CEOs asked to sleep rough

Preparation for the St Vincent de Paul Society's largest fundraising event - the CEO Sleepout - has kicked off for another year with calls for executives to register.

The June sleepout will be the fifth anniversary of the event, which has continued to grow since its beginning in 2010.

The amount of funds raised has increased by about 30 per cent year on year and reached $1.1 million in 2013.

That money was put towards running homeless centres in the Peel and Albany regions and in Northbridge, as well as funding a trial of programs to help homeless youths.

Director and Western Australia state manager of Compu-Stor, Robert Manford, has been taking part since the beginning and has already signed up for this year.

He said he and his brother Jeremy Manford had a sibling rivalry which upped the stakes, but Compu-Stor also had a strong dedication to giving back to the community.

The company deals with storage of paper files and donates 5 per cent of storage boxes sold to the St Vincent de Paul Society, in addition to the funds raised through the CEO sleepout.

Collectively Mr Manford and his brother, who runs the east coast branch of the business, have raised $55,000 and are hoping to reach $70,000 this year.

“In 2006 we recognised that it was quite a new concept and we wanted to get involved with something that was a bit outside of our comfort zone - we haven’t looked back since,” Mr Manford said.

“I find the night is manageable … it’s cold but I figure if you can stay up as late as possible then it’s not too bad.”

Home builder Dale Alcock was the largest fundraiser last year with $125,000.