Rugby Lotto celebrates four years of supporting good causes

The Lotto celebrates its fourth birthday this month, with nearly 50 borough-based good causes now raising funds through the lottery every week.

Rugby Borough Council launched the community lottery to support the work of charities and community organisations.

For every £1 ticket bought, good causes which have signed up to the Lotto receive 50p, with a further 10p going to a general, Rugby Community Fund.

The remaining cash goes into the Lotto prize fund and to Gatherwell, the company which runs the Lotto on behalf of the council.

Causes which have signed up to the Lotto include school parent teacher associations, sports clubs and health charities.

Rugby Autism Network raised more than £1,200 through the Lotto in 2022/2023 and Fay McSorley, the network's chairperson, said the money played a vital role in supporting the charity's work.

"The Lotto money helps support our background expenses, such as our stationery, insurances and website costs," Fay said.

"By ensuring our basic costs have been met, we can apply for grant funding and offer families grants to have a day out, have an annual pass for a local country park or enjoy fun activities in the school holidays."

Pawprints Dog Rescue was one of the first good causes to join the Rugby Lotto and has raised nearly £18,500 over the past four years.

Anita Twigger, the charity's head of operations, said the Lotto was a lifeline for Pawprints during the pandemic and was now helping the charity deal with the mounting number of rescue dogs.

"Fund-raising events take a lot of planning, rely on lots of volunteers and take up a lot of time, whereas the Lotto can be easily done in a fraction of the time and raise the same amount," Anita said.

"Throughout Covid, we continued to rescue dogs and were reliant on the Lotto funds to keep us going.

"We're currently overwhelmed by the amount of dogs needing rescue space and we have a mountain of work to do in our kennels, so the Lotto money's very important to us."

Good causes can sign up for the Rugby Lotto on the website: www.rugbylotto.org

The website has a range of marketing resources to help charities promote the Lotto to supporters.

Tickets for the Rugby Lotto can also be bought on the website. When buying tickets, residents can choose whether to support a specific good cause or donate to the Rugby Community Fund.

Lotto players have a chance to win a weekly jackpot of £25,000, with other cash prizes also up for grabs.

The website publishes the results of the weekly Lotto draw every Saturday.