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.)
Distributing the funds
How you distribute your Central Fund is up to you. Here are some of the options:
1. Obtain testimonials from those who have received funding
- Ask them how the funds have been used and what a difference this funding has made to them. Sharing positive news about the lottery is key and players love to see how they have helped by playing the lottery.
2. Shout about the amount you have raised
- We recommend you do this annually
- Send a thank you email to all your players, including those with zero tickets to encourage them to take part in the lottery. Include how much has been raised and a testimonial like the above in point 1.
3. Contact all your cause supporters not just players
- Do you have access to a CRM of supporters who have helped in other ways than the lottery
- Where GDPR allows contact them to tell them all about the lottery, how much has been raised and the difference the lottery is making
Marketing
We recommend that you use this as an opportunity to market your lottery, and generate player sign-ups Take a look at our example marketing messages below, and use fresh, eye-catching imagery that resonates with players and the community.
In the run-up to the date, consider announcing the news via the following channels:
Exciting news! We are going to be allocating out £XXX of funds raised from LOTTERY NAME to XXXX
Take a look below to hear how these funds have made such a HUGE difference! (INSERT TESTIMONIAL FROM xx WHO HAS RECEIVED FUNDS)
- News feature on your lottery website
- Your own website
- Press release
- Staff intranet and/or internal staff comms
- Community newsletter
- 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 players. 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!
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 service users who have received funding, then use these to highlight
the benefits to players of signing up to the lottery.
If it is your first time allocating out your central pot this is still a great opportunity to create content
- how much is to be distributed
- who will be receiving these funds
- what will the funds be used for
- add in testimonials
- you could do a follow-up a few months later to see the impact of the funds given out
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?