Culture Discovery Family Relief Fund

Helping The CDV Family, Italy & Others Most In Need

So many of you have reached out to our family in recent days asking how you can help as we navigate this devastating time. We have been blown away by your eagerness to assist and hope that this platform can provide the means to do so.

It is a truly unprecedented time, and for all of us at CDV, this has been the worst possible scenario, at the worst possible time. What we do is very seasonal, and most of the people in our family work from their hearts, and the late spring, summer, and early autumn seasons are when they are working seven days a week, with incredibly long days.  All of this ends when the season ends, and what they make each season takes care of the expenses for their families until the next season starts.

So right now, there are no tours to host, no cooking classes to teach, no rooms and village homes to clean and prepare.  They are all on lock-down, with no ability to make a living.

At CDV we are using every resource at our disposal to get everyone though this.  Many of our suppliers have been wonderful, and have taken the deposits we paid for our guests, and allowed our guests to postpone their travel.  Our U.S. based expenses will be helped with some of the federal aid being offered, and what that doesn't cover will come from our reserves.  But there is no aid available for the seasonal workers in Italy, and our reserves are just not deep enough to do it all.  But it is in our hearts to help everyone through this, because we truly are all family. 

So what are we trying to achieve?

On our website, we are trying to help generate mail orders for some of our family that create product, such as wine, olive oil, etc.  They are devastated by this crisis.

Here on GoFundme, we are building a fund that will go 100% to our seasonal family.  For those of you that know us, that means people like Carla, Katia, Antonio, Ilaria, etc.  They all rely on those of us in North America for their livelihoods.  Not just what we pay them, but the tips they normally get to get them through the year.

Who will this fund go to?

100% of what comes in will go to those individual people that exclusively work with CDV.  For example, some people may do cooking classes for others as well, and they are not part of this fund.  Or some may be on staff with another business, they are not part of this fund.  But those that rely exclusively on CDV and our guests, that is where 100% of this will go.

What If We Get More Than Needed?

None of us knows the impact this will have.  We may very well be uncorking those bottles of wine in Italy this August, and mitigate those loses.  We pray that leaves excess funds in this Gofundme campaign.  In such case, every penny above the absolute needs of our CDV family will be donated to on-the-ground non-profit efforts in the recovery ahead.

How Much to Donate?
Anything helps.  Nothing is too small.  Our goal is $50,000, because that should cover those specific people for the first half of our season in lost income.  But if we don't reach that goal, well... we will figure it out, because they are family, not line items on a corporate balance sheet.

All of our love and prayers to all of our amazing guests...  Truly our extended family.  Let's do this!

- The entire CDV Family

#SmallBusinessRelief