Innovative Fund Raising in Covid Times

In the midst of the current pandemic, in May this year, something unusual happened. An Italian lady won a painting by Pablo Picasso, worth one million Euros, in a raffle. The proceeds of the funds went to the Care charity. 4.2 million Euros will go towards clean water projects in Madagascar, Morocco and Cameroon. The winning ticket in the raffle was selected through a live draw at Christie’s auction house in Paris. A news report on the same can be found on the BBC website.

To cut to the chase, I am proposing something similar in India. A lottery, the proceeds of which will be utilised to directly benefit those affected by Covid.

First, a bit of history. At one time lotteries were quite popular in India but they were gradually banned by most States and today only a few allow them. The reasoning was sound – a lot of poor people were squandering their hard-earned income and savings by spending large sums on lottery tickets, which they could ill afford.

In order to avoid this, I am proposing two measures. Keep ticket prices high – Rs 5,000 per ticket. And accept payment only through credit cards. There are an estimated 30 million unique users of credit cards in this country so by restricting payment through this method, we will be limiting our reach to just 2% of the population. The first prize should be set at Rs 5 crores so as to make it worthwhile even for HNIs.

An important aspect of this lottery will be the marketing. The Picasso lottery described above had a clearly specified purpose and so should this one. There is a lot of opacity regarding money that goes into Government coffers so this should be avoided. I am proposing instead that the money be distributed among a segment that has done a lot of good work among the needy both during the pandemic and before – NGO’s.



There are thousands of NGOs in India and it will not be possible to support all of them through such an initiative. Identifying the chosen ones will be a difficult but not impossible exercise. If handled correctly, the response to the lottery from the public is likely to be quite good. This will also give a fillip to the fund-raising efforts of the NGOs which have been affected by the economic downturn.

Is there an appetite for gambling in India? The answer is a resounding “yes”. Lotteries are very popular in the 13 Indian States where they are legal. Offshore casinos in Goa draw large crowds. Active attempts are being made to move betting on horse-racing online. Plus there is a thriving illegal trade with bookies.

What could the numbers look like? If just 10% of the credit card holders were to buy one lottery ticket per month, we are talking of a revenue of Rs 18,000 crores per annum if the lottery is run monthly. This could be increased if the base of eligible Indians is gradually increased. This money, distributed among deserving NGOs, would certainly go a long way, in alleviating the plight of the underprivileged in these Covid times.

Arvind Kumar Bugga

Guest Author The author is Strategist and Co - Founder, Will Tell - The Content Marketing Specialists