Funding overland travels - let's share idea's!

Dear LZ members,

I am starting this thread to bring value to all of us!

I am a sucker for overland travel - not experienced - but gosh I wanna be
One of the key elements is always - MONEY!

So how does travelers get around this issue when they leave their homes for months or years?

I hope that all and anyone will contribute with idea's proven or not. Share your experiences - how did you get someone to fund spares, fuel, shelter etc?

I'll start out with:

Before the trip:
1.) The obvious - savings!
2.) Sponsorship
- Spare parts, tyres etc
- Camping gear
- Freight/shipping (ferry, shipping parts etc)
- Money
3.) Charity Runs. How does this work? Do you get a percentage of the money collected? Or is it used indirect? .. Meaning you get (e.g.) parts sponsored as the charity part is good publicity for the parts supplier?
4.) Articles for magazines

On the trip:
5.) Repairs
6.) Food
7.) Shelter
8.) Fuel
-----------------------
UPDATE - Idea's from all posts in this thread:
- Rent your house out - pays for the mortgage
- Get another job now and put the money aside for a trip.
- You could try using that courier site where you bid for work and see if there are any long distance delivery requirements? Or even contact the likes of DHL if you're going to remote parts they may be able to use you to deliver some stuff.
----------------------

What are your thoughts on the PURPOSE of the trip? To what extend has this been an important issue for sponsors?

What about blogs, FB, magazines etc - channels of promoting sponsors?

My best wishes for your all - with the hope of a truly valuable thread for all of us.

Lars

You could try using that courier site where you bid for work and see if there are any long distance delivery requirements?

Or even contact the likes of DHL - if you're going to remote parts they may be able to use you to deliver some stuff.

Sadly... mine comes down to having a boring day job and saving the penny's for trips away... although i'm still working on the wife to pursuade her it is a good idea!

+1 for Bump there.

I work hard for my money and have to save for things like travel.

Rent your house out - pays for the mortgage
Get another job now and put the money aside for a trip.

I'm confident there are more idea's out there. Some travel year round and even get paid to do so. I hate my job .. I need idea's guys!!

I will include all idea's in the first post...

I have not done a year round trip or anything of the sort and only small trips (London--->Mongolia, London-->Algeria--->London and London-->Morocco-->London (twice)...but this years trip to Morocco we did end up getting quite a lot of support from sponsors.

Only from my personal experience of such things...but I find with the charity tag you will get more people interested in sponsorship. We raise money for charity (every single penny goes to the charity, Mercy Corps, nothing is pocketed by us) by simply promoting the charity by our social pages, threads on forums, our website, stickers on the car, wearing their T-Shirts in pics and generally spreading the word. We also have pics and vidios that go up which of course promotes them a bit more (as well as the commercial sponsors). So we are not going out and building shelters for anyone or anything, but simply making a "charity rally" by promoting and fundraising. Because of this charity tag, companies can be more willing to talk about sponsorship in my opinion.

I have had very little luck with sponsorship in the way of spare parts, equipment etc - more than anything because we are small fry to them I suppose...we got very blunt replies from the larger companies....not surprising really to be honest - they would want more coverage than we can give. I reckon smaller companies are the way to go for parts - I suppose the ultimate goal would to have an overland company supply (or prep yours) kitted out vehicle. You could also try local tyre shops, parts suppliers, vehicle specific garages - anyone! - it is all worth a go if you are serious about it - no harm in sending out some emails followed up by a telephone call.

Of course before you even think about sponsorship you need to have a plan - if you approach a company you need to be able to say where/how/etc you are going. And what can the company get in return for sponsorship. If you say they will get coverage on your Facebook/Twitter/website/whatever then you need to have these in place already.

Take an example of on of our sponsors this year - a freight company (Ecosse World) organised our crossing into France. But at the same time they also made a very generous donation to our charity - as well as publicising our trip to all of their clients - and in turn from that we got some very good donations from clients and other people related to Ecosse World. And the more donations, the more interest...and it goes on and on. In return we have stickers on our car (another sponsor made them) and plenty of mentions on our site/twitter/etc.

Magazines may be interested as well - I think we have been mentioned in 3 Episodes of LRM this year, one being a double page spread with pics of our car and links to both our website and the charity website, which is superb. This year we have also been in local press and a decent length interview with BBC Radio Lincs. See The Rusty Rhinos - Moroccan Rally 2012 - press and you will see what I mean. Not saying this will instantly get you sponsorship, but anything that you can do to raise your profile has to be a good thing, right?

Just realised I waffled a lot there, sorry about that! Regardless of all that, how we actually fund the majority of our trip is by working hard and saving up money - even for a small trip I have to do this. We have a seperate "rally fund" bank account where we try to put money into regularly so we have enough for the bulk of the trip. That is the theory anyway. We also record on a spreadsheet every penny we spend on the vehicles and on the trips so we know where we stand but also how much to save, roughly, for the next trip.

Dear Adam and Alex,

Thank you for sharing your hands-on experience! I am thrilled about what you guys achieve and love to see 'Rusty' providing you with such great travel experiences. Too often we see fully equipped $$$ dream vehicles and almost feel unable to leave the country without one.

You are great inspiration.

I appreciate your input on managing the charity part of the trip - absolutely gives sense.

Can I ask (and feel free to reject) what the approximate budgets have been for your Morocco trips?

Whenever going through Denmark - call me and let's share a beer.

Lars

Re. charitable connections on trips, in the past I've always been 100% open and up front with potential sponsors telling them they can ...

a) Donate products in return for stickers on the vehicle, and, depending on the amount in financial terms they are donating, personal appearances with the vehicle at events of their choosing.

b) A financial donation to the charity you're raising funds for. Nowadays of course there is GiftAid where everyone can see donations, whereas in days gone by all financial donations had to be logged and made available at all times to whoever asked.

In my experience, it's not a case of "going on a holiday on the back of a charity", for I would have gone anyway whether there was a charity involved or not, but still you have to have very clear guidelines and a demarcation between what I called 'commercial product sponsorship' and 'charity donations'.

Regarding out 'n' out money, if for instance a company gave me £500 cash, I would simply ask, "what is this money for - the vehicle, the fuel, or direct to the charity itself?" Some would some would say a 60/40 or 40/60 split, or 50/50, or 100% to the charity. Again, providing it is all clear cut and above board (get it in writing - THIS IS ESSENTIAL!!!) then nobody can accuse you of any impropriety or wrongdoing.

Charity links can work very well indeed, for ultimately the charitable cause benefits, but because of some unscrupulous individuals in the past, cover your rear end as folk are quick to accuse. You your have to be more transparent than transparent ... if that's possible! It's only a minefield if you let it become one.

Hi Tom - thank you! This is really great value and good message to share with us!

Don't laugh, but vehicle wrap? They pay you already for advertising, depending on mileage. If you could get the correct company or organisation?

No laughs - it's a really great idea!