About the author

Tim Moss

Tim Moss has supported over 100 expeditions across all seven continents. He has climbed new mountains, crossed a desert on foot and recently cycled 13,000 miles around the world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society London and a Guinness World Record Holder. He aims to encourage more people to live adventurously. Read more...

15 Comments

  1. 1

    Rob Thomson

    Thanks for this, Tim. The concept of grants for expedition travel is intriguing. Obviously the institutions providing the grants have some concept of the value in making grants available, so I wonder what that value is. That is, can you give some examples of the value propositions you made to institutions when applying for the grants? The reason I ask, is that I am curious as to what motivations are behind making such grants available. What shape does the return on investment take? etc.

    Cheers,
    Rob

    Reply
  2. 2

    Tim Moss

    Hey Rob

    Thanks for the message. My grants have come from three main sources:

    1. My (old) university – They have a fund for supporting student expeditions and travel. They are specifically for non-academic undertakings to broaden students’ experiences beyond their studies.

    2. The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) and Mount Everest Foundation (MEF) – These guys fund climbing expeditions and, in particular, those climbing new routes and making first ascents, or at least first-British ascents, which all of my mountaineering trips have aimed to do. I imagine they are keen to support the British mountaineering standards and reputation on the international stage.

    3. Youth and expedition grants (e.g. Gordon Foundation, London Lord Mayor’s Award): This is a broader group but there are various organisations and charities that have pots of money to help either young people (a group to which I once belonged) with “extra curricular” activities and/or support expeditions.

    There is more information about all of these on my Sponsorship Resources page.

    In return for the grants, I would typically write reports, give presentations and send in photographs.

    You asked about return on investment. Well, if you’re pitching to a company who doesn’t do this sort of thing normally (i.e. asking for sponsorship) then you very much need to emphasise what return they stand to get. However, grants tend to exist for a specific purpose (e.g. youth development or British/national exploration) so it’s more about fitting their criteria.

    I hope that helps for now.

    Tim.

    Reply
  3. 3

    Rob Thomson

    Thanks Tim. That certainly covers what I was getting at. It is amazing how many organisations are offering grants!

    Reply
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  7. 4

    Pamela

    Hi Tim,
    I’m interested in knowing how much the big expeditions cost and how you fund them.
    In particular, getting to the North and South Pole.
    Someone who had gone to the North Pole on skis told me it cost US$200k.
    That is a huge sum and how would one ever fund such an expensive expedition?
    Thank you.

    Reply
    1. 4.1

      Tim Moss

      Hi Pamela,

      I’ve written guides for North and South Pole expeditions which include details on the prices of various different options.

      You can buy the full ebooks for ~$7 each (or $10 for both) here:
      http://thenextchallenge.org/books/north-pole/

      Or you can just read the free samples here:
      http://thenextchallenge.org/how-to-north-pole/
      http://thenextchallenge.org/how-to-get-south-pole/

      Reply
      1. 4.1.1

        Pamela

        You have a book titled “How to get to the North Pole and other iconic adventures.”, which talks about all the different expeditions.
        Does it include the full books or is this a summarised version of the different books?

      2. Tim Moss

        It’s the full versions but the individual ebooks were updated last year so have slightly more recent information in.

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  10. 5

    Pooja Jain

    I want to begin my expedition but had so many doubts and was lacking confidence on where to start from. Thank you for blogging and sharing resourceful information. I like you idea of starting from something small and something that doesn’t require huge funds.

    Reply
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