A crowd gathered around the bearded busker, dressed all in black, as he sang and played an acoustic guitar on the sidewalk in the middle of the city's financial district yesterday.

Inside his open guitar case was a growing stack of coins and bills, mostly $20s with at least one $50 in the pile.

"Sorry to take your lunch money," Raine Maida told a young boy who dropped a donation into the case.

The 37-year-old frontman for Our Lady Peace hasn't fallen on hard times.

Maida played on street corners around the city for 12 hours yesterday to raise $30,000 for War Child to rebuild a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"You give money to a charity and you don't know where it goes. At the end of this, you'll be able to see a school," said Maida, who has supported War Child since 2001, travelling to Iraq and Darfur. "It's pretty amazing that $30,000 can change the lives of so many kids."

It's the second school Maida is hoping to build. He, with wife and fellow singer Chantal Kreviazuk, raised money with a friend last year.

The day began at 8 a.m. with cold, numb fingers near Yonge and Dundas Sts., but Maida quickly drew a warm audience. He also drew a pair of questioning security guards outside a bank tower at King and Bay Sts.

"I'm amazed at the generosity of everybody," Maida said. "I don't know if I set my expectations too low, but I figured a bunch of loonies and toonies, and there was that, but a lot of people giving bills, 20s, one guy walked by and gave us $100. Pretty amazing."

A film crew documented the day for a music video as Maida prepares for next month's release of his solo album, The Hunter's Lullaby.

"I couldn't bring myself to do another narcissistic, look-at-me, rock video," he said.

James Topham, spokesman for War Child, said 11 schools have been rebuilt over the last two years in the Congo, a country where most of its infrastructure was completely destroyed by conflict.

"It helps the children and the community," Topham said. "There is a direct link between education and child mortality."

Longtime fan Steven Isidori, 23, filmed Maida for part of the morning, then rented a guitar for $10 to help drum up some change for the cause.

"I'm a student, I complain how I'm poor, but today is my day off. Why not get up and do something for someone else?" said Isidori, who is studying business at York University.