# The People's Lottery?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/05/24/people039s-lottery/
- Published: 1998-05-24T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

How much influence should the UK public have in which charities receive grants from
the National Lottery Charities Board? Kate Hilpern explores in The Independent the
question that has simmered since the National Lottery was launched. Gerald Oppenheim,
director of UK and corporate planning for the NLCB, tells her that “it’s impossible
to expect to be able to aggregate successfully and act upon the opinions [on suitable
charities] of 50 to 60 million people.” The Charities Aid Foundation is similarly
doubtful of the value of letting public opinion dictate the grants distribution.
A spokesman commented, “so many people are quoted in surveys as claiming charity
should begin at home rather than abroad… Yet when you examine which charities receive
the most funding from public donations, it is usually the ones based overseas, such
as Oxfam. Clearly, this issue shows that there is a huge difference between theory
and practice.”

 * **[Frightfully good fundraising](https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/10/18/frightfully-good-fundraising/)**(
   18 October 1998)
 * **[It's all in the name](https://fundraising.co.uk/1999/08/06/it039s-all-name/)**(
   6 August 1999)
 * **[Chance would be a fine thing](https://fundraising.co.uk/1999/08/08/chance-would-be-fine-thing/)**(
   8 August 1999)

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)