plenty of questions still need to be answered about global sustainability criteria, application and monitoring standards. Meanwhile, everyday more green travel products are being offered to travelers. Often, travelers buy travel offerings based on “good faith” because they have no way to evaluate providers’ green initiatives.
There has been efforts to develop a Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, but Professor Harold Goodwin of the International Center for …

We’ve rounded up some interesting news and stories around the Web this week:

Moscow on the Cheap (Los Angeles Times)

Giving back feels good: 600,000 signed up for Disney volunteer days (Gadling.com)

New Travel Stress: Facebook Oversharing (Budget Travel)

Vacations With a Heart: Voluntourism Opportunities Around the World (SmarterTravel.com)

The explosive growth of social media in the past year has changed the way many of us do things like shop, get our news, get deals or simply engage with an expanding circle of people like never before.

A recent travelhorizons survey of 2,200 U.S. adults conducted by Ypartnership and the U.S. Travel Association revealed the following:

We want to hear from you! Give us your thoughts on philanthropic and volunteer travel.

Would you like volunteering to be part of trip or entire trip?
Where would you like to travel to?
Have you taken a philanthropic or volunteer trip?