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Gap Year Sponsorship

Hi all,

This is pribably one of those annoying frequently asked questions to regular visitors here but i'm gonna ask again anyway.

Does anyone have any idea how you go about asking companies to sponsor your gap year. I heard through various sources that this is a good way of raising money but it seems a bit too demanding just to write to people and ask for money! How are you supposed to go about it?

Reply 1

shredoholic_strat

I'll be doing the same fairly soon. Tell them where you are going, what you are doing and why you are going. Though not so much in terms of you (as in i will enjoy it and i will have fun) but why it is important (the starving children have no education)

Where are you going? Who with? How long? (I wanna know :smile:

)

Reply 2

FranzFan

Hey

Thanks for the advice.

Well firstly i'm going to New York so i better not ask for money to fund my planned shopping spree. Then i'm off to Russia and later in the year i'm hoping to go to Peru on some conservation work so i'll try and get some sponsorship for that which is a more worthy cause.

As for who i'm going with.......well none of my school friends are taking a gap year so its just gonna be me at the moment. However my mum has decided she fancies a bit of Russia (how cool am i gonna be taking a gap year wiv me mum!) and in New York i'm staying with some family friends but they're about 75! So basically i'm not going with anyone my own age at the moment :frown:

What are you doing?

Reply 3

shredoholic_strat

Malawai with GAP.org.uk. Great value and its a charity meaning I get fundraising.

You'll struggle to get anything unless you've already arranged the Peru thing. And yeah, keep quiet about New York.

Reply 4

BloodyValentine

cartleman

Malawai with GAP.org.uk. Great value and its a charity meaning I get fundraising.

You'll struggle to get anything unless you've already arranged the Peru thing. And yeah, keep quiet about New York.

Malawi is awesome go scuba diving in the lake the fish are incredible colours and like you can only see them there.

Reply 5

Astudentinneed

cartleman

Malawai with GAP.org.uk. Great value and its a charity meaning I get fundraising.

You'll struggle to get anything unless you've already arranged the Peru thing. And yeah, keep quiet about New York.

how would you go about asking for money!?

Reply 6

shredoholic_strat

BloodyValentine

Malawi is awesome go scuba diving in the lake the fish are incredible colours and like you can only see them there.

And would you believe it I am qualified too :biggrin:

Complete fluke, I didnt know about Lake Malawi before hand

As for getting cash see other threads

Reply 7

white_haired_wizard

Maybe i'm reading this all wrong, but you want charities to fund your having a good time in a far flung country?? Don't you think this lacks honour, it's not very honourable, what'd be more honourable is if you worked for your time abroad, and not rely on some handouts which would be put to much better use on various other projects...and whether or not this is a voluntary/charity project you participate in abroad, have you not worked in your life before, i.e. various summer jobs et al, thus one can finance time out him/herself, so as to save money donated by well wishers and registered charities etc....

I know someone, well not to well, just via someone else close, who did this...the girl in question did nothing, literally nothing for the first 3 months of her gap year, when she could and should have been doing something, i.e. paid employment (she didn't try hard enough to get this), she wasn't doing this. Then her time abroad, on a gap project, was financed by a local charity. Which is quite shameful IMHO.

Reply 8

shredoholic_strat

Maybe i'm reading this all wrong, but you want charities to fund your having a good time in a far flung country??

No, I want them to fund voluntary work helping people in desperate need which may not be done otherwise.

And no-one expects you to have a miserable time in order to help others. Quite the opposite in fact. Staying in a different country/culture can broaden your horizons (take a hint)

Don't you think this lacks honour, it's not very honourable, what'd be more honourable is if you worked for your time abroad

No. It is far more honourable doing unpaid charity work than it is making money for yourself. There is a reason you wont easily get sponsorship for working abroad earning money. It is for similar reasons that it looks good on ucas statements and CVs, although this should never be the sole reason for participating.

and whether or not this is a voluntary/charity project you participate in abroad, have you not worked in your life before, i.e. various summer jobs et al, thus one can finance time out him/herself, so as to save money donated by well wishers and registered charities etc....

This does not make sense. However the idea of "saving their money" is irrelevent. They decide whether to fund you or not. It is competitive and they will only do so if they want to and agree it is a worthy cause.

the girl in question did nothing, literally nothing for the first 3 months of her gap year

Most people don't waste 3 months. Maybe she was fundraising during this period? Nothing wrong with this. Fundraising itself requires someone to be positive and proactive which are highly valued attributes in the world of work :wink:

when she could and should have been doing something, i.e. paid employment

I don't see why you value paid employment so much. Money isn't everything. She could have spent this time doing local voluntary work or work experience with a career in mind. Personally I will be working to fund university, but only after I have fundraised for my trip to Malawi to teach desperately poor children in a country lacking teachers.

Then her time abroad, on a gap project, was financed by a local charity. Which is quite shameful IMHO.

What?!! If it was a shameful act to ask the charity would not have funded her. Why do you think they did? There is absolutely nothing shameful about doing voluntary work with financial assistance from a charity. This is perfectly normal. Charities themselves (and non-charitable organisations e.g. royal school of music to pick a random one) write off to trusts and foundations to ask for money. I know that some people find it difficult to ask for money, but it is the trusts job to give away money to the causes they feel are appropriate.

It is far better to make use of this money that is there to be given away to do fund something worthwhile than it is for no-one to ask and therefore not do something worthwhile just because they were too embarrassed.

Seriously, I can't believe there are people like you out there. I'm nearly speechless. I understand some people find it difficult to ask for money and believe in something called "honour" but I think you will find in the real world that your views are generally not supported. Gap years of the kind you disapprive are valued by universities and employers due to the skills learned - many of which cannot be if your goal is to make money.

Have you considered helping others? Hmm???

And just out of interest, how old are you? Goodness knows how you got all that respect...

Reply 9

white_haired_wizard

I see you`ve chosen to read absolutely nothing in my post, which im disappointed about.

The girl in question, dossed about for approximately 3 months, "can`t really be bothered getting a job...", then she turns up, gets on a GAP project, and asks for local charity funding, which amounted to a couple of thousand quid, which is undoubtedly alot of money.

I have helped others. I have a history of helping out at homeless centres, feeding the homeless, voluntary hours amounting to over 200 hours at a local hospital on various wards, and voluntary work for BTCV Branch in Northern England, oh, and Oxfam charity shop work in my university town and branch back home in manchester. All unpaid, i do it wholly on an altruistic basis, and i completely rejected oxfams proposals who wished to cover my travelling expenses getting to and from the shops. It is honourable that one should sacrifice...granted some who do voluntary work are solely participating on a "cv worrier basis", others do it because they enjoy doing it, find experiences fruitful, and actually feel uncomfortable when they have to come to appreciate that they have to put some of their experiences down on the CV...like myself, as i do it for reasons far more stronger than putting them down on the CV:

I suggest you grow the **** up, and if you see nothing wrong with the girls situation i have above painted for you, again i might add, then you are clearly`off your rocker`...

I don`t appreciate the smacks of immaturity in your post, par exemple, the manner in which you ask for my age.
I`m nearly 22 and have only last month graduated with a good 2:1 in a social science degree, with ambitions to work in civil service or local government.

Reply 10

shredoholic_strat

white_haired_wizard

I see you`ve chosen to read absolutely nothing in my post, which im disappointed about.

Er, yes I have. I have used quotes to back up my points too. However I am sorry that you are disappointed. As will the Malawian children be if I dont apply to trusts.

she turns up, gets on a GAP project, and asks for local charity funding

GAP activly encourage fundraising. They provide a fundraising booklet which even contains several trusts that you can apply to.

It is honourable that one should sacrifice...

Yes, like you said people could be out earning money and instead they are sacrificing this money and their time. They come out of it not a penny richer having done something good. I don't see how this is a bad thing.

I suggest you grow the **** up

if you see nothing wrong with the girls situation i have above painted for you, again i might add, then you are clearly`off your rocker`...

Some people earn cash in a year out. She went abroad with a charity and did something worthwhile. The charity were happy to fund her because it is a good cause, otherwise they would not have. I don't see the problem. Its not like she could have afforded it even if she did want to. Do you expect her to get out a £2500 loan?!

I`m nearly 22 and have only last month graduated with a good 2:1 in a social science degree, with ambitions to work in civil service or local government.

Good for you... May I ask you whether you feel unhappy in any way that I have spent two weeks researching and writing off to trusts to help fund my trip to Malawi?

I will also point out that if I do not fundraise I cannot afford to go, yet the country is desperate for teachers and they will miss out just because it "lacks honour" to ask for financial assistance. Are you saying GAP, a charity, should not organise young people's trips to do voluntary work and offer a bursary scheme for those who are very poor?

Funding via trusts and charities is VERY normal. It is often their job to give this money away. Get used to it.

And in my final point, can I ask you: What are your views on the hundreds of trusts and foundations offering bursaries to students from a poor background going to university? They are not doing any kind of voluntary work whatsoever. Is it wrong for them to accept this free money? Yet what these same people doing charity with GAP the year before, funding their trip via very similar sources?