Once you have made the decision that you are going to take a gap year or career break, the next thing to do is think about fundraising and saving for a gap year.
If you are still a student, or have recently left college or University, the prospect of getting the necessary money together to fund a gap year can seem quite daunting.
Getting a paid work abroad on your gap year is a great way of making your cash go further, meaning you don't have to save us as much gap year money before you go. However, even if you do plan to get some paid work on your gap year, you are still going to have to save enough money before hand to fund gap year flights, any visas you may need, travel insurance and equipment. On top of this you'll need to build up a certain amount of spending money to keep you going on your travels until you start your work abroad.
Claim a tax refund - If you work for less than a full tax year, you will normally still be taxed as though you were working for a full year, which means that you may be eligible to apply for a tax rebate. Taxback.com have a whole host of handy tips and tax information to help you get the money you deserve from the taxman and tick a box on the fundraising chart!
Gap year funding is much easier once you've set yourself a particular target. This should be a target both in terms of finance and time-scale. For example, ‘I will raise £1000 by August.' Once you have a clear target of exactly how much you need to save to fund a gap year and when you plan to go on your gap year it's far easier to focus on achieving that goal.
The amount of money you need to save for a gap year will obviously depend on where you intend to travel and for how long. For example, one week's travel expenses in the USA would last you a month or more in India. Read up on the cost of living in the country or countries you want to visit and factor in basic everyday costs such as internal travel, accommodation and food and drink. Talk to our team of travel advisors for advice on gap year travel money; all our travel advisors have taken gap years themselves so they are experts in all aspects of their own destinations.
Another good cost-cutting tip for saving money is to make your own sandwiches and packed lunch for work. If you smoke, saving for your gap year by giving up smoking and putting by the money you would have spent on cigarettes is an excellent added incentive. All of these saving methods are basic common sense but they do work.
If you are planning to travel straight after finishing your studies and have no time to work to save money then there are still options for you.
If your gap year involves helping out on one of our volunteer projects then an excellent way of gap year fundraising is by getting sponsorship. If it's for a good cause people can be incredibly generous and you'll be amazed at how much money you can raise through sponsorship. Many people, particularly close friends and family, will automatically sponsor you if you are volunteering on your gap year. However you're more likely to raise a larger amount more quickly if you take part in a particular event or come up with some specific gap year fundraising schemes.
If you are helping out on a worthwhile project, such as helping victims of the Asian Tsunami, or underprivileged communities in Africa, or building houses for the underprivileged in Guatemala, then get in touch with the local newspaper! Local papers will be interested to hear from you and hopefully print your story. A newspaper article will help with some useful publicity and if successful, raise some extra cash for your travels.
If you want to combine gap year fundraising with getting fit, then events such as sponsored marathons, half-marathons, bike rides and parachute jumps are all excellent options. Or how about a dinner party? You could invite all your friends to dinner, charge them for the ticket and cook for them. They'll be happy that they are helping out and more importantly it will be an excellent evening!
Don't be afraid, either, to forward your sponsorship request by email to all of your work colleagues, friends and family - and ask them to forward it on to anyone they think might help. The more potential sponsors the better. Write a letter to the head of the company you work for - large corporations in particular are happy to associate themselves with worthwhile causes as they see it as good publicity. It's not been unknown, for example, for some companies to offer to double the final total of any money raised. Sell homemade cakes at work, organise a bring-and-buy sale, wash cars, sell all those things you never use at a car boot sale.
The gap year fundraising options are endless. Once you finally reach your target amount it's an immensely satisfying feeling, and you'll probably surprise yourself at how quickly you got there.
To make your money go further check out our Gap Year Special Offers. We change our offers every month and always try to include a good range of projects and destinations so there should be something to interest everyone.
