This is "talent" in the biblical sense :-)
If you have an enthusiastic group which cannot agree on an idea, give them all a sum of money, and give them a fixed time to achieve something with it.
The timescale could be quite short (perhaps a month), and the amount of money need not be large (£5 or £10)
As in the biblical story, some may
wish to just keep it safe, but the "good steward" will use the money to
make more, perhaps by organising an event, buying a raffle prize, or buying
the raw materials to make cakes, sweets, or craft goods to sell.
RUNNING A 100/200/500 CLUB
A 100 Club is a regular lottery.
In principle, 100 people pay £1 per week for a chance to win a prize
: half the money paid in may used as the Prize Fund. The remainder
goes to the charity.
The variants differ mainly in terms of scale. However, under the current
Lotteries Act the maximum you can charge for each chance is £1 – discounting
is not allowed!
These schemes require a lottery licence for which you will need to appoint
a promoter who will have the legal responsibility for ensuring the good conduct
of the lottery.
For many Hundred Clubs, a major issue is collecting the regular contributions
from members. You can get round this in two ways – by collecting subscriptions
annually or quarterly, or by taking standing orders. If you don’t want
standing orders of £1 per month, you can sell chances in blocks, worth
£5 or £10.
You have discretion over the division of the prize fund. You must decide
whether one big prize is more appealing to your constituency than a number
of smaller ones. If you are giving out prizes at meetings, two or three
prizes might be better; if distribution is by post, one big prize might
make your draw look more exciting when you publish the results in your newsletter!
Each member must be allocated a number or numbers. The draw must take
place, before witnesses, in such a way as to ensure that it is random.
Sadly, we are not allowed to ensure that everybody gets their share of the
winnings .
If you meet your members regularly, you can pay out in cash – always an encouragement
to membership – but you can equally post cheques. In these modern times,
you can probably even do a direct transfer from your internet bank account!
You will need to make regular returns to the local authority, stating how
much money you raised, how much it cost you to run the draw, and how much
you gave out in prizes. The same information should be supplied to
all the members, and to the rest of the constituency.
The Numbers
100 people pay £1 per month
Collect £1200 per annum, pay out £600 and the charity keeps £600
200 people pay £1 yields £2400 gross, £1200 net.
500 people pay £10 per month (10 numbers each) yields £60,000
gross, £30,000 net.
You may feel that a lower prize will be enough to sell your scheme.
There is no lower limit to the amounts you can distribute! In the 500
Club example, you may feel that a prize of £1000 will suffice : this
would increase the net yield to £48,000! At the lower end, a
prize fund of £25 may be enough.
Remember that most people join to support the cause, rather than to win the
prize. This is perhaps more pronounced since the advent of the National
Lottery with its “silly money” prizes.