Michaelhouse-Impact Report-2023 (for Jan-Dec 2022)

Michaelhouse Fundraising Impact Report 2023 for January to December 2022 Foreword by the Chairman of the Trusts

For many of the Michaelhouse community the Chapel of St Michael and All Angels is the moral and emotional centre of the School. It was built to the glory of God, but also to commemorate the 127 Old Boys who died in World War II, and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour in the cloister. It cost £25,000 to build and was consecrated in 1952, when that amount of money was equivalent to fees, then £200 a year, for five years for twenty-five boys. The War Memorial Fund was set up before the end of the War and was active until consecration. During those eight years the Chronicle faithfully recorded all the individual donations made. This Fund was one of the most noteworthy examples in Michaelhouse’s history of individual donations adding up to a grand total to fund a beautiful and inspiring memorial. We now have the benefit of social media, employed for the first time by Michaelhouse for an online Giving Day this last year. Under the direction of Sean Lumley (Baines, 1994), the Giving Day harnessed the power and reach of the internet to bring the global Michaelhouse community together (online) to make a collective impact. Hundreds of donors made individual gifts, big and small, towards great causes. This has the moral virtue of many more of our community becoming donors in a way that is most impactful for them while contributing to the long-term vision of our School. I commend this Impact Report to you, the first since the centenary appeal in the mid-1990s. Instead of having to rely on intermittent articles and accounts, the intention is to provide all those interested with a readable, up to-date account of the impactful work being done by Michaelhouse and the Trusts as a consequence of the generosity of our donors.

Gary Ralfe (West, 1961) Chairman of the Michaelhouse Trust and The Michaelhouse Bursary Endowment Trust

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