Image: SPCA New Zealand
On 8 April this year, SPCA launched its first ever lottery. It had 10,000 tickets at $25 each.
By 5 May, every ticket was gone.
That’s $250,000 in ticket sales in under four weeks, from a charity that had never run a lottery before. The main draw wasn’t until 26 June. They sold out seven weeks early.
Five months later they’re back. SPCA Lottery No. 2 opened on 25 September with 15,000 tickets, half as many again as the first.
If you run a charity and you’ve wondered whether a lottery could work for you, this is worth a close look. SPCA hasn’t published how it did it, so what follows is our read from the outside.
1. Keep it small
Ten thousand tickets is not a lot. Heart Foundation sells 290,000 per lottery. Starting small made selling out realistic. It also gave buyers a reason to act, because “only 10,000 tickets” is something people respond to.
2. Price it so people say yes on the spot
$25 is a decision most people make then and there. Nobody has to check with their partner or think about it overnight.
3. Offer a good prize, not an extravagant one
First prize was a Subaru Forester worth about $60,000. Second was a $15,000 tour, third a $5,000 gift card. The whole prize pool came to about $85,000. That’s 34% of ticket sales, comfortably above the 20% the rules require. You don’t need a million-dollar house to sell out a lottery.
4. Give people a reason to buy early
Tickets bought before 5 May went into a draw for a $5,000 early bird prize. The lottery sold out on 5 May. That’s unlikely to be a coincidence.
5. Start with the people who already care
SPCA looks after more than 55,000 animals a year, and a lot of New Zealanders already follow and support it. The lottery gave those people a new way to help. This is the part many charities underrate. Your supporters are your first ticket buyers.
What this means for your charity
When it launched, SPCA said it hoped the lottery would become an annual tradition. It sold so well they came back within months, with more tickets.
Not every charity has SPCA’s reach, and not every lottery sells out. We keep a list of the ones that didn’t in our lottery directory. But the model is not reserved for the big names. A small ticket pool, a fair price, a prize people want and a supporter base that already believes in you will get you a long way.
Thinking of running your own lottery?
Swell helps New Zealand charities plan and run lotteries like this one. If it could work for your cause, let’s talk.
Get in touchSPCA Lottery No. 2 is on sale now and closes 24 November. You can find it, and every other verified lottery, in our NZ Charity Lottery Directory. Swell is not affiliated with SPCA.