As you may have seen from the Chapel page on the OLO website or heard at the recent
reunion if you attended, the Chapel Trustees have registered with an organisation
called Give As You Live.
GAYL works with the charity sector to harvest the online referral fees
and commissions we all generate but rarely collect or benefit from.
What GAYL does is to act as an "introducer" website (rather like a comparison website) but rather than keeping any fees earned, they remit a stated percentage to a charity (or charities) of your choice. GAYL is a commercial operation but they specifically work with the Charity sector which means they abide by the legal requirements of the Charities Acts in so far as they relate to commercial organisation working with/for charities and they also abide by the Institute of Fundraising Code of Fundraising Practice to ensure they work in a legal and ethical way.
There are other companies working with the charity sector but overall, the Trustees felt GAYL offered the largest number of affiliated retailers (over 3500), and had a comparable/competitive donation percentage and a simple website and/or toolbar to facilitate online shopping and charity donation.
The purpose of this message is to just bring this option to OLO members attention and ask that members check the GAYL website for details. It is effectively a "painless" process in that nobody has to contribute anything and nobody pays more for their goods. "You buy the same goods from the same retailer on their same website at the same price, but GAYL generate money for the chapel by introducing you to that website through their website - it may sound difficult but if you try it you will find how easy it is" says one of our self confessed technophobes.
So this is not a request for donations but a request to have a look at the GAYL website (details below) and if it appeals, to register and select the Lewes Priory School Memorial Chapel Fund as a supported charity and then go shopping. That is all that is required and thereafter, any earnings automatically accrue to the charity.
The requirements of the Chapel Fund are fairly modest but to establish even a small recurring income would help immensely and save the fund from living from each reunion collection as tends to be the case currently.
I hope you will be able to look at the GAYL website and if there are any questions or issues that are not solved by the website itself, please do contact John Murray (Chapel Fund Trustee) at john@jrmurray.com and I will do my best to assist.
John Murray