Preparation

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is about more than just pestering people with a sponsor form and for a trip such as this will require a lot more people to be involved. These are my thoughts so far.

Companies
 I am looking for sponsorship from companies in a number of ways. Firstly, I would like to find a main financial sponsor for the trip. I will also be looking for smaller companies who may be able to provide donations either financially or in kind either during the tour of beforehand. I am particularly looking for companies to donate products or service which I could auction in a fundraising event. To allow me to present this project in a professional and coherent manner I have produced a short brochure which basically lays out some of the information from this website (To download a copy of my brochure please click here). I am hoping to get a number of copies printed so that I can leave them with companies to look over. In return for sponsorship I am offering free advertising on this website, a logo on my bike or person during the tour and media coverage where possible (see below)

Media
 The brochures will also be useful when approaching the media, I intend to try and get some local coverage in both Durham and Salisbury to start with. Once I have secured some local coverage I will then endeavour to approach some of the bigger names to see if they would allow me to write articles or give me coverage in some way. This will hopefully then encourage businesses to sponsor me as they would receive free advertising.

Personal
 A very important contribution to this tour will come from individuals who will be supporting me; this will take place in many ways. Firstly there's the most obvious support of providing sponsorship towards the tour to help me in my aim to raise as much money as possible for Crossroads. However people will also be supporting me in many less obvious ways including thinking of me while I am away, sending messages of encouragement and generally supporting me during my time away. For me personally the latter is probably more important to my well-being than any amount of sponsorship although that is obviously important too. I have recently sent an e-mail to as many people as I could think of explaining a bit about the trip and directing them to this website. This was mainly to ask for practical help with the trip (mainly for networking) but I did also ask for sponsorship. I think the main way in which I'll get sponsorship is by asking people personally and through events but I will do these nearer the time.

If you have any specific questions please feel free to e-mail me