More than a thousand of Australia's corporate heads spent last night in the cold in order to raise funds and awareness for the homeless. The leaders raised $3.8m for the homeless during the annual St Vinnies CEO Sleepout.

The number of CEOs participating this year jumped to 1,001 at locations across Australia from 684 at last year's sleepout, which raised $2.6m.

"We've broken every record this year, in the face of economic gloom and all sorts of natural disasters," St Vincent de Paul Society general manager of marketing and media Carol Taylor said.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd joined CEOs at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, while opposition leader Tony Abbott spent the night at Sydney's Luna Park with 260 CEOs, including Commonwealth Bank CEO Ralph Norris. Norris said corporate Australia does a lot for charity.

"Here last night you had 260 chief executives, that is a tremendous endorsement of the fact that there are chief executives who are conscious of the fact that they have community obligations, and they are actually getting out of their nice warm beds to come along and get just a dose of what it is like for a lot of underprivileged people every night of the year," he told ABC's AM this morning.

VincentCare Victoria's John Blewonski said they were indoors and had sleeping bags, but still got the message.

"They're clever people, CEOs. They've really got their heads screwed on right when it comes to keeping warm on a cold night," he told ABC News.

"The exciting thing is many of those are second-time CEOs so they've really got behind the cause and are hoping to help us raise that awareness and indeed make some difference to the community around that issue."