The lowdown on Omaze

If someone approached you on the street and told you that, for just a tenner, you could win a mortgage-free, multimillion-pound dream house while raising money for charity, you’d assume there was a catch, right?

But this improbable offering is Omaze’s core business.

What is Omaze?

Launched in 2012, Omaze is an American for-profit organisation that raises millions of pounds for UK-based charities by offering people the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences and dream prizes.

Where did the idea come from?

The brainchild of Ryan Cummins and Matthew Pohlson, the concept of Omaze was born on the way home from a charity fundraising auction.

At the auction, Ryan and Matt watched someone win courtside tickets to watch a basketball game with the legendary Magic Johnson. The winning bid was $15,000.

Two things occurred to them: How could such an epic prize only raise $15,000? And why should amazing experiences like this only go to the highest bidder?

They came up with the idea of creating an online platform to auction off high-value prizes to everyone at an affordable price …

The rest is history.

How does Omaze raise money for charity?

Through their ‘Million Pound House Draw’.

For as little as £10, people can win a range of mind boggling prizes, from luxury cars, and hefty cash prizes, to multi-million-pound (mortgage-free) properties.

How does the draw work?

Open to anyone over the age of 18, people pay for entries in batches. The minimum is 15 entries (£10) and the maximum is 320 entries (£150). However, there’s no limit on the number of batches people can buy.

Each draw runs for six weeks. During that time, Omaze dishes out a series of ‘early bird’ prizes in the run up to the closing date, where the ‘grand prize’ winner is revealed.  

Early bird prizes include cars – think Mercedes SL Convertibles, Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismos, and Jaguar I-Paces; and cash – we’re talking £100,000 - £250,000.

As for the grand prize. How does a £3,500,000 house in the Cotswolds sound? Or a £2,500,000 farmhouse in the Lake District? The prizes are mind-blowing, right?

How do charities benefit?

Since launching in the UK in 2020, Omaze has raised £15m for a number of UK-based charities, including RSPCA, the British Heart Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust, and The Prince’s Trust.

From the net proceeds of each draw, 80% goes to the charity (with a guaranteed minimum donation of £100,000) and Omaze retains 20% for its day-to-day running costs, salaries, and overheads. 

What’s the catch?

There isn’t one. There’s no cost to the charity, as Omaze sources and buys the prizes, organises the draws, and runs the marketing campaigns.

At the end of each campaign, they divvy everything up. After recouping the cost of the prize and marketing, they give 80% to the charity partner, and keep the remaining 20%.

Wondering how Omaze is able to cover their costs and have hundreds of thousands left in the kitty?

It’s testament to the brilliance of their business model. The low cost of entry attracts tens of thousands of entrants. And they’re willing to pay top dollar for a money-can’t buy prize.

The amount generated covers all the costs - and more. If you consider there’s no limit to the number of batches people can buy, each draw can generate millions.

What sort of charities does Omaze work with?

To attract enough entrants, the charities Omaze partners with need to have a substantial reach (and influence). So, they focus on household names for the prize draws.

However, they raised £750,000 for small charities through their partnership with Global’s Make Some Noise, (an aggregator charity that makes donations to hundreds of small charities).

They also provide funding to smaller charities outside of the prize draws.

How much has Omaze raised for its charity partners?

Here are just a few examples:

In January 2023, widower Grant Carson scooped a five-bedroom farmhouse, set in eight acres of the Lake District. The prize draw raised £850,000 for Dogs Trust.

In March 2023, construction worker Kevin Johnson won a £3m Islington town house and £100,000 cash in Omaze’s London House Draw. It raised £2million for the British Heart Foundation.

In May 2023, June Smith, 74, from Essex, won a six-bedroom, three storey house overlooking the picturesque Fowey Estuary in Cornwall. The draw raised a whopping £2,100,000 for Marie Curie.

Want to be Omaze’s next charity partner?

Take note of the following and reach out.

“We’re looking to partner with well-established charities who have a strong supporter base and celebrity brand ambassadors willing to promote the partnership. We ask that any organisation that fits this description reaches out to us at team@omaze.co.uk, so we can pass the relevant details along to our teammates internally for review. If they feel it would be a good fit, a member of the team will reach out to discuss a potential partnership.”

Looking for a creative fundraiser to implement a lucrative fundraising campaign for your charity? We can help. Call us on 0203 750 3111 or email us at info@bamboofundraising.co.uk for an informal chat.

The value of fundraising lotteries

As we all know, the UK is experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. We’ve all had to tighten the purse strings and cut back on non-essentials.

However, it seems the public is not willing to forego one non-essential item: the weekly lottery ticket.

According to Mintel’s latest Lotteries Market Report, consumer spending on raffles and lotteries reached a record-breaking £4.2bn in 2022/23. And it’s estimated to rise to £9.4bn by 2029.

The numbers say it all. Lotteries are weathering the economic downturn, making them a valuable fundraising opportunity for charities.

Before we delve into the reasons why, let’s look at a quick definition.

What is a lottery?

According to The Fundraising Regulator, ‘lottery’ is a broad term that encompasses events such as raffles, tombolas, and sweepstakes. “As a rule, a lottery is a game where you pay to enter, there is at least one prize, and winning is dependent only on chance.”

Why are lotteries so popular?

Lotteries stand out from other fundraising methods as they incentivise giving.

Where else can you "invest" £1 or £2 for the opportunity to win thousands? The risk-to-reward ratio is appealing, even if the odds of winning are small.

Take Age UK’s weekly lottery, for example.

It costs £1 a week to enter. Each week, the charity awards 1,000 cash prizes, ranging from £10 - £2,000.

Although the odds of winning £2,000 are 1 in 185,000, thousands of people play.

As an added incentive, Age UK automatically enters players into their Quarterly Superdraws, where 5,000 players can win anything from £5 to £25,000.

Low risk, high reward.

The benefits for charities

There are 500+ society lotteries in the UK. But the number is on the rise.

A growing number of charities are tapping into their universal appeal and reaping the rewards.

But what’s in it for charities? Here are three key benefits.

1.   Predictable income source

Because you know how many players you have, how often they play and how much they pay each time, lotteries are a predictable and sustainable way of generating income.

And that income can be substantial. Since 2005, Age UK’s weekly lottery has raised over £72m.

2.   Effective engagement tool

Research shows that four out of five people are more likely to contribute to a charity lottery than make a donation.

The great thing about prize-led fundraising is it combines the intrinsic reward of supporting a cause, and the extrinsic reward of winning a prize.

This can be a great way to convert potential supporters who might not get there on cause-appeal alone.

3.   Endless marketing value

Everyone loves a good ‘rags to riches’ story.

Every time a winner is drawn, you have an opportunity to share their stories, while promoting your cause and attracting new players.

Winners’ stories make great fodder for website, social media, and blog content.

St Cuthbert’s Hospice makes good use of winner’s stories on their website.

Easy to manage

Don’t have the resources to manage a lottery in-house? You can outsource it to a third party.

There are a number of reputable lottery managers who can manage the lottery on your behalf. A list is available on the Lotteries Council website.

All bets are on

If you’re looking for a sustainable income stream with universal appeal, a lottery is a good bet.

Just be sure to check out the rules and regs before taking the plunge.

Need an extra fundraiser to get your lottery up and running? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 to get the ball rolling.

Charity coins a new term to describe giving to charity in your will

Familiar with the term ‘Willanthropy?’ If not, you soon will be if a new campaign from Remember A Charity is successful.

The legacy consortium, which is part of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, coined the term to celebrate the generous acts of everyday people writing charitable gifts into their wills.

Defined as ‘the act of giving to charity in your Will, the group’s #Willanthropy campaign aims to challenge the misconception that you need to be wealthy to leave a gift.

As per the campaign’s webpage, “Willanthropy comes in all shapes and sizes. From small but no less meaningful donations to sizeable gifts, anyone can be a Willanthropist.”

To showcase the diversity of the UK’s growing community of Willanthropists, Remember A Charity is inviting charities and members of the public to share their stories of Willanthropy on social media, using the hashtag #Willanthropy.

The consortium is also attempting to bring the term into common usage by calling on dictionaries to include it as an official term.

Comment

Lucinda Frostick, Director of Remember A Charity said of the campaign, “our focus is on opening up conversation about legacy giving and inspiring people to share their own stories. We want to highlight gifts in Wills of all sizes and are seeking to dispel the misconception that you need to be wealthy to leave a legacy. Leaving even a small gift in a Will can have a huge impact for charities. We hope to get people talking and acting to make a difference.”  

Remember A Charity Week

The #Willanthropy campaign comes a month before Remember A Charity Week, which takes place from 11th-17th September.

The annual campaign creates an opportunity for charities to raise awareness of legacy giving, by bringing together Remember A Charity member charities and their network of over 800 solicitors and Will-writers, to encourage people to consider leaving a gift in their Will.

Customisable legacy marketing assets  

To support their marketing efforts, Remember A Charity is releasing a new suite of customisable digital legacy marketing assets, including social posts, banner website banners, GIFs, bookmarks, posters, and coat hanger cards, which member charities can personalise with their own messaging, imagery and branding.  

Linda Frostick said of the suite of tools, “in the current economic environment, with even more pressure on budgets, prioritising legacy fundraising and securing sufficient resource isn’t easy. So, this year, we’re providing new resources for charities to use internally, as well as customisable legacy materials that charities can use to start their own legacy conversations with supporters – and build on throughout the year.” 

Final Word

Want to join the consortium and get involved in Remember A Charity Week?

You can get the lowdown on the cost, benefits of becoming a member, and the application process here.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a legacy fundraiser to implement a Willanthropy campaign, you’ve clicked on the right website. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 to get the conversation started.

How charities are utilising AI

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, artificial intelligence was a concept that only existed in science fiction. Then, in the 1950s, American psychologist Frank Rosenblatt invented the perceptron (a neural network that could learn by trial and error to simulate human thought and learning). This is widely considered to be the first iteration of modern-day artificial intelligence.

Since then, A.I. has become more and more advanced. From voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa, to traffic prediction on Google Maps, it’s ingrained in much of the technology we use today.

AI also has many applications in business, from data analytics and search optimisation to market research and customer service.

With all the fuss around AI Chatbot app, ChatGPT, we thought we’d have a look at how three charities have used AI to streamline operations, solicit donations, and improve service delivery.

charity: water

In 2016, charity: Water launched a chatbot called ‘Walk with Yeshi’ to raise awareness of the water crisis in Ethiopia.

Integrated into Facebook Messenger, the chatbot incorporated artificial intelligence and a conversational, multimedia interface to enable people to virtually join Yeshi, a young Ethiopian woman, on her daily 2.5 hour walk to collect water. 

The experience played out in real-time, making use of media sharing, geolocation, and personal storytelling capabilities together with Stripe integration to raise funds.

On the journey, Yeshi chatted with her audience and sent emotive photos, GIFs, audio, and videos to bring her story to life.

A first-of-its-kind immersive journey built specifically for Facebook Messenger, this AI-driven experience provided the global community with a new way to experience and understand the hardships faced by millions of Ethiopian women.

NSPCC

In 2018, NSPCC became the first UK-based charity to use voice recognition technology through Amazon’s Alexa, to boost donations.

The children’s charity used goDonate Voice, an off-the-shelf donation template skill, developed specifically for charities.

Charity supporters could enable the skill through the Alexa app or via their voice by saying “Alexa, open NSPCC” to donate. The money was then automatically deducted from users’ Amazon accounts and sent to the charity via Amazon Pay. 

Other uses

Voice recognition technology is not only being used to solicit donations. Accessibility charity Whizz Kidz launched an accessibility guide for London via an Alexa skill, advising on routes across the city with step-free access for wheelchair users and people of limited mobility, while the British Red Cross first aid skill outlines what to do in emergency situations.

Parkinson’s UK

In 2020, Parkinson’s UK teamed up with Australian AI firm Dataro to find out how machine learning techniques could be applied to direct mail fundraising campaigns to better target donors and improve appeal returns.

To test its effectiveness, the charity tested its own September Appeal selections alongside Dataro’s list.

Parkinson’s UK used its existing propensity model to segment the database and finalise a list of supporters to receive the mailing, while Dataro used machine learning to analyse patterns in the charity’s transactions, engagement, and communications data, and generate predictive scores for each supporter, reflecting their estimated probability of giving.

At the end of the campaign, both lists were compared. The findings?

The AI-generated list:

• achieved a higher response rate (14%, compared to 8% for the traditional list selection)

• identified 411 gifts that otherwise would have been missed

• saw a potential 23% increase in net revenue

Holly Matthews, Direct Marketing Manager at Prostate Cancer UK, said of the experiment: “Our current data selection model is based on supporters’ gift behaviour, but we know this is not entirely inclusive and misses out valuable prospects. Ideally our data selection would be based on multiple areas of a supporter’s journey, but this takes time. Dataro’s AI model allowed us to test something new. It demonstrated what we had suspected; that valuable data had been missed.”

Is AI coming for your job?

The digital landscape is changing, and as these three examples show us, the way we fundraise is changing.

Does this mean AI will replace fundraisers? Nope. Sure, it can help you analyse data, raise money, and automate processes, but it’s no match for human intelligence or empathy. It can’t read, understand, or respond to human emotions, all of which are key to building meaningful donor relationships.

The most effective and responsible approach to AI is to view it as a tool to augment human intelligence rather than a replacement for it. By doing so, you can unlock AI's full potential while preserving the value of human input and creativity.

Looking for a tech-savvy fundraiser for your team? We can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 or email us at info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to get the conversation started.

Willen Hospice launches ‘first of its kind’ gaming shop

As we said in a previous blog post, charity shops are on the rise. Not only are they growing in number, but sales are soaring.

According to the Charity Retail Association, there was a 15.1% growth in like-for-like charity store income in January-March 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.

It’s no surprise charities large and small are scrambling to get a slice of retail action.

However, one organisation has turned the traditional charity shop concept on its head.

Willen House Hospice

To innovate its offer in the face of an increasingly challenging economic climate, Milton Keynes-based charity Willen Hospice has launched a charity shop with a difference.

Rather than selling second-hand designer clothes, knick-knacks, furniture, and books, the hospice opted for a ‘first of its kind’ retro gaming retail and experience store.

The Hangout

The ‘Hangout’ is a unique concept store that offers gamers of all ages a fun place to game, shop, and refuel.

Based in the Xscape leisure complex in Central Milton Keynes, the gamer’s paradise features ten arcade machines with 3,000+ retro games to choose from. It also has a wide range of retro consoles, hi-tech electronic darts, and a huge selection of board games to play.

In addition to the gaming experience, there’s an in-store shop selling a range of new and pre-loved games, toys, collectibles, and accessories. Gamers can also refuel with light refreshments at the cafe.

Visitors can book two-hour slots. The cost depends on the games they want to play. A ‘Board Gamer Pass’ costs £5. An ‘Electronic Gamer Pass’ is £10, and ‘the ‘Ultimate Gamer Pass’ is £15.

100% of the proceeds go to the hospice.

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Leila Blaize-Smith, Willen Hospice Retail Project Lead, said of the store, “we are very proud to be pioneering new ways for our customers to support us. As well as raising vital funds for the Hospice, The Hangout will also double as a venue for us to support the families in our care with young children and teenagers, who are going through an incredibly difficult time.”

Opinion

With 11,200 charity shops around the UK, and new pop-ups, multi-stores, and charity supermarkets popping up everywhere, competition is fierce.

If you’re planning on joining the revolution, your charity shop needs to stand out.

Willen House has nailed it with the Hangout.  

In an article in Third Sector, Jonathan Mail, head of public affairs at the Charity Retail Association, said ‘there’s an increasing trend of charity shops moving towards bigger premises, where they can offer a variety of products and consumer experiences. They are becoming more diversified, offering something for everyone, from the more discounted type of product to things that target a more high-end consumer.”

The Hangout bucks this trend. Rather than trying to cater to everyone, it focuses on gamification, an extremely popular, but niche trend. And it prioritises the customer experience over a quick sale.

Evolution

A growing number of charities are recognising the need to innovate to attract shoppers into their stores. For example, The British Heart Foundation has started offering free CPR training events in some of its stores, while other charities are engaging with their local communities to host events such as community cookery classes or tasting evenings in their shop spaces.

And this is just the start. To ride the charity shop wave, charities will need to find novel ways to differentiate their retail stores and raise the profile of their causes.

Will it spell the end for the traditional charity shop? Time will tell.

Looking for a fundraiser to focus on retail fundraising? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to find out how.