Good Raffle offers games to benefit Northern Ireland charities
Howard Lake | 4 August 2018 | News
Charities in Northern Ireland will start generating income from raffles as part of a new initiative to boost income across the sector from society lotteries.
Good Raffle CIC has been established to run a new raffle game for Northern Ireland featuring a range of weekly, monthly and seasonal games.
It aims to gain widespread participation from the people of Northern Ireland by offering “a decent chance of winning a cash prize”. Each ticket will cost £1 – the legal maximum in Northern Ireland, and funds will be raised towards “a wide range of causes”, with the games funded by raffle players themselves. The jackpot prize will be £25,000, which is the legal maximum in Northern Ireland.
Good Raffle CIC has been established following a research study and feasibility plan conducted last year by niFundraising. It has been formed as a not-for-profit social enterprise.
It is designed to help newcomers to raffles but also to support charities already running their own games with compliance and best practice benchmarking.
Founding director Neil Irwin said:
“I have worked hard to establish a scheme with the best interest of charities and game players in mind – mindful of the need to stay within the requirements of our unique Northern Ireland law and ensure it will be both easy to sell tickets and get a chance to win.”
Good Raffle tickets will be sold online and offline through Good Raffle kiosks and payment can be taken with cash or credit/debit card, including contactless payments. Tickets are entered at the point of sale.
Equipment and support will be provided by Good Raffle C.I.C. including training and support for fundraisers, volunteers and support groups.
“This model for running society lotteries is an opportunity to revolutionise fundraising for the sector here across every area of fundraising whether for small and large charities, sports clubs or societies,” Neil Irwin added.
He commented that, over the longer term, he hoped Good Raffle would help maximise the legal proceeds limit of £1 million per charity per year.
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Scale of society and private lotteries in N Ireland
The niFundraising research round that in Northern Ireland “a huge number of society and private lotteries are being run against best practice, non-compliant and/or illegally”. Irwin concluded that there was a need to help ensure charities comply with their legal responsibilities whilst raising even more money.
The same research demonstrated that society lotteries are a huge source of income for charities in England, Scotland and Wales.
Good Raffle CIC is inviting charities and clubs to join the initiative. Contact ne**@go********.org.
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.