Fundraising Lotteries

Advice when planning fundraising lotteries

There are a number of steps to consider should you be thinking about embarking on a fundraising lottery campaign.

There are different types of lotteries you can run, with wach having their own rules and regulations.

The most common amongst UK charities are:

Private Lotteries

There are three types of private lotteries:

• Private Lottery – These can only be promoted by one of its members and tickets must only be sold to other members of the specific society. In addition, the tickets can only be sold on the premises of the society too.
• Work Lottery – Again, these can only be sold on the premises of the organiser and cannot be run for profitable gain.
• Residents’ Lottery – Again, these cannot be run for profit and the promoter must reside at the actual premises

Small Society Lotteries

In the most recent Gambling Act 2005, the definition of the word ‘Society’ has been removed and is therefore not 100% clear. A registered charity, however, should be perfectly fine.

Small society lotteries can be promoted to benefit non-commercial societies (which are charities). Therefore, small society lotteries can be used for charitable purposes.

A charity who runs a small society lottery sale tickets more than £20,000 worth at a time, and the charity’s aggregate proceeds from the lottery is can not exceed £200,000 a year. If you do, you will require to run a large society lottery.

Large Society Lottery

As previously mentioned, if your organisation’s ticket sales will exceed £20,000 then you will need a large society lottery. In addition, if your annual total exceeds £250,000 (in one calendar year), then you will be required to apply for a large lottery.

Also, please bear in mind that a large lottery can only be run under a Lottery Operating Licence, which can only be issued by the Gambling Commission. There is a cost for this, including administration, therefore you need to plan any lottery ideas you may have.

Your plans

Based on this information, you should ask yourself a few questions before deciding on which type of lottery to proceed with.

For example, who will you sell tickets to; where will you sell the tickets (will it be on the premises or in public places, or even online); how much will each ticket cost and how much would you expect to fundraise (remember, that if you have already run a lottery in the past how much money have you made from it and does this exceed £250,000, in which case the only option would be a large society lottery.)

Should you have any further questions, please contact us on 0845 094 8033 to place your lottery fundraising company details at the top of this listing.