Step 5: Selling to raise cash for your gap year

To round off our fundraising series we’re going back to basics – forget the fancy events or getting people to sponsor you, get selling!

We’ve covered organising events, we’ve covered doing silly things for sponsorship... What could possibly be left I hear you cry? Well, make like Sir Alan Sugar and sell, sell, sell! Rope in all your friends and family to help with donations of time and unwanted stuff, and with a little hard work (not to mention some persuasive selling), you could soon be bringing in decent amounts of cash for your trip. Here are some ideas to get you going:

 

Car boot sales

Believe it or not, car boot sales have not been totally eclipsed by the behemoth of eBay. They’re also, if you can manage the 5am starts, quite a fun way to raise money – you get to meet lots of people, haggle and then experience the satisfying feeling of cash in your pocket at the end of the day. Ask friends and family to donate bags of unwanted items (books, clothes, toys) that you can flog to the bargain hunters of the world. You won’t make much at each individual sale (ask our resident bootsale experts, Holly and Anna), but keep doing them for a few weekends and you should soon rack up some cash.

 

eBay

If you don’t fancy the 5am starts, eBay could be the answer. Be warned – it is quite time consuming though, so have a clear out and focus on relatively high-value items, like collectables, old games and games consoles, as well as relatively unworn clothes and accessories. Make sure you always include clear photos, snappy descriptions and make your item titles catchy.

 

Etsy

If you, or anyone you know, is relatively artistic or creative, now is the time to harness those skills! Etsy is a great site where you can sell handmade goods – they have everything on there, from jewellery and clothes to paintings and stationery. Test the waters by making a few things, then see if they sell – you don’t want to end up with lots of unwanted stock on your hands!

 

Bake sales

Fact: almost everyone loves cake. Capitalise on this by getting baking (fairy cakes, muffins and cookies are the easiest to start with) and then setting up shop in your office, school or uni. Make sure you publicise what the cakes are in aid of, so people’s guilt at indulging can be offset by the feeling of supporting a good cause! Think carefully about prices too – even if it is for a good cause, people won’t be willing to pay more than around £1 for cake. If you want a bit of advice check out Katie’s tale of baking success: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/Mozzarella/posts/923-Fundraising-idea-Muffins-for-Mombasa

 

Selling dates

This is strictly more of a raffle idea, but as there is some kind of selling involved, we’ll keep it in this section! All you need is a big calendar and everyone pays £1 for a date (they can always buy more than one) on the calendar. As you’ll need 365 people to make this work, you may want to have the calendar in your office for one day, then pass it around friends and family until it’s filled. You then have someone impartial pick a date at random – whoever has bought that date wins £50 and the other £315 goes into your fundraising pot.

 

Selling yourself

No, not your virginity on eBay…! if you’ve got spare time, you may want to do odd jobs for friends, family and neighbours. Think along the lines of car washing, baby sitting, cleaning, gardening… a few weekends of graft will soon add up. You could also go down to do bag packing in your local supermarket too – give the manager a ring explaining what you’re fundraising for and ask if you (and a few mates) would be able to come down with some buckets to pack bags. One Campfire traveller, Martin, raised around €800 in three days doing just that.

 

Check out the rest of our fundraising series here: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/travel-guides/categories/22-Fundraising-Money

 

Have you had any success with selling? Tell us all about it!

Page Comments

Add Your Comment!

Log in to leave a comment or Create an account