Prize draw gives registered charity The Jigsaw School a big boost

Howard Lake | 2 March 2007 | Newswire

When The Jigsaw School was looking to raise funds for their school they turned to a ground-breaking online initiative from fundraising specialists’ buy.at.
The Surrey school started working with buy.at in 2005, when they registered for a new webshop. The webshop generates commission for the school on each purchase made at high street retailers such as John Lewis, Tesco and Marks and Spencer. So far they’ve raised over £1,100 in just over 18 months.
This Christmas buy.at offered its 6000+ fundraisers the chance to raise even more over this busy period by offering an additional 25p for every purchase made through their webshop. As part of this incentive all participants were put in to a prize draw. The Jigsaw School won the £500 prize which will help to buy I.T. equipment. As Rachel Turnbell, Head of Fundraising at the school explains we desperately need laptops as a lot of our equipment is broken, this money will help to buy essential equipment”.
The Jigsaw School is an independent day-school for children with autistic spectrum disorders. It is the only school of its kind in Surrey. The funds raised through the webshop go directly to Rachel and she is charged with the responsibility of targeting specific projects for each school year. This year the funds are being spent on playground equipment – the children at the school need to be taught how to play, so playground apparatus is vital to the development of the imagination, social skills and dexterity”.
To boost awareness of the webshop and so increase their earnings, Rachel sends Jigsaw’s supporters an email every week with the latest offers. Rachel comments on how buy.at works for them: The buy.at facility is such a great idea. We’re a small school and we have a great network of supporters who help us raise funds simply by shopping online. We direct people to our webshop and that is where our involvement ends, we then receive a cheque at the end of the month for our commission, it really is that simple!”
The concept for this new fundraising initiative was developed by buy.at, as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting charities and community organisations. There are over 100 retailers involved in the initiative; household names that feature in the webshop include Waterstone’s, HMV and Early Learning Centre to name but a few.
Already proving a success for the organisations that have taken the concept on board, buy.at’s aim is to expand its database of supporting organisations and engage with more charities across the country.
Photo Caption: Pupils at The Jigsaw School.

Editor’s Notes
§ Established in 2002, buy.at is the UK’s largest independent affiliate marketing network. buy.at drives online sales growth for 200 of the biggest brands across all sectors through its leading network of 6,000 good quality affiliates and 6,000+ charitable and community groups, supported by industry leading commercial and technical innovations.
§ buy.at serves a wide range of brand-name clients including T-mobile, AA, M&S, Sky, Carphone Warehouse, Virgin Media, Capital One, Butlins, Scottish Power, LX Direct, Littlewoods, Early Learning Centre, La Senza, John Lewis, Powergen, RAC, Tesco and more.
§ As a fundraising solution, the company provides access to affiliate marketing income for schools, charities and community organisations by providing free ‘webshops’, an example of which can be seen at www.buy.at/poppyappeal or www.buy.at/jigsawschool.
www.buy.at
For further information on buy.at please contact:
Michelle Perry
Fundraising Executive
Mi************@bu*.at
0191 2416500
For further information on The Jigsaw School please contact:
Rachel Turnbull
Head of Development & Fundraising
ra***********@bt*******.com
01483 537134

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.