FAQs

No, there is no registration fee for Shine A Light however we encourage you to donate to your fundraising page to kick-start your fundraising.

You can choose to take part as an individual or team. Select your sleep out option and click ‘Sign-up’. Follow the prompts and you are ready to take part!

Yes absolutely – you can join or create a team when registering.

Click ‘Sign-up’ and follow the prompts to fill out your individual information first. You will then be asked if you want to create or join a team. Follow the prompts to set up a team or search for an existing team. Make sure to widely share your team page and invite friends or colleagues to join you.

The best way to get involved is to register as a team (by following the steps above) and do the sleep out together. Fundraising as a team is also a lot easier than as an individual. 

If you are organising a corporate sleep out, you can also ask your work to match the amount that you raise.

Absolutely! Once you're signed up, we encourage you to spread the word and challenge your peers to join us this Shine A Light. 

You can invite as many friends or colleagues as you'd like directly from your dashboard, simply by filling in their name and email address. Once that's done, you'll be able to keep an eye on who has signed up, and who might need another nudge!

Check out our dedicated guide below:
 
Challenge A Colleague Toolkit

We have compiled some helpful tips to help you with your fundraising for #ShineALight. 

Download our guide below or e-mail us with any queries: shinealight@focusireland.ie

• Fundraising Tips

Your target is there to motivate you and we ask you to make every effort to achieve your goal to support our work in ending homelessness. We are so grateful for all your effort and the most important thing is that you give your sleep out and fundraising 110%!

Well done on reaching your target and keep up the good work! You can easily increase your target on your fundraising page. When you log in, please go to your Dashboard and click on ‘Edit my Page’. You can change your fundraising target to the amount you choose and then click on ‘Update details’ to save your changes.

Yes absolutely! Your individual team members’ fundraising will be added to your team page and your supporters can also donate directly to your team.

We work with a fundraising platform called Funraisin to help with our online fundraising. When you register for Shine A Light, a fundraising page will be created for you, and you can share your fundraising page with your supporters by email, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. Your supporters can click on the link and pay online to your page. Your supporters can also search for your fundraising page on shinealight.focusireland.ie

Great news! You can add offline donations to your page. Go to your dashboard and head to 'My Donations', then click the 'Add Offline Donation' button. Complete the form or behalf of your sponsor to add your offline donation.

Alternatively, offline donations can be sent to Focus Ireland’s address below, please make sure to include your name and reference that your donation goes towards Shine A Light!

Focus Ireland – Shine A Light 
9 – 12 High Street
Christchurch
Dublin 8

We recommend taking lots of photos from throughout Shine A Light to share with your donors during and after the sleep out. You can share updates on your fundraising page or share on your own social media channels.

If you can, it is best to sleep out outside and brave the elements for the night! If you do not have an outside place in your home or workplace, you can always sleep inside on your living room floor, office meeting room, or bedroom floor. Please ensure your sleep out spot is safe and secure and you have access to bathroom facilities. Please ensure you do not sleep in a public place.

• Business Leaders: Páirc Uí Chaoimh (Cork), Croke Park (Dublin) and King John’s Castle (Limerick)
• Corporate: Your Choice - Home, Garden, Offices
• School: Your Choice - Home, Garden, School
• General Public: Your Choice - Home, Garden, Community Centre, Club

• Business Leaders Event: Throughout the night, you will learn about homelessness in Ireland, the work Focus Ireland does and the important role that businesses can play in fighting homelessness. Once official proceedings wrap up, it’s off to experience a night under the stars.
• Online: We have loads of online activities planned for #ShineALight, which will kick off at 8pm on Friday 13th October on this site! We will have video talks from people Focus Ireland has supported, as well as discussions with our service managers who provide vital work to our customers. Keep an eye on the website for a full running order for the night and everything you need for your sleep out.

There are no scheduled activities on the morning after the sleepout. We suggest you spend some time reflecting on what you learned and experienced overnight and share your reflections with your supporters. Don’t forget to ask for any last-minute donations!

• Business Leaders: Events are for registered participants only. Please do not invite friends, family (including children), colleagues, or bring your pets to the event. However, we do encourage you to ask other senior business leaders, or colleagues, to register for the event.
  
  
• Corporate: Please check with the organiser of your Company Sleep Out event. We would also encourage you to ask other people to register and fundraise.
  
  
• Schools: Please check with the organiser of your School Sleep Out event. We would also encourage you to ask other people to register and fundraise.

• General Public: Participants organising their own sleep out are encouraged to have family and friends to join them – it’s a great opportunity to start a conversation about poverty and homelessness, and how we can all work to address those issues.

Yes - Shine A Light takes place on Friday 13th October, and we are excited about recreating the special sense of connectedness we experience on #ShineALight this year. Having the event on one night allows business leaders, companies, schools, and the public to come together and help to raise vital funds for people experiencing homelessness. It also sends a message of hope to people experiencing homelessness and allows us to all come together to show that homelessness is wrong.

The weather will be cold and potentially wet so make sure you are prepared by checking off the following kit list:

• Sleeping bag – a cold weather and waterproof sleeping bag
• Thermals – layers are the way forward for staying as warm as possible!
• Coat, hat, gloves, scarf, thick socks
• Toothbrush and toothpaste
• Torch
• A fully charged phone (and a battery pack)

We would like you to remain outside wherever possible, providing you’re not putting your health at risk. If the weather does worsen, please return indoors and ensure you are dry and warm. Top tips for staying dry outside are using cardboard, sleeping close to buildings to get some shelter, and using a cold weather and waterproof sleeping bag.

Please do not sleep in a public space – this is to ensure your safety and respect the dignity and privacy of those who are genuinely sleeping rough. We instead recommend joining us from your own location such as your home, school, workplace, or at an official event. If you have a chosen venue outside of your home, please make sure you have obtained the necessary permissions from the venue owner or management, and that you’ve conducted a thorough risk assessment ahead of the event night.

Before you choose your sleep out spot at your location, make sure to have a look around and consider the risk in the immediate area i.e., broken glass or rubbish. Consider where water will drain in the event of rain and avoid settling in a spot where water may pool.

Your health and safety are the most important thing during the sleep out - if you, or anyone else, starts to feel ill at any point, please go back indoors. As this is an outdoor event, please be aware of the signs of hypothermia. There is information about hypothermia and what to do if you think someone is suffering here.