The 1% Club: How One Guest’s Idea Became Ambo Tours’ Story

It started with a conversation we’ve had a hundred times before.

Kelly and her fiancé had just landed in Bhutan for an 18-day journey across the west and east of the country — Dzongs, mountain passes, Himalayan mornings, the long quiet roads through Bumthang. Somewhere in the first few days, as we always do, we explained something ordinary to us but new to her: a portion of what she and her fiancé paid for their trip wasn’t going into our pocket. It was going to a Bhutanese NGO of her choosing.

Kelly paused. “That’s a 1% model,” she said. “Like the 1% for the Planet thing — companies pledging a percentage of profit to causes they care about.”

We hadn’t thought of it that way. To us, it was just how we did business. But Kelly gave it a name, and once she did, we couldn’t unsee it. She was right — and once we started calling it that, it started meaning more, to us and to every guest since.

What the 1% Club Actually Is

Here’s the simple version. On every single tour Ambo Tours runs — not just the big ones, not just the ones that go well, every one — we donate whichever is higher: 1% of that trip’s profit, or a minimum of Nu 5,000. No exceptions, no fine print.

The guest chooses where it goes. We currently work with three Bhutanese NGOs, each doing work we’ve watched up close for years:

Nazhoen Lamten — a Thimphu-based organisation working with children and youth in difficult circumstances, including those in conflict with the law. Their approach isn’t just shelter; it’s the harder, slower work of reintegration — helping families become self-reliant through livelihood support, so a child never has to enter the system in the first place. This is our oldest relationship on this list. Long before the 1% Club had a name, we ran a clothing donation drive with them in 2019, and since then we’ve built their website, helped produce their video content, and made a short film about their work. Of the three, Nazhoen Lamten is the one we know best — and the one closest to our hearts.

Bhutan Kidney Foundation — the only organisation in the country dedicated specifically to supporting individuals and families affected by kidney disease. Dialysis, transplant coordination, transport to treatment, the quiet financial weight that chronic illness puts on a family — this is the gap they fill.

Jangsa Animal Saving Trust — a Thimphu-based animal welfare organisation rooted in the Buddhist practice of tsethar, the saving of lives. Jangsa’s shelter in Serbithang has cared for thousands of animals over the years — most of them dogs injured on the road or abandoned with nowhere else to go.

Why We Let the Guest Choose

We could have picked one NGO and called it a day. It would have been simpler. But the whole point of the 1% Club is that it isn’t a marketing line — it’s meant to be felt, by the person who paid for the trip. Letting Kelly, or the next guest, or the one after that, decide where their journey’s impact lands turns a donation into something personal. It’s no longer “Ambo Tours gives back.” It’s “my trip helped Nazhoen Lamten reunite a family” or “my trip helped Jangsa treat a dog hit on the road outside Thimphu.” That’s a different kind of story to carry home.

This Is Where Bhutan Tourism Is Already Headed

We didn’t build the 1% Club to chase a trend. But it’s worth saying: Bhutan’s own national tourism strategy for the next decade is explicitly pointing every operator in this direction. The government’s language for the future of tourism here talks about “community regeneration,” “socially conscious travellers,” and experiences that “contribute tangible benefits to local people” — not as a nice-to-have, but as the actual definition of what high-value tourism in Bhutan is supposed to look like.

We’re not claiming credit for seeing that coming. We’re just glad that something Kelly named almost by accident turned out to already be the answer.

What’s Next

We’re not finished making this bigger than a line item on an invoice. Later this year, we’re planning to visit both Jangsa and Nazhoen Lamten directly — this time not with an invoice, but with a truck full of ration and animal feed, delivered in person. We’ll be documenting it, and we hope by next year this post has a sequel with names, faces, and real outcomes attached.

If Kelly’s observation was the spark, this is us trying to keep it burning.

Every Ambo Tours journey includes a 1% Club contribution at no extra cost to you. If you’re planning a trip to Bhutan and want your journey to mean something beyond the itinerary, get in touch — we’ll tell you more about where your 1% could go.