What this page actually is

This is not a page of donate buttons

samui69 takes nothing from what you read here: no ads, no affiliate links, no cut of any kind. We link to an organisation only when it is real, checkable, and named on one of our own island pages.

Where the work happens, where the money goes

Six causes an Island Life reader has asked us about, and what we found when we checked each one: who does the work, where they are registered, and whether we could verify a real place to send money.

Every link checked on September 17, 2026

Street dogs and cats

Two organisations work on Koh Samui itself, doing rescue, sterilisation and rehoming for street dogs and cats, and a foundation based in Phuket runs a mobile programme that reaches further south.

We found two organisations actually based on Koh Samui, each publishing its own donation page, and a third based in Phuket whose mobile programme reaches south but is not based here. One of the two on-island groups is registered in Thailand as well as abroad; the other states registrations only overseas, with no Thai registration on its own charity-information page. We link to all three and say which is which below.

Rob's Dogs Foundation Works in: Koh Samui Registered in: Thailand and Australia

Rob's Dogs Foundation runs rescue, sterilisation and rehoming for street dogs and cats on Koh Samui, working directly on the island every day.

It is registered as a charity in Thailand as well as in Australia, so a gift can be claimed from either country and still funds work carried out here on Samui.

Happy Doggo Works in: Koh Samui Registered in: United Kingdom and United States

Happy Doggo also works with street dogs and cats on Koh Samui, running rescue and rehoming alongside Rob's Dogs Foundation.

It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and in the United States; its own charity-information page does not state a Thai registration, so the paperwork sits abroad even though the dogs are here.

Soi Dog Foundation Works in: Phuket, and a southern mobile programme Registered in: Thailand

Soi Dog Foundation is a Thai foundation based in Phuket that runs, among other things, a mobile sterilisation programme reaching further south.

A gift here funds work centred in Phuket rather than on Koh Samui itself, though its mobile programme is the one piece of that work that travels this far south.

Read about dog and cat rescue

Beach cleaning

A volunteer chapter on Koh Samui runs regular cleanups, clearing plastic and other washed-up rubbish from the island's beaches as part of a cleanup network active in many countries.

The Samui chapter is entirely volunteer-run and holds no registration of its own; its donation page belongs to the worldwide network, registered abroad, so a gift there funds the network rather than this island's chapter. What the chapter itself needs most is not money but hands on a beach on a Saturday morning, and that is the most useful thing a reader can actually give here.

Trash Hero Koh Samui Works in: Koh Samui Registered in: Switzerland

Trash Hero Koh Samui is the island's volunteer chapter of a beach-cleaning network, meeting regularly to clear plastic and other rubbish from the shoreline.

The Samui chapter itself is volunteer-run and unregistered; its donation page belongs to the worldwide network, registered abroad, so a gift there funds the network rather than this chapter directly. What the chapter needs most is people at a cleanup, not money.

Read about beach cleanups

Coral and reef recovery

Coral bleaching and reef damage affect the waters around Koh Samui, and the closest organised, auditable response we could find is reef restoration work over on Koh Tao.

We could not find a reef restoration organisation registered or based on Koh Samui itself. The closest auditable work is a reef conservation programme on Koh Tao, running coral and giant clam nurseries and reef monitoring, funded mainly by its own course fees rather than by public donations. We link to it because the work is real and documented, even though it happens on a different island.

New Heaven Reef Conservation Program Works in: Chalok Baan Kao, Koh Tao Registered in: Thailand

New Heaven Reef Conservation Program runs coral and giant clam nurseries and reef monitoring from Koh Tao, training divers under a recognised conservation framework.

It is registered in Thailand and funded mainly by its own course fees rather than by public donations, so a gift here supports reef work based on a neighbouring island, not on Samui itself.

Read about reef restoration

Macaques and monkey welfare

Macaques on and around Koh Samui are affected by the coconut-picking and monkey-show trades, and nothing addressing this is registered on the island itself.

Nothing on Koh Samui is registered to take this on. The nearest recipient is a registered Thai foundation up in Phetchaburi that takes in rescued macaques and has campaigned to close a monkey show on this island, so its work reaches Samui even though its centre does not sit here.

Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand Works in: Tha Yang, Phetchaburi Registered in: Thailand

Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand runs a rescue centre in Phetchaburi that takes in macaques, and has campaigned to close a monkey show on Koh Samui.

It is a registered Thai foundation, and although its centre is on the mainland, its campaigning work has reached directly into what happens to macaques on this island.

Read about monkey welfare

Temple giving

Merit-making and the upkeep of Koh Samui's temples happen through direct, in-person giving rather than through any organisation we could find.

We looked for a temple fund on Koh Samui that publishes accounts or runs a channel we could check online, and found none: no temple here does. Giving to a temple on this island is done in person, on the day, whether that is cash placed in a box, an envelope handed to a monk, or food offered in the morning. There is no link to give here because there is nothing we could verify to link to.

Read about Buddhism on Koh Samui

Children's education and welfare

Schools and children's welfare on Koh Samui matter to many visitors, and this is the one cause where we are choosing not to link anywhere at all.

We are not linking here on purpose. Donor money aimed at children's homes and volunteer placements creates demand for children to fill them, keeps children who have living families in institutions, and organisations working on child welfare in this region have spent years asking travellers to stop giving this way. If you want to help children on Koh Samui, the route is a school or a community group you have actually visited, not a payment sent from abroad.

Read about volunteering here

The two we could not fill

Where there is no one to pay

No temple on Koh Samui publishes accounts, and none runs a donation channel we could check from outside. That is not a gap in our research; it is what we found when we looked. Merit-making here has always worked differently: cash placed in a box at the temple, an envelope handed to a monk, food offered in the morning as alms. None of that needs a website, and none of it would be improved by one.

So we are not going to invent a workaround. If you want to give to a temple on Koh Samui, do it in person, on the day you visit, the way everyone here already does.

Children's education and welfare on Koh Samui is the cause we get asked about most, and the one we are most deliberately not linking. Donor pipelines built around children's homes and short-term volunteer placements have been documented, again and again, as causing harm: they create demand for children to fill the homes that solicit gifts, and they can keep children who have living families in institutions instead of with them.

Organisations working on child welfare in this region have spent years asking travellers to stop giving this way, so we are not going to repeat the pattern here. If you want to help children on Koh Samui, visit a school or a community group yourself, see what it actually needs, and give there directly. That is the only route we can stand behind.

How an organisation gets onto this page

Before we link to anyone, we run the same check, whether the organisation works here on Koh Samui or on another island entirely.

  1. 1 It says publicly who it is and where it is registered.
  2. 2 Its donation page belongs to the organisation itself, not to an aggregator or a wrapped link.
  3. 3 Its work on the ground is documented on our own pages, from what we saw or verified ourselves.
  4. 4 We can say plainly where the money lands, including when that is not on Koh Samui.
  5. 5 The link comes down the moment the page stops working or the registration stops being confirmable.

Tell us if a link is dead, a registration has lapsed, or you know of an organisation on Koh Samui that should be here and is not; we will check it against the same list.

What this site takes

Nothing. There is no affiliate wrapper on any link here, no referral code, no tracking parameter added to anyone's donation page, and no aggregator sitting between you and the organisation. Every link on this page goes straight to the organisation's own donation page, exactly as it publishes it.

There are no ads anywhere on this site, and this page carries none either. We do not know whether you gave anything, and there is no counter here that would tell us. That is deliberate: this is information, not a funnel.