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Fundraiser of the month: Clare Gillespie Name: Clare Gillespie Age: 20 From: Belfast Amount raised: Over £1600 Hey Clare, firstly congratulations on being the gapyear.com fundraiser of the month for January! Give yourself a pat on the back! So you managed to raise over £1600 - a pretty amazing acheivement, so what was it all for? Thanks for the honour guys - how exciting to be the fundraiser of the month! Well the money I worked so hard to raise was all for my gap year in Mexico with GAP, where I worked in an SOS Children's village for five months before travelling independently for a month. I had the best time of my life and fell in love with Mexico.  It sounds as though all of the effort raising the cash was well worth it then. What was your target prior to the fundraising?Definitely well worth it - the trip completely changed my life. I had to raise about £2300 in total. As well as my gap year, I went to Kosova the summer just before I left for Mexico and had to fundraise for both trips. Out of the £2300 I raised approximately £1600 through fundraising. It must have been pretty dauntng having to raise so much money - how did you go about it? Firstly, I wrote to various companies asking for sponsorship. Following this, I held a pub quiz which included raffle and auction, as well as a 70's party. I also had various bake sales in school and sold glow bracelets too. My mum also helped out alot - she did quite a few car boot sales for me and ran a relay in the Belfast marathon, where all the money raised went towards my trip. Phew! You must have been pretty busy. So how much did each acitvity raise for your trip? From the companies I wrote to, I was given £250. However, other companies heard through word of mouth of what I was going to be doing and I got a further £200 from them. My mum running in the relay (of five people) raised about £100 in total - which I really appreicated as she put so much effort in! The pub quiz raised about £350, the 70's party about £120, the bake sales raised approximately £100. Selling glow sticks was a brilliant idea but I think it's quite hard to get permission to sell them in places like nightclubs. If you're 'in' with the bouncers certainly go for it. I was able to sell about 30 out of my pack of 50 which wasn't much profit, but every little helped and it was good for those in-between big fundraising things.  Finally the car boot sales. We were downsizing in house before I took my gap year and so we had to clear out our roof space. Hence, there was plenty to sell at car boot sales. My mum did most of this for me (Can she get a medal???). She's a lot better at the old bartering banter and from about five car boot sales easily managed to raise £400. They were really successful.Which of these did you find was the easiest way to raise money? Well probably the Belfast marathon as my mum ran it for me! The glow sticks were great as they were easy to sell in clubs and boosted my total with very little effort. The car boot sales were also a great way to raise money, as we had lots of stuff to get rid of. My mum's expert bartering skills certainly got me a lot closer to my final target! Sounds like a doddle (if you've got a mum whose got the gift of the gab!) Which of your fundraisers did you find hardest? The pub quiz took a lot of organisation. First i designed posters and stuck them all around my town and I also went around various shops and beauty salons etc. asking if they would be able to donate something towards the raffle, which most of them did obligingly. My mum and dad's friend also has lots of experience as a Quiz Master and so he volunteered to host the pub quiz. Were people quite generous when you told them about your plight? Did you experience anybody not will be give you money as you were raising cash for a gap year - and not a charity?  People seemed to be quite generous. When they found out that instead of giving this money to charity, I was using it to actually go and do charitable work I think people parted with their money a lot easier. Sometimes with charities they never see what happens to the money they donate, but I have photographic evidence now for if they want it!So you put in the blood, sweat and tears and ended up raising enough money for your gap year to Mexico - how was it? As I said before, I had the best time of my life and am in now head over heels in love with Mexico. It's so strange how you can adapt so quickly into an environment so alien from the one you're used to. A had so many adventures on my gap year and had so many laughs too. One of the funniest things was when my my gap partner Fiona accidently put dish washer powder in the 1950's style washing machine - you can imagine! I'm heading back for the third time (having a brother as a pilot has it's advantages) in two weeks time, and then hopefully again in April. I'm very attatched. Hopefully, in July I will find some sort of work in the favelas in Brazil were I would work for a month and then perhaps travel up through other countries to Mexico. Now that you are proof that there is ways to raising a substantial amount of money, care to share any pearls of wisdom to other budding fundraisers?  Here are five tips that I would give to anybody hoping to fundraise for a gap year.1. Don't ever become discouraged. If something doesn't work out, learn from it and use what you learn to improve your next idea. 2. Don't be scared about asking people or shops for things for you to auction or use in a raffle. You'll be suprised at how generous people are. 3. Also don't be scared to ask bars and places to lend you their services for a pub quiz. If it's well organised, you could get them double the amount of service their used to - so think of it as if you are doing them a favour! 4. Always explain carefully to companies what you're doing and have it presented nicely. Always send a thank you letter to everyone that helped you out - no matter how little. It is so vital to show others that you appreiciate their help. 5. It may seem like hard work, but you're going to have an experience of a life time and it is totally worth it in the end. Thanks for your time Clare - any other advice to give us before we let you get back to planning your next trip to Mexico? Just to keep looking towards the end result - it will make it all worthwhile.  Click here >> for fundraising ideas Click here >> for placements in Mexico Click here >> for Mexico info Click here >> to see yourself here or to nominate somebody else |
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