Key takeaways
- A weekly lottery can create forecastable, unrestricted regular giving income while offering supporters a different, engaging way to help.
- Lottery funding for charities is not just for large organisations: a pooled model such as Affinity Lottery can start generating income from the first player.
- Affinity removes much of the operational burden, including the draw, prizes, direct debit processing, player administration, reporting and compliance support.
- Your charity still has the most important job: building internal buy-in, promoting the lottery and giving players a strong supporter experience.
- Start with warm, organic channels, measure what works and steward players around key moments to support long-term retention.
How can lottery funding for charities create regular income?
For smaller charities, sustainable individual giving can feel difficult to build. Teams are stretched, acquisition costs are under pressure and unrestricted income is more valuable than ever.
A weekly lottery offers a practical answer: a regular giving product that combines support for your cause with the chance to win.
That difference matters. The Fundraising Regulator explains that the added incentive of a prize can engage people who might not otherwise donate and help charities gain new supporters.
What’s more, in our Prize-Led for Smaller Charities webinar, fundraisers also described lottery as a useful alternative when a traditional regular giving ask does not resonate.
As Carolyn Hardy of Depaul UK explained, lottery gives fundraisers greater flexibility:
“If people aren’t so receptive to just the straightforward regular giving ask, they find that actually, if they introduce the lottery side of things, it’s a different way to give.”
Done well, lottery funding for charities can diversify your supporter base, generate predictable direct debit income and create new relationships that develop over time.
Why weekly lottery works as regular giving
A raffle is usually a one-off ask similar to a cash appeal. A weekly lottery sits alongside committed giving because players pay regularly, typically by direct debit, although other regular payment methods are also becoming more popular.
Regular giving is great when you’re building your individual giving programme as a smaller charity, as it makes income easier to forecast and gives supporters repeated reasons to engage.
It can also reach a different audience. Some people are motivated primarily by impact; others respond to a clear value exchange. Lottery lets you lead with both: the difference regular support makes and the excitement of a weekly draw.
The strongest proposition does not hide the prize, but it does not let the prize eclipse the cause either.
What’s more, acquisition (attracting players to your lottery) and retention (keeping players playing) are intrinsically linked. Our recent blog looking at weekly lottery as a growth engine for individual giving shows why acquisition and retention need to work together.
Recruitment builds the player base. Then a relevant welcome and ongoing stewardship help protect its long-term value.
How to set up lottery funding for charities: seven practical steps
1. Define the role of lottery in your fundraising mix
Be clear about the problem you want it to solve. Is the priority unrestricted income, attracting new supporters, offering an alternative regular giving product or replacing an existing but resource-heavy scheme?
It's also worth exploring whether prize-led fundraising is the right fit for your charity's audience, resources and objectives.
Our guide to whether prize-led fundraising is right for your charity explores some of these considerations.
2. Explore the profit and loss
Then look at what weekly lottery can achieve for your charity.
You might want to look at setting player acquisition, income expectations and retention measures, with optimistic, expected and cautious scenarios.
A forecast can go a long way when you’re putting together your case for senior leadership or board approval.
Woods Valldata have created a model to help you explore some of these scenarios.
3. Build the internal case
Trustees and senior leadership may worry about the gambling element of weekly lottery and the implications of this on your charity’s reputation, resource and compliance. It’s worth addressing these points openly.
You might show the expected return to the cause but also the risks to players, how players will be protected, who will be legally accountable and how the requirements of holding a Gambling Commission licence will be managed.
In addition, Woods Valldata support you with the legal requirements of running a weekly lottery with ready-to-go policy documentation and free annual training from gambling law specialists.
4. Choose a lottery model that fits your charities size
Running a standalone lottery means funding prizes and managing more infrastructure. Affinity Lottery, however, is pooled. Your supporters join a wider draw, while their data and relationship remain with your charity.
Insured and guaranteed prizes remove the need to build a large player base before the economics work (or you meet the Gambling Commission 80/20 requirement).
With Affinity Lottery, you can start with one player and grow at your own pace.
Gemma Ward, Lottery Partnerships Director at Woods Valldata, summed up the model simply:
“It’s no risk, it’s low resource, and it’s the perfect stepping stone into the world of lottery for your charity. You start making money right from just one player.”
For more on how a pooled model works, explore our article on Affinity Lottery and regular giving.
5. Make setup simple and compliant
Depending on its scale, a society lottery will need local-authority registration or a Gambling Commission licence.
A smaller charity starting out with a weekly lottery will probably only need a local authority registration. However, if you’ve a more established programme, keep checking your position as this can change if you start raising more from your lottery.
Remember, an external lottery manager can run all or part of a lottery, but the charity retains governance responsibilities.
Whether you’re getting started from scratch or looking to change to a different ELM partner or platform, Affinity provides a branded, mobile-friendly microsite and supports:
- Policy templates and terms and conditions
- Direct debit processing
- Lottery draws and prizes
- Player administration
- Data exports and reporting
- Regulatory returns and compliance support
Setup can take as little as two weeks, depending on your charity's requirements and readiness.
6. Plan player acquisition before launch
A lottery will not grow if nobody hears about it. Start with warm, low-cost routes:
- Email existing supporters
- Add a website feature
- Use organic social posts
- Include QR codes in newsletters and event materials
- Promote on sites via posters and in-person
- Add the lottery link to email footers
Whatever you do, measure it. We suggest using UTM tracking to identify what converts.
In the Prize-led for Smaller Charities webinar, Alex Hughes from Forever Manchester explained that they combine event raffles with QR-code promotion, for instance, while Depaul UK used lottery to give face-to-face fundraisers a different regular giving conversation.
Alex went on to reinforce the importance of active promotion:
“Give it the space that it needs. Shout about it, be proud of it. And lead with your cause and the impact of engaging with the lottery, not necessarily just the prize.”
There are plenty of routes to consider as your programme develops. Our guide to player acquisition for UK prize-led fundraising explores different recruitment channels, from warm supporter conversion to digital and face-to-face fundraising.
7. Welcome, thank and retain
Treat your players as supporters, not entries. Communicate with them. Explain the impact of their play, build anticipation before the first draw and keep them updated.
A short welcome journey, tailored newsletters, winner stories and timely re-engagement can strengthen connection. Then test upgrades carefully: for example, inviting a one-line player to add another chance.
Carolyn described how Depaul UK put this into practice:
“We set up a four-email welcome journey based on the touchpoints that Woods Valldata recommend at that early stage of them starting to play the lottery. Once they’ve gone through that, they go into our supporter email programme.”
Building these relationships is central to long-term success.
Our article on five tips for ongoing success in prize-led retention explores how thoughtful communications, welcome journeys and player engagement can help supporters stay connected for longer.
Charity lottery success stories: lessons from smaller charities
The evidence is encouraging. Hospice at Home West Cumbria migrated 120 existing players to Affinity and grew the lottery by 40% in four months through organic promotion.
The move also gave different teams direct dashboard access, reducing internal reporting effort.
- Retina UK used lottery to diversify a loyal supporter base and raised £10,000 in the first year.
- The National Brain Appeal chose Affinity as a low-maintenance route into regular giving and a way to reach a new audience.
These examples make an important point: being small is not the barrier.
The real questions are whether the proposition fits your supporters, how you will promote it and whether your lottery platform is simple and intuitive, leaving the team enough time to build relationships.
Reduce lottery administration and focus on supporters
For a small individual giving team, the best lottery model is often the one that protects your team’s capacity. Affinity Lottery covers the operational and administrative tasks, while your team retains the parts only you can do: telling your story, attracting players and showing the impact of their support.
For Forever Manchester, the operational benefit was central. Alex explained that Affinity:
“Took a lot of cost and time resource off the team, which allowed us to focus more on growing our prize-led funding rather than just maintaining what we’ve got.”
That also makes Affinity a practical option for charities with an existing prize-led product that has become difficult to maintain.
Forever Manchester moved from an internally run monthly tombola because introducing the Affinity platform reduced cost and staff time, while enabling larger, more frequent prizes. As a result, their team could focus on growing income instead of maintaining processes.
At the same time, Carolyn’s advice to charities considering a launch was straightforward:
“Don’t be afraid of embracing something new. If you feel that it’s the right thing for you and your charity, write the business case, get the buy-in and go for it.”
Ready to explore lottery funding for your charity?
If you are exploring lottery funding for charities, we can help you understand what's involved and find a model that works for your organisation.
Whether you're starting from scratch or looking for a more efficient way to manage an existing lottery, Affinity Lottery offers a practical route to growing regular income while keeping your team focused on supporters.
Contact Woods Valldata to discuss Affinity Lottery and book a meeting with Gem.
Frequently asked questions
What is lottery funding for charities?
Lottery funding for charities is income raised when supporters pay to enter a draw, with part of the proceeds supporting the charity’s purposes.
A weekly lottery turns this into a regular giving income stream.
Can a small charity set up a weekly lottery?
Yes. A pooled product such as Affinity Lottery is designed for charities of any size and can start earning from the first player, without the charity having to fund its own prize pot.
This makes weekly lotteries accessible to smaller organisations with limited budgets and resources.
Does a charity lottery need a licence?
Yes. Usually a small society lottery, such as one run by a smaller charity, needs a local-authority registration.
If the lottery is already well established with a sizable base, the charity will probably need a Gambling Commission licence. It all depends on its scale, income and how it operates.
Always check the current rules and, if it’s not clear, take specialist advice before launch.
How much work is involved in running a charity lottery?
That depends on the model. With Affinity Lottery there is minimal work needed in running the lottery.
Woods Valldata manages core operations including payments, draws, prizes, player administration, reporting and compliance support.
The charity focuses on governance, promotion and stewardship, and can put as much or as little time into it as needed.
How do charities attract weekly lottery players?
There are lots of different ways to attract weekly lottery players, depending on budget.
Woods Valldata recommend smaller charities start with existing supporters through email, web, social media, events, newsletters and QR codes. If the charity has budget and ambitious growth targets, then face-to-face fundraising can be particularly effective for lottery.
Test your approach. That might be leading with your cause and the difference regular support makes, alongside the opportunity to win, or leading with the prize and the impact their play has on your cause. Track each channel and test and invest in what works.
How can a charity keep lottery players for longer?
For return on investment (ROI) it’s important to retain as many lottery players as possible, although some ‘no-shows’ (people who change their mind before the first draw) and general attrition is to be expected as with any programme.
To reduce cancellations, Woods Valldata recommend using a prompt welcome journey, explaining impact, recognising players in communications and staying in touch around likely cancellation points.
Other platform-related benefits like making it easy to update details help. It comes down to supporter experience.
Charities can influence supporter experience by making sure supporters feel valued, that any questions are handled quickly and that they feel in control.
About the Author:
Helen Halahan is Head of Marketing and PR at Woods Valldata, a company specialising in the full spectrum of outsourced fundraising services for the charity sector including weekly lottery and response handling. Helen has supported the not-for-profit sector since 2012, including working alongside charity partners to grow and develop their prize-led fundraising programmes. She is a passionate advocate for developing and delivering excellent supporter experience and the impact that brings.
