Join a Student’s Charitable Social Experiment

My name is Sam, I am a 19 year old business student, and I have just completed my first year at The University of Huddersfield. It has been a great experience living in student halls for my first year away from home, and now I have the excitement of moving into a house with 5 friends for our second year of study. It is an exciting stage in any young person's life and is one I am really looking forward to! However, it brings about one particular financial issue which hundreds of thousands of students are faced with each year - the summer rent payment.  From September I will being living in a modest house at a rate of £90 per week, which is split into 4 payments throughout the year. The final 3 payments are taken just after I receive my Student Loan which is perfect, but the summer payment is required in 3 parts - £450 on the 1st July, £360 1st August and £360 on the 1st September. This is a major issue many students have to deal with every year, because by the summer our Student Loans have been run virtually dry, as a result of increased living costs.

It is a well-known fact that students are one of the least well-off demographics in society. With the recent rise in tuition fees with many courses now charging £9,000 per year, in addition to having to pay living costs, today’s students are left in excess of £50,000 of debt at the end of a 3 year degree.

I have explored all manner of ways of raising the money required. I have searched far and wide for a summer job to pay the £1,170, but in the current job market, even with 5 years’ working experience, it has proved to be extremely difficult. For some students this is not an issue as their families are able to lend them the money, but unfortunately my family are not in a position to be able to do this. One other option would be to get a loan from the bank, however I feel like I have come up with an idea which is far more attractive to both myself and a particular charity.

I began to think outside the box and came up with the idea for this social experiment. Raising donations from the public I propose to raise the £1,170 for my summer rent, which I will pay on the 3 rent due dates in July, August and September. Then on each of the 3 dates when I receive my Student Loan - on the 22nd September, 12th January 2015 and 4th May 2015 - I will donate a third of all money raised (which would be 3 payments of £390 should the whole £1,170 be donated) to The Prince’s Trust, a charity which does great work giving practical and financial support to young people who are not in work, education or training.

I must reiterate that I will not make a penny profit from this project. Donations will simply deal with the cash flow problem that I have this summer, and will then be paid to The Prince’s Trust as soon as I receive each of my Student Loan payments. This experiment has two great advantages. The Prince’s Trust can claim Gift Aid, which means the government will add 25% to all donations, which turns £1,170 into £1,462.50! Not a bad deal for the charity, eh? Plus of course, I can stop stressing about where I’m going to find over a grand!

I am not alone in having this problem at this time of year, and I hope that if this project turns out to be a success it could become something much bigger which could help many more students and charities in the future!

Thank you so much for taking your time to read my proposal and I hope I have inspired you to join me in this experiment. By donating any amount at all you are being a great help to me and to many young people who are even less well-off than myself, who have found support in The Prince’s Trust.