National Awarding Organisation, NCFE, has raised over £2000 so far for The Prince’s Trust by holding a sponsored sleep out last Friday, which saw 7 colleagues swap home comforts for a night sleeping outdoors at Quorum Business Park.
The sleep out is just one of the activities that the Newcastle-based organisation’s Shine team – a leadership programme designed to develop upcoming managerial talent – has organised as part of The Prince’s Trust Million Makers Challenge. The competition, which is supported by Capita, is an “entrepreneurial fundraising challenge” where teams must make £10,000 from £1,500 in seed funding, with all proceeds going to charity. Set up in 2008, the scheme has raised over £5 million for charity to date.
Earlier this year, teams including NCFE put their heads together to come up with a winning idea before pitching to a Dragons’ Den panel. The teams have six months to turn their funding into £10,000, attending a Half Way Celebration midway through the fundraising before the Regional Finals are held to announce the winner.
NCFE’s idea was one that aims to support young people into employment; a USB wristband full of employability resources, which is available to order by emailing shinemillionmakers@ncfe.org.uk.
Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, said: “We are delighted to be involved in Million Makers Challenge and it has so far been a great opportunity to develop our leadership skills, enhance team work and communication skills while also raising essential funds for charity.
“We came up with the idea to hold a sponsored sleep out so that we could experience just some of the hardships that many unemployed young people go through on a daily basis. It was a cold night but luckily we missed any rain! We’re pleased to have raised over £1000 in sponsorship, which was matched by NCFE giving us a total of £2000 raised for The Prince’s Trust Million Makers.
“NCFE is a charitable organisation and learners are at the heart of all we do – we want to help young people progress in their lives and reach their full potential, so we’re keen to raise as much as we can to help The Prince’s Trust in its work to change young lives. We’re now looking forward to planning more fundraising activities over the next few months and to promoting our USB wristbands for learners.”