How to run a charity raffle (the small society lottery walkthrough)

TL;DR

The legal vehicle most UK charities use for an online raffle is a small society lottery. You register the society with your local authority (the council where the society is based), publish the lottery rules, sell tickets, hold the draw, and submit a return to the council within three months. Every ticket must be sold at the same price and paid for before entry, at least 20% of proceeds must go to the society's stated purpose, and no single prize may exceed £25,000.

1. Register the society

The society — your charity, club, or non-commercial organisation — applies to its local authority. The application asks for the society's constitution or governing document, evidence of its non-commercial purpose, and details of the people running the lottery. The current statutory fees are a £40 application fee and a £20 annual renewal fee.

Allow 4–8 weeks. Plan the raffle's launch date around it; you can't sell tickets until the registration is in place.

2. Set up the lottery

Decide the prize (capped at £25,000 inside the small-society regime), ticket price, the target number of tickets, the draw date, and how proceeds are allocated. Every ticket must be sold at the same price and paid for before entry — Raffair's own floor for charity society lotteries is 50p. Publish the rules before tickets go on sale — covering eligibility, how to enter, the draw method, the prize, how the winner is notified, and what happens if the lottery is cancelled.

Use our rules template as a starting point and adapt the society-lottery clauses for your local authority. For the cost framing on the platform side see our pricing page.

3. Run the draw

The draw method must be fair and verifiable. For an online society lottery, that usually means an RNG combined with a public randomness beacon (drand) and a commit-reveal publication so anyone can re-derive the winner. See how to pick a raffle winner fairly.

4. Submit the local-authority return

Within three months of the draw, file a return with the local authority showing:

• Total ticket sales.
• Total amount paid out in prizes.
• Total amount applied to the society's purposes.
• Total expenses (printing, promotion, etc.).

Late or missed returns put your registration at risk. Keep proof of every published rule, every ticket sold, and every prize delivered.

Primary sources: Gambling Commission — Small society lotteries and your local authority's gambling-licensing pages (search "small society lottery registration" on the council's site).