Bosses brave freezing UTAS Stadium concrete for CEO Sleepout

But for the 30-odd Launceston business and community leaders who'll be sleeping there tonight, it'll all be worth it.

About 60 people across the state are bracing for St Vincent de Paul's CEO Sleepout, which is aiming to raise $200,000 for homeless Tasmanians.

Temperatures are expected to dip as low as one degree overnight - hitting a 'feels like' temperature of minus two - and participants will only be armed with a sleeping bag, a pillow and cardboard.

"Some of us will sleep, some of us won't," Vinnies' Trevallyn-based national president Mark Gaetani said.

"We're trying to mimic what people experience when they are sleeping rough, so there's no luxuries."

Participants will gather around the soup and sandwich van for a light meal at 6.15pm before the night moves to speeches and an auction.

Everyone will begin bunking down about 9.30pm.

Vinnies had raised about $53,000 of its target on Thursday afternoon.

"We've got a little way to go, but people can continue to sponsor participants over the next week or so, so we're pretty hopefully that we will get to that number," Mr Gaetani said.

"We have to be realistic, there's cost of living pressures in Tasmania, there's cost of living pressures across the country and donations generally across all charities are down because of that reason.

"But we're really thankful for every dollar the community provides to St Vincent de Paul to support the homeless. I'd encourage those that maybe haven't had an opportunity to donate today to consider that over the next few days."

About 2350 people are homeless in Tasmania on any given night, and about 10 per cent of that number are "sleeping rough".

The state's growing homelessness problem has inspired two food businesses to throw their support behind the cause.

Matson Hospitality Group and PFD Food Services have teamed up to support Vinnies on an ongoing basis.

"[We've] been working together to support the Vinnies CEO Sleepout, and we're going to work to support the soup kitchen ongoing and do a food drive at PFD as well," PFD Launceston sales manager Tanya Seymour said.

Matson director Miguel Martinez said he was happy to be taking part in the CEO Sleepout for the second year running.

"I want to get more involved in the cause because I reckon Vinnies is really nice - it's very helpful for the community," he said.

"The good thing is now the vans are going to have a source - previously it was just asking everyone for a little bit - now they know they have our continued support from PFD and we have other ideas [too]."

For more information or to donate visit: www.ceosleepout.org.au/event/tasmania-24/