Charity fights to retain lottery compensation scheme
Howard Lake | 5 August 2013 | News
The Irish government's decision to abolish a lottery compensation scheme which pays €6 million annually to Irish charities is being challenged in the courts.
Ireland’s largest charity, the Rehab Foundation, wants the scheme, which was introduced in 1997 to compensate charities for the impact of the National Lottery on their own private lotteries, retained.
Last year, the Rehab Foundation received €4.4 million of the €6 million compensation fund. This will be reduced to €1 million before the scheme is abolished in 2016, according to the Irish Times.
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The government wants to abolish the scheme because of its need to reduce expenditure. It also argues that the scheme an inefficient way to assist charities’ fundraising. The Rehab Foundation argues that its lottery, unlike other charity lotteries which also receive compensation, was profitable and the loss of the funding would adversely affect the organisation’s disabled clients.
Last year the Irish Cancer Society’s lottery made a surplus of €94,000 but only after a payment of €190,000 from the lottery compensation scheme.
The Rehab Foundation claims that it is at a disadvantage to the National Lottery because of restrictions on prizes which are capped at €20,000 per week, whereas Lottery prizes are unlimited.
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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.