Cambridgeshire Local Lottery
The County Council would like to hear your views on a Cambridgeshire Local Lottery.
In March, Cambridgeshire County Council councillors approved the proposal for an online local lottery to benefit good causes across Cambridgeshire. This model is one that a number of other local authorities have adopted to create new funding streams for their local voluntary sector. The next five months offer fantastic opportunity to engage with the community and voluntary sector to understand how this lottery can best work for Cambridgeshire. The success of this lottery is dependent on this working for you – the local charities – and therefore your opinion matters.
What is it?
The Cambridgeshire Local Lottery will be administered via an External Lottery Manager, Gatherwell Ltd, an organisation that specialises in Local Authority Lotteries. The ticket draws will be weekly and all tickets will be sold online.
60p from every £1 ticket of Cambridgeshire Local Lottery will go direct to charities, voluntary organisations and other good causes like you, a much higher percentage than other well-known lottery models.
There are two parts to the local lottery scheme – good causes, like yourself, will have your own webpage created, and 50p in every pound spent by players using your webpage will be retained by you. Good causes are paid their income automatically on a monthly basis. A further 10p in every pound will go into a general Cambridgeshire Community Good Causes Fund. It is proposed that this additional funding will be allocated to good causes chosen by a selected panel of county representatives. Note this is additional funding and will not offset any existing council spending. The remaining 40p in the £1 funds prizes, operating costs and VAT (see below).
There are no costs to the good causes and the ELM will provide tailored marketing materials to help attract people to your cause. Unlike other grants, the money is not ring-fenced and can be spent on what is most needed for your charity to flourish.
Players of the lottery can win a £25,000 jackpot, plus smaller prizes.
More details of how you can raise money with the lottery are demonstrated in this video.
How can you be involved?
Although lotteries have long been a way to raise money, this is a relatively new way for local authorities to work with the voluntary sector. The County Council wants to collaborate with the community to understand how this could work for your charity and what support you may need. This is only the beginning of the journey, with a launch not anticipated until autumn 2018, so we would really like to hear your views on the following:
- Would you be interested in being part of a focus group to discuss how to make the lottery work well in Cambridgeshire?
- How would you like us to conduct future engagement with you and your charity?
- Is there any further information you would want as this stage to help your understanding of the local lottery? We will be creating further communication channels and updates.
We now have a dedicated email set up at cambslottery@cambridgeshire.gov.uk so we would welcome answers to the above, plus any other questions you may have.
What’s next?
The County Council is currently applying for a Gambling Committee Licence. We will then be developing policies, procedures and governance for the lottery and we are keen to ensure that the community voice is represented during this part of the journey.
We will also be engaging with the community at a number of upcoming events and will ensure that these dates are circulated to encourage as many people to attend as possible.
Thank you.
Emily Gutteridge
Senior Transformation Advisor
Cambridgeshire County Council
