Summary
This document has been created to provide you with guidance around managing the central
fund of your lottery and with some direction around how you could consider using the funds
raised. The intention is to provide you with some best practice advice to help support the
healthy growth of your lottery as well as ensure you are mindful of your obligations to meet
the required standards of the Gambling Commission (GC) around this area (if you are a GC
licensed lottery.)
Keeping compliant
(This information is correct at the time of writing June 2021)
It is your responsibility as the ‘Lottery Operator’ to ensure you are fully up to date with the
most recent GC requirements for your licence.
The Gambling Commission expects you to provide clear detail to the public on how your
lottery funds have been used. The GC seek clear detail on:
-How the funds are intended to be used.
-How to apply for the available funds (see below)
-What previous funds have been used for.
Typically, Lottery Operators will create a
webpage on their own site (not your lottery site) and provide a link to this on the
Central Fund cause web page of the lottery website. You may wish to list the causes
that have successfully received funding.
Gatherwell cannot validate your compliance. If you have any questions relating to
compliance, please speak to your Account Manager at the GC.
Distributing the funds
How you distribute your Central Fund is up to you (in accordance with the Gambling
Commission guidance above). Here are some of the options:
1. Community Grant Scheme
You could simply establish a Community Grant Scheme, and allocate the funds to local
causes of your choice. Central Fund grants are a fantastic opportunity to generate engaging
marketing messages and celebrate the success of your lottery. We recommend allocating
the grants to wide a variety of projects/causes. This will help to promote your lottery, thank
your community and show potential new good causes what they could achieve
Example of central fund grant application form - FORM LINK
2. Good Cause Sign-Up Incentive
Create an incentivised good cause recruitment campaign, and use this messaging in all of
your content to encourage new good causes to sign up. A good example of a sign-up
incentive would be an annual draw for registered good causes, with a cash prize. Market
this well in advance so new good causes have enough time to register and sell tickets
before the closing date. An example call to action (CTA) you could use is:
Example image- includes grants information:
Example image- for good cause recruitment:
3. Grant Funding Draw
Enter all good causes that are selling tickets on the lottery into a Grant Funding Draw to
win a split of the funds. For example, 10 causes could each win a % of the funds available.
You could use random.org to conduct the draw and select the winning causes. Should you
do this, we recommend that only good causes who have sold a minimum 20 tickets per
week will be entered into the draw.
4. Supplement Your Main Grant Scheme
You could add your lottery funds into your overall fund granting pot. If you go down this
route, we recommend that you ring-fence a portion of funds to incentivise good cause
recruitment (see above). This will help the lottery and its central pot grow and flourish.
Marketing
If you are using your Central Pot to create a grant scheme or draw, we recommend that you
use this as an opportunity to market your lottery, generate cause sign-ups, and attract new
players. Take a look at our example marketing messages below, and use fresh, eye-catching imagery that resonates with good causes.
In the run-up to the date, consider announcing the news via the following channels:
Register your good cause today to raise unlimited funds on {lottery name}.
Register now, and you’ll be entered into the bonus prize draw to win £250 cash
for your cause!
- News feature on your lottery website
- Your own website
- Press release
- Staff intranet and/or internal staff comms
- Community newsletter
- Email to community databases e.g. sports clubs
- Local digital screens and channels
- Social media countdown (use accounts with the largest following)*
Gatherwell can help you raise awareness of your campaign by sending out an email from
the lottery mailbox to all your good causes. Just contact your account manager at
Gatherwell with the content of the email before your campaign is due to start and we will
happily do that for you.
* Facebook is a great way to encourage people to read your content so create as many
organic posts as you wish. You may be tempted to run boosted posts or paid Facebook
adverts. If you plan to do this, you must be whitelisted by Facebook. We recommend that
you only proceed if you have access expert who is trained in creating paid Facebook
advertising!
Example marketing messages:
News/Press Release Content
If you’re writing a news story or press release about your Central Pot Funding, case studies
are a great way to get people engaged and spread the word. If you’ve got stories from
previous successful applicants to your Lottery Grant programme, then use these to highlight
the benefits to good causes of signing up to the lottery.
Don’t worry if it’s the first time you’re distributing funds. You can still generate content by
reaching out to a variety of good causes registered on your lottery, and asking them how
they are using the funds they have raised from ticket sales.
It’s also a great idea to write an article or press release after your grant funding has been
announced. Once again, your good causes can help you to generate content. You could
ask them questions such as the ones below:
How much money did they receive?
What was their reaction to the news that they had been successful?
How will the funding be used?
How will this benefit the local community
Any stories you create from the causes in receipt of funding should promote the benefits of
joining your lottery so that they resonate with other similar causes, motivating them to apply
to be a good cause on your lottery too! Pair this with an incentive to win even more
additional funding and there it is - a real no brainer for your local causes to sign up and
raise more money!
To find out more about using your News feature on your lottery website, check out the
guides below:
Can't find what you're looking for?