Growing regular giving reach with Lifeworks Affinity Lottery

Lifeworks is a small charity based in Totnes, Devon. They believe in the rights of all individuals with a learning disability, however complex, to receive the services and support they need to develop the skills and confidence to reach their full potential.

Goal

Lifeworks identified prize-led fundraising as the ideal solution to win the hearts and minds of those without an affiliate onto people with learning difficulties. A £25,000 prize would engage with a wider audience to both increase unrestricted income and raise brand awareness in the wider regional area. 

This would provide Lifeworks with the opportunity to then follow-up with their cause-based story and how, by playing the lottery, supporters will be helping those in the local area with learning disabilities.

With just one fundraiser at Lifeworks, the lottery solution needed to be simple, easy and off-the-shelf. After careful consideration looking at all suitable suppliers, Lifeworks chose Affinity as their ideal partner.

Success

• From 4 regular givers to 40 in 4 months
• Extended geographical reach.
• Great opportunity for further growth.

Our Approach

Audit

Lifeworks assessed multiple lottery options prior to launch. They were looking for a partner that could support their prize-led ambitions at the right price point. Affinity came out on top.

Implementation

The Lifeworks Affinity Lottery set up was straight-forward and easy. The platform is intuitive meaning you don’t need to learn a new system to use it. And because everything that you need is there for you to access whenever you need it, it makes internal admin so much easier. Supporters can update their own details through a password protected portal. And if someone does call in, they go through to the Supporter Services team at Woods Valldata to handle any initial enquiries.

Acquisition into lottery has predominately been around digital media which has enabled testing into prize- versus cause-led messaging. Campaign URLs can be set up in the Affinity Portal by Lifeworks, so they can track their activity and see which is most effective. They found that a combination of both prize and cause messaging led to the best results, with a prize message to grab attention followed by the cause message to give context.

With such a small team it’s challenging to give lottery acquisition the push it needs to grow rapidly, but with no minimum player volumes and ongoing management fees only incurred per chance taken, there’s no pressure to obtain a set number of players to satisfy Gambling Commission regulations or economies of scale.