Interview with Kevin Dale, Weather Lottery PLC’s COO

Howard Lake | 29 October 2013 | News

Following The Weather Lottery plc's announcement that it had raised over £5 million for charities, UK Fundraising spoke to the company's Chief Operating Officer Kevin Dale to find out more.

1. The Weather Lottery PLC has now raised over £5 million for charities since 1998. Is the annual total increasing?

We’ve recently taken over the running of The Weather Lottery and are in the process of restructuring its account management and marketing operations. We have hundreds of charities to whom we send cheques every week, but there is much more we feel we can do to help them.

We need to reinvigorate the existing good causes that use our services and encourage others to see it is a great source of regular income. The long term nature of subscriptions on their lottery allow them to plan ahead. As such, it is far less of a drain on resources than organising one-off events and far more predicable than relying on legacies.

We’re very confident we will double the size of the amount made by charities within the next year. This will be helped no end by our decision to scrap up-front fees, which are an unnecessary drain on the finances of a charity.

2. Which kind of charity has received the largest donations from the Weather Lottery?

We work with a very diverse range of charities, both at a national and local level. These can be roughly split into the following groups: 250 in sport; 250 in health; 100 in education; and 250 in ‘other’ sectors.

Of those, the area which has benefitted most in recent times is probably health. In particular Age Concern and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust have been very active in promoting The Weather Lottery to their supporters, and have become regular beneficiaries as a result.

But the great thing about The Weather Lottery is the fact that any charity or society, big or small, can earn consistent amounts of money from it.

3. Can charities do anything to maximise their income from the scheme? If so, what?

To put it in simple terms, charities get out of The Weather Lottery what they put in to it. They can earn up to 55% of every contribution made by getting more of their supporters to play every week. That means that up to 55p in every pound goes directly to the charity, which is better than any other lottery out there. Most of our competitors hand over between 20-28% to charities, for example.

Moreover, the Weather Lottery gives players the opportunity to contribute specifically to the charity they care about. With 15% going to players too, everyone’s a winner – which goes a long way to explaining why there is a very small churn rate with The Weather Lottery.

4. Do you rely on charities to promote the system to their supporters or do you market it too?

As the lottery operator, our licence doesn’t allow us to promote charities – but we’re very keen to help them promote themselves. As such we offer marketing support with information packs, leaflets, and banners for websites. We also allow them to track how successful their efforts have been.

It is so much more effective than spending lots of money on acquiring new supporters via advertising in newspapers or on television.

They are marketing to people who are already engaged with their cause and therefore the cost per acquisition is minimal. Furthermore, people tend to play for a long time, ensuring a consistent and long-term income.

5. How can charities promote their involvement in the Weather Lottery effectively?

The best and easiest thing they can do is convince people to play. If they put a bit of effort in at the start it becomes a weekly source of income that requires very little administration.

The key for charities, I believe, is to give people a convincing reason to get involved. The more they can tie the money they raise from The Weather Lottery into the work of the charity, be it a project, new products or services, or the salary of an employee within the organisation, the easier it is to see the money in action.

A football club we work with, for example, has been very successful in showing supporters exactly where their money is being spent and how they can help. This has encouraged many more to get involved – with the added incentive that they can make up to £25,000 themselves by playing for just £1 a week.

6. What proportion of winners donate their winnings or some of them to their charity?

We’re always amazed by people’s generosity. We send out thousands of cheques to winners every month and invariably have a number returned by players with the request to give it back to the charity they’re associated with. It shows you the type of people who play The Weather Lottery and why they play it.

Many are delighted to take home a big prize – and why not – but others realise that the good cause they associate with is the real winner. It goes without saying that these good Samaritans are exactly the kind of people that every charity and society needs.

7. Has the recent doubling in the price of National Lottery tickets had any impact for you yet?

It hasn’t had a noticeable effect just yet, if I’m honest, as our customers don’t go into supermarkets and newsagents to play The Weather Lottery. But my hunch is that the negative publicity around the price hike will make people question where their money is being spent.

I think The Weather Lottery is a far more attractive proposition – and not just because it is half the price of the National Lottery. Our customers know that it is their specific cause that is benefitting and that it receives the lion’s share of the proceeds.

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.