THOUSANDS of people every year pack in the daily grind to travel the world and give something back — but at what cost to their careers and finances? Unsurprisingly, lack of money is one of the biggest worries for people considering career breaks, combined with fears of not being able to find another job when they return home.

Next month two such “career-breakers”, Paul and Sarah Clarke, from Wandsworth, southwest London, will set off to Malawi in East Africa to fulfil their dream of donating footballs to children in schools, orphanages and villages across the country.

The Great Football Giveaway, which coincides with the start of the World Cup, is the culmination of months of planning for the couple, who have given up successful jobs in advertising and politics respectively to set up the charity.

Paul, 33, says: “When we were in Malawi on holiday four years ago we went to watch a local match between two villages. Thousands of people turned up, most of them children. There was a real carnival atmosphere and even though lots of them were kicking round balls made out of plastic bags and rubber bands, it was treated as something very special. We are both sport lovers and believe that it is something that can and should be enjoyed universally.”

To make a career break successful, particularly one that involves helping or setting up a charity, you need to do plenty of financial preparation.

First, make sure that you think about all the implications of giving up work. It won’t be just your salary that you are sacrificing, but also valuable benefits such as a pension and protection in the form of death-in-service cover.

Martin Bamford, of Informed Choice, the independent financial adviser (IFA), says: “You may want to consider giving your pension a small boost just before your career break, as long as you can afford it, by making a lump-sum contribution.

“It can be very cheap to replace death-in-service benefit with a personal life insurance policy, especially if you require the cover only for a very short period of time. Make sure that you put it in place at least one month before you leave your job as it can take some time to set up.”

Paul and Sarah invested £2,000 of their £20,000 savings to set up their charity. However, while setting up a charity can be a tax-efficient way for career-breakers to raise money for a good cause, Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at Grant Thornton, the accountant, cautions that it is often a lengthy process.

“The Revenue is keen that charities should not be exploited for tax avoidance and so charity commissioners are quite rigorous about allowing people to set them up,” he says. “It is not worth doing if there are only modest amounts of money involved. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are expecting donations of at least £50,000 — legal and accountancy costs can be between £2,000 and £5,000.

“An alternative is either to work as a volunteer for an existing charity or, if you plan to raise money and give to more than one charity, you can open an account with the Charities Aid Foundation with a minimum of £10 a month. You will receive a charity chequebook to make tax-free donations.”

Paul and Sarah aim to take 10,000 footballs to Malawi. So far they have 2,500.

• Footballs can be donated online for £10 each at www.thegreatfootballgiveaway.org.uk. For further details call 07780 706050.