# Friends Reunited launches not-for-profit online lottery for charities

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/01/02/friends-reunited-launches-notforprofit-online-lottery-charities/
- Published: 2004-01-02T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Friends Reunited has launched a not-for-profit lottery which will donate 45p of
the £1 tickets to a range of 15 charities, with more organisations to be added later.**

Happy Group, the company that runs the Friends Reunited Web site, says that the 
first draw will take place towards the end of January 2004 and will thereafter be
held weekly on Tuesdays at 5pm.

Founders Steve and Julie Pankhurst say that the online lottery is their response
to the many requests for charitable help that they now receive. “The Friends Reunited
Lottery seemed like a great way of helping and, most importantly, providing an alternative
to the profit orientated approach of other lotteries,” they said. With 10 million
registered users, the site certainly has great potential to promote its lottery 
widely.

## 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/)

Each draw costs £1, and players need to choose five numbers from one to 34. Friends
Reunited say that they will take just 5% for administrative purposes.

The beneficiary charities are Anthony Nolan Trust, Barnardo’s, British Heart Foundation,
British Red Cross, Cancer Research, Help the Aged, Macmillan Cancer Relief, Mencap,
National Missing Persons Helpline, National Trust, NSPCC, Oxfam, RNIB, RNLI and 
RSPCA. These charities were chosen by the team at Friends Reunited who tried to 
cover a range of charitable causes. Other charities, however, could be added to 
the list in the future: the Pankhursts say that “members will also be able to suggest
charities and we will be adding as many of these as we can in the future.”

 * **[NSPCC online raffle raises £16,000](https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/01/31/nspcc-online-raffle-raises-16000/)**(
   31 January 2004)
 * **[GoodLot launches new online camel racing game for charity](https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/02/04/goodlot-launches-new-online-camel-racing-game-charity/)**(
   4 February 2004)
 * **[Incentives help boost raffle sales for Ulster Cancer Foundation](https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/02/05/incentives-help-boost-raffle-sales-ulster-cancer-foundation/)**(
   5 February 2004)