A thousand thanks!
Charitable online shopping platforms – which raise free donations as you shop – form an important income stream for many charities across the UK, including us. You can find the Rehearsal Orchestra on three such platforms: Easyfundraising, Give As You Live and, most recently, Amazon Smile.
Although the individual sums may seem small, the pennies really add up: we have just reached a fantastic milestone when our Easyfundraising total hit £1000! This would never have happened without a core group of supporters who have made the platforms a part of their shopping routines, with help from the useful apps and browser toolbar reminders. Our top fundraiser alone has raised £180 – an amazing achievement!
It’s really easy to develop the habit of making purchases through Easyfundraising: there’s a donation reminder that you can install on your browser which flags the available donation with most online retailers. All those day-to-day purchases soon add up, but the biggest donations tend to be for annual purchases like insurance and utilities. For these, I use a comparison site to get an idea where the best savings are to be had, then make the purchase separately through Easyfundraising to bag a healthy donation for RO at the same time: the largest single donation I’ve raised so far was £30!
John Whittall
If a single person can raise almost £200, or just a dozen people can raise £1000, imagine what a difference it would make if an entire orchestra joined in! Why not take a few minutes to sign up now via the links above? Easyfundraising will even match the first £5 you raise (provided you use this link to sign up). Businesses can use the platforms to support us, too.
You can read more about how the platforms work on our Support pages.
During lockdown, more of our shopping than usual has been done online. So it's always nice to know that by clicking on the 'easyfundraising' icon we can earn something for the Rehearsal Orchestra on the way. Delighted to have done our bit towards hitting the £1000 milestone! Please join in and do your bit too – it's very easy to sign up for it. And it's simple to install the Donation Reminder to make sure you never miss an opportunity. Onward and Upward – always more shopping to be done...
Jonathan Burton and Diana Bickley
The app is ridiculously easy to use – it just sits in the background and pings a little donation to RO every time I buy sheet music from musicroom.co.uk or kids’ school uniforms at M&S or the occasional cheeky takeaway. My biggest donation was when we recently bought a new dishwasher and John Lewis coughed up £6. All with no effort or any cost on my part. What's not to love?
Gwen Nathan
To me, it’s a no-brainer to sign up to Easyfundraising for your internet shopping! The sign-up procedure is dead easy and just about every purchase I make adds extra to the Rehearsal Orchestra’s funds. There are absolutely loads of online retailers who belong to this scheme, so there’s plenty of choice!
And now RO are on Amazon Smile, too – works just the same as ‘normal’ Amazon, but the Orchestra gets a donation when you purchase something. Once you’ve signed up, there’s nothing more to do – just make sure that if you’re buying from Amazon, you click on Amazon Smile – after that it’s all automatic.
Don’t put it off – sign up now!
Andrew in the double basses