When I worked the most important person was the customer and I was always encouraged to challenge everything and if it costed in you could always justify changing things and making improvements. Ever since becoming a Councillor and more recently a trustee of a Community Centre those qualities I gained at work seem a million miles away. However, I may have something that others might wish to try . Community Centres/ Village Halls are often run by charities who have to fund raise. Lotteries have always been unattractive as gift aid is not available. Many Local Authorities have however reacted to this and are promoting community lotteries which have an increased donation element. Typically, the donation element to be received by the “selling charity ” is 50%. I have however devised a lottery system which is also able to attract gift aid . In order to do this, I have had to deal with the three main stakeholders involved viz the local authority , the Charity Commission and HMRC . I have overcome all the problems with the first two and am awaiting a sign off from HMRC who stipulate that they want a clear audit trail which I am certain is available. Unfortunately, they won’t give that until a charity proposes a scheme. So let me be clear what the scheme proposes. It assumes that a Village Hall/Community Centre is via its objects allowed to associate with other local Community Groups. The lottery would allow for the Charity proper to receive donations and claim gift aid on those donations. It would also allow for other associations to sell tickets and receive donations. However, the scheme allows for the gift aid on those donations to be redirected to the main charity . So typically, a Community Lottery selling 100 tickets at £5 a month would generate a Village Hall income £250 pcm. My scheme would generate them £385pcm The downside of course is that my scheme cannot offer the big prizes offered with the Community schemes as a hook . These big prizes are of course not guaranteed for each draw . If anyone would like to know further details, please PM me . I have designed all the necessary spreadsheets to operate the scheme and am as confident as I can be that this scheme has real potential. I just need someone to try it.
