Income to Support Parish Council Community Projects
Kettering Town Council provides a democratic and representative voice for the community. Collectively they strive to make Kettering a better place to live, work and visit and they support and contribute towards the sustainable economic and social well-being of the town, having regard to the needs and wishes of the local community.
Goal
Kettering Town Council‘s ambition is to facilitate additional projects to benefit their community, but the available precept income (money obtained from council tax payers) is inhibitive of this.
They identified that a weekly lottery would provide an additional income source and put less pressure on the precept to achieve more things for the wider community. After a procurement process involving three lottery providers, Affinity Lottery was their chosen partner.
Success
In the first year:
- Over 120 players signed-up
- Lower than average player attrition
- Over 80 winners
- 6 projects have benefitted from the lottery income
Our Approach
Audit
Weekly lottery was identified as an ideal way for Kettering residents to not only support their local community but also have the opportunity to win up to £25,000. Kettering wanted a parish council lottery they could set up and offer without any hassle. Affinity Lottery, a pooled lottery where players from multiple non-profits are included in each weekly draw, meant they could get the lottery up and running quickly with minimal involvement from the Town Clerk and the administrative team.
Implementation
Benefitting the Community
Kettering Town Council composed a policy outlining how and where the income generated from their parish council lottery would be spent. They focused on the three core areas of the community which they felt would benefit most from smaller bespoke projects: housing and homelessness advice; environmental projects; health and wellbeing.
In the first 18 months from launch the following projects benefitted from lottery income:
- Outreach work for local housing advice charity
- Hedgehog highway alongside some urban space in town
- Improvements to local allotments
- Kettering Food Bank
- Theatre group outreach to young people
Woods Valldata manage everything to do with the operational running of the weekly lottery. It is the role of the Council to decide how to build their lottery. Kettering utilised mostly the organic channels available to them.
The beauty of Affinity is that not-for-profits can grow their lottery at their own rate without having to worry about minimum player volumes. With a local news item at launch, organic social media, a banner in town and presence at events, Kettering have already started to build their player numbers. Plus with an ad in the local football programme, and further PR planned this is only set to rise.
Player sign-up couldn’t be easier with a dedicated website branded to Kettering Town Council and a player portal where players can manage their details and lottery numbers. Players are entered into a single draw each week alongside other players from Affinity lotteries. Plus, the Council have access to a full suite of reporting through an online Affinity platform which delivers everything needed to keep up to speed with the lottery, income and reports.
Continuous Improvement
Reflecting on the past 18 months, Kettering feel that more could be done to target the money raised through the parish council lottery. They are considering a plan to further refine their policy on where the income is spent focusing on one core area to make an even bigger difference, and to look for additional ways to promote their lottery to local residents.
Whatever your requirements we are sure to be able to help
Services:
What our client had to say
“Woods Valldata have a system in place that represented the best value for money for us and it’s been so easy working with them. I wouldn’t have any compunction about recommending them to other Councils.”
Martin Hammond, Town Clerk, Kettering Town Council
“The administration of the Affinity Lottery is pretty much dream-like – it just works.“
Martin Hammond, Town Clerk, Kettering Town Council
“There’s hardly any workload from our perspective – it’s very easy from that end.”
Martin Hammond, Town Clerk, Kettering Town Council
“It was easy to get the lottery set up with Affinity. We wrote a policy for the council to govern its use and applied for a licence and that was it to get it going.”
Martin Hammond, Town Clerk, Kettering Town Council
