Everyone likes making money and having a good kip. But combining the two? That's pure genius...

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Sponsored sleeping on the streets Name: Andy Davies Age: 25 Hometown: Taunton Target amount: £1995 Event: Sponsored sleep Hey Andy, how's tricks? We've just caught you after a very successful and unique fundraising event. Before you feel us in on it, tell us all about what you are raising money for? Not for your own selfish gains surely? Hey guys, am glad to report that all is well and no, I didn't go through my fundraising to boost my bank balance! It's all going towards my 3 month placement with i-to-i in Guatemala, which starts in February 2005. My placement is working with orphaned street children in a childrens home just outside of Guatemala city. I don't have the finalised details of what exactly I will be doing, but I think it will be along the lines of supporting the children in the home to attend school, teaching English, organising activities and fundraising. After my placement I am going to travel around Central America for 3 months. I hope to visit most countries, as well as the Bay Islands, where I'd like to do some diving. I am looking forward to visiting the Mayan ruins too and the national parks in Costa Rica. I am paying for all travelling myself - which is why I'm currently fundraising! Click here >> for more on i-to-i Click here >> a placement in Guatemala So how much do you estimate you need to raise through fundraising? I estimate that I need to raise £1995, which will cover my food, accomodation, insurance, TEFL, language lessons and support of in country staff. I will pay for the rest myself - flights, spending money, visas, vaccinations from the money I am currently earning working as a "Bus Buddy" for Somerset County Council. I train people with disabilities (mainly Learning disabilties) to become more independent travellers, which covers things such as road safety, using a bus to access work placements, college, school or leisure activities. It's a really fulfilling job and one which spurred me to consider the placement I've decided to do. Sounds a very worthy job to us. £1995 is quite an ambitious target to raise through fundraising, how did you even begin to tackle such a task? Were you down in Taunton town centre, cap in hand begging for loose change? No, not quite! Firstly, I targeted businesses and Trusts and completed a proposal, which included all details of my placement. I also put a covering letter on top which I addressed to someone specific within the Trust and asked for a specific amount of money - £200. I then explained what that would pay for and how it fitted in to the criteria for funding from the trust/business. I also set up a more professional sounding e-mail address for use. I wrote down a list of trusts whose criteria for funding matched what i was doing and wrote to them. I always tried to phone these palces first, to confirm interest. So far I have received three cheques for £600 in total. I found that phone calls were very useful, largely because you never know what you might have in common with the person on the phone and also they might remember that you sounded nice on the phone when they consider your request. At one Trust, the person who gives out the money had been to Guatemala City, so that really helped. Click here >> for more tips on writing letters asking for money Good advice, but £600 is still a wee bit short of your target amount. How did you go about raising the rest? Next I decided to write to people I knew, such as friends of the family and family members. I wrote a handwritten covering letter to go with the leaflet to make it more personal. I asked for a specific donation of £25, which I explained will pay for a day of my placement. It might not sound a lot, but if you get ten people to donate that, it's a tenth of what i needed. I raised £200 in that way. I also sent e-mails to companies who specialise in outdoor clothing. I explained what I was doing and asked for donations. Two companies replied and gave me a pair of walking boots, trousers, a shirt. and a 65-85 litre rucksack, which worked out about £150 worth of equipment. It was also stuff that I didn't need to buy myself - so it helped in that way too. However, I also had another event up my sleeve... Sounds intriguing. Don't leave us hanging then - what was it? I organised a sponsored activity, which was to sleep on the streets for 25 hours in the centre of Taunton. I wanted to replicate what a street child might have to go through and make it relevant to what I was doing. I then targeted local businesses, asking for donation in return for publicity in the local press during the event. I had a fairly negative response from businesses, largely becuase they have a lot of requests for support and most prefer to give to registered charities. But it was worth asking around because one business donated £150 in return for press coverage. How did you come up with the idea of a sponsored sleep - it's not exactly sitting in a bath full of beans is it? I thought it was fitting to sleep rough on the streets, like the people I was going to support have done and many more are doing right now. I wanted to do a fundraising activity that made people sit up and think, that was a bit different and was relevant to the project I was working on. I think doing something closely connected showed that I had put some thought into the event and people seemed keener to donate. A sponsored sleep - a bit of a doddle isn't it? Grab a sleeping bag, head into town and grab 40 winks. Was it as simple as it sounds? Absolutely not. The actual event took a bit of organising. Firstly I needed to get permission from the council, Police and Town centre manager. I then needed to ask everyone I knew to sponsor me and also had to ask all the local businesses to do the same, which took a while. I also had to sort out things such as clothes, a display, press coverage to make sure I stood out. It was well worth it though. I got great coverage in the papers and on the radio, which led to £140 being donated on the day. I also have over £500 waiting to be collected from people sponsoring me around Taunton. So how did you go about publicising your sponsored sleep - did you get much help and did people seem open to you as you were fundraising for a gap year placement? My placement company helped me out a lot. I got i-to-i to send a press release to my local radio stations, as well as newspapers and TV stations. Both the local papers and radio stations were interested in covering my story and now they want to interview me before I go too. I'm really pleased with this as every bit helps my plight, as well as being able to bring people's attention to project and the plight of street children in Guatemala. Generating publicity around the even seemed to work then. How did you find the actual experience of sleeping on the streets for 25 hours? I found the whole experience was surreal. I was lucky that I had lots of support from people I know around Taunton. But after 9pm, I was totally by myself until 9am the next morning and I was right in the centre of Taunton. It's only a town so not too many people about, and no-one urinated on me or beat me up! so I was lucky. I did feel very isolated and vulnerable out there and realised how awful it would be to live on the streets all the time. I can fully understand why people turn to drugs or drink. It gave me lots of empathy and a little insight into what life must be like for a street child, but I will never fully understand just what it is to live out there. I knew I had a home to go to, which helped. Since you didn't have to suffer the wrath of any late night drunkards, which part of your event did you find the hardest? Definitely the actual experience of sleeping rough. I was only there for 25 hours, but I didn't get much sleep. Ihe slightest sound woke me up and I just felt so vulnerable out there. It opened my eyes a lot. How supportive did you find people were of what you were doing? Everybody was incredibly supportive. The radio coverage really helped, as many people came up to me and gave great support. Most offered just a kind word, which was so heartwarming. Some offered cash donations - one lady gave £25. The display I made also helped pictures. I lamenated a postar of street children and some information on what I was doing and why. People just came up to me and donated money - some because they heard me on the radio and others who just saw my display. It's amazing how kind people can be and how much they are willing to donate. So how much did it the sponsor sleep raise? The event was such a hugh success. In total, it raised about £800 - £900. I don't know the full amount yet, as I still haven't collected all of the money from the different sponsors, but it was an extremely successful event. I would definitely like to repeat it in the future for a homeless charity, but I'd plan to do it for longer. Brilliant - congrats from us all for raising such an amount with a great idea. It just shows you what you can do with a novel idea and some strong publicity. Any other events on the agenda before you head off on February? I have had an offer from someone to host a quiz in aid of my gap year for free. I just need to organise the venue and to get some prizes together. However I am skeptical about asking the same people for more money, I may be pushing my luck a bit there! I am still waiting to hear from the rotary club in Taunton to see if they will donate to the project, as well as a few other Trusts and businesses. I have also got donation boxes in some of the schools I work with and I have asked the pupils to donate resources for the childrens home, such as paper, pens and toys. I hope to send pictures back to the school with the children in Guatemala using the resources just to make all of the pupils realise that a little bit of help from us can go a long way. Good luck Andy and keep us informed of your progress. Well done for everything you've raised so far! Thanks guys and I'll definitely keep in touch until I leave. Following that, I'll be sending my greetings from Guatemala! Click here >> to pledge Andy your sponsorship Click here >> for more on a placement like Andy's Click here >> for more fundraising ideas If you've recently completed a wacky, unique or successful fundraiser and would like to be interviewed, Click here >> to contact Nik, who'd be happy to do the honours. Just think, it may lead to extra donations...

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