Canals Trust boosts fundraising with community lottery

Six months after it first launched, we find out how a good cause is putting the fun in fundraising with the help of Lichfield Community Lottery. Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust was one of the first good causes to sign up to be a part of the Lottery.

Launched by the people, for the people of the Lichfield District, the lottery is an online fundraising solution provided by Lichfield District Council with, believe it or not, no upfront costs. Designed to help local not-for-profits diversify their fundraising streams online and enable year-round fundraising in a safe, fun and effective way. Join the fifty local groups already taking advantage of this fantastic opportunity for free today!

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Players can choose which local cause they want their funds to go to whilst buying a chance at a prize with 50:1 odds in the weekly lottery draws. It really is a win-win for players with most being happy in the knowledge that their funds are directly supporting the local community regardless of winning a prize - that's just an added bonus of their support!

So far the Trust has raised more than £4,000 with Lichfield Community Lottery thanks to its supporters. This money will be spent on reinstating the historic Lichfield Canal for the benefit of the community.

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Christine Howles, Communications Director at Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust, said: 

"I first heard about the new lottery from a tweet by the leader of the council, and was very excited to find out how it would work, so I signed up for the online introduction session and wasn't disappointed.

“I only got halfway through the session and signed up there and then. It was very easy to sign up online, set up the profile for our charity, and then wait with anticipation for launch day. We can login to our easy-to-use lottery admin panel and it's full of useful information about how many supporters we have week on week and how many of them win. We also get our customisable leaflets and social media graphics, which are updated regularly, so it's easy for us to promote through our channels.

“When launch day came, we started promoting our page through social media and to our members, and we immediately had people signing up. By the time of the first draw, we'd increased our supporter target several times and had 151 supporters. We were very pleased to see four of those win a prize in the first draw and we've had winners almost every week - but no jackpot wins yet. We're keeping our fingers crossed that one of our growing number of supporters will win the jackpot one day.”

Of how the money will be spent, Christine went on to say: “The money raised is vital to us as it's a regular monthly income and a pretty consistent figure exceeding £300 each month, with the potential to increase as we continue to promote the lottery.

“It is going towards our restoration funds to buy the materials we need to restore the Lichfield Canal. It has been such a welcome boost as we've seen building material costs rocket over the last year while our usual fundraising activities had to be paused due to Covid.

“I'd recommend any local good cause to sign up. With a simple registration process and then a regular income stream, it's a win-win for any charity."

Councillor Richard Cox, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, commented: 

“It’s absolutely wonderful to hear the Trust’s positive experience of being a part of Lichfield Community Lottery. They work to raise the profile of the lottery and boost their supporters, which you can really see in the amount of money they raise each week.  

“We are really proud to have signed up 50 local good causes to the lottery in the first six months, and they are now benefitting from extra funding. However, we are keen for more clubs, charities and groups to come on board. It’s such a simple way to add to your fundraising efforts and offer people a fun way to support your good cause.”

Most local not-not-for profit groups and charities can sign up to start raising more money with the lottery family at any time. 50p from every £1 lottery ticket goes directly to the chosen cause and another 10% going to further support local causes in Lichfield District. Apply to join our lottery family and start raising unlimited funds today!

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