In early May this year, the Polish Cystic Fibrosis Society approached us asking for help in organising a raffle. There could only be one answer. We set to work straight away, offering pro bono support to help bring this idea to life. The project is still ongoing, and this post is being updated regularly with the latest developments.<\/p>\r\n
The Polish Cystic Fibrosis Society has been supporting patients and their families for over 30 years as a public benefit organisation. Currently, more than 1,700 people benefit from its support. The Society looks after those in its care by offering them financial assistance, managing sub-accounts, implementing home rehabilitation programmes and ensuring that patients receive the necessary equipment. At the same time, the organisation works to bring about changes to the healthcare system in the interests of people with cystic fibrosis.<\/p>\r\n
Representatives of the Cystic Fibrosis Association approached us with a proposal to organise the fifth \u2018Run for Breath\u2019 event. The main aim of our collaboration is to organise a raffle, the purpose of which is to raise awareness of the issues faced by people with cystic fibrosis, as well as to raise funds for the Society\u2019s statutory activities through the organisation of the run.<\/p>\r\n
Over 1,000 people have now signed up for the event. To take part, all you need to do is run 5 km along any route and send your results to the organisers via a screenshot from a fitness app or a smartwatch that tracks time and distance.<\/p>\r\n
This article describes the individual steps involved in organising a raffle. It is being updated with further important steps so that, ultimately, a raffle checklist can be created, similar to the promotional lottery checklist which is available free of charge on our website.<\/p>\r\n
Pro bono projects require the scope of responsibility for each party and the deadlines to be defined in advance. Together with the Polish Cystic Fibrosis Society, we held a series of online meetings to establish the terms of our collaboration. We also agreed that, as i360, we would take responsibility for the formal aspects of the administrative process involved in organising the lottery and would prepare templates for letters and documentation. For its part, the Society would be responsible for providing the required documents and obtaining signatures within its remit.<\/p>\r\n
In total, the time commitment for each party has been estimated at around 10 working hours. This includes both the preparation and the final accounts for the entire raffle. However, we have decided not to include the time required to conduct the draw itself, or travel to the various offices.<\/p>\r\n
During our virtual meetings with the Cystic Fibrosis Society, we also made the Association aware of its responsibilities regarding the running of the lottery. We must remember that organising such a lottery entails a number of obligations resting with the board members who run the games of chance.<\/p>\r\n
Under the law, a raffle is a game in which one may participate on the basis of proof of entry, which may take the form of the purchase of a ticket. The organiser, in turn, offers prizes in kind to the winners. The full text of this definition can be found in Article 2(1)(9) of the Gambling Act of 19 November 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 847).<\/p>\r\n
When organising a lottery for the Polish Cystic Fibrosis Society, we faced the problem of participants purchasing tickets. As the entire registration process and the delivery of results take place online, it is not possible to make physical contact with participants to hand over the required ticket, let alone in paper form. However, we did not wish to run a separate process for selling tickets, due to the low effectiveness of such a solution and the significant burden it would place on participants.<\/p>\r\n
In order to organise a raffle, the organiser may rely on either a licence or a notification; these constitute two separate procedural pathways and are subject to different requirements and restrictions. In the case of the raffle in question, we have decided to organise it on the basis of a notification, as provided for in Article 7(1)(1b) of the Gambling Act. For this reason, the raffle should commence at least 30 days after the notification has been made, provided that the prize pool is higher than the base amount but does not exceed fifteen times that amount. This arrangement was possible due to the Association\u2019s public benefit status. For the same reason, i360 did not, exceptionally, act as the organiser.<\/p>\r\n
Another challenge was the requirement to submit entries within 30 days of the start of the lottery. It is worth noting here that participants were able to submit their entries from the following week onwards, which made it impossible to meet this condition. It was not possible to link the start of the prize draw to the date on which tickets for the race went on sale. Ultimately, we came up with a concept whereby the issuing of tickets would coincide with participants submitting their results, which was scheduled for 16 August to 5 September 2020.<\/p>\r\n
The raffle rules therefore stipulate that each participant is allocated a ticket when they submit their result via the event website: www.bieg.oddychaj.pl. Each ticket assigned has a unique number, determining the order in which the entry was submitted. In this way, the first person to submit their result will receive ticket number 1, the next person ticket number 2, and so on until the final entry. This approach has allowed us to gain the extra time needed to organise the raffle based on the entries received.<\/p>\r\n
Organising a raffle involves providing the necessary information and documents that must be submitted alongside the application. The scope of these is set out in the Gambling Act. Below we present the necessary documentation, which has been drawn up in collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Society.<\/p>\r\n
To register a raffle, you will need to provide the following information:<\/p>\r\n
List of documents required for the application<\/p>\r\n
The following attachments must also be submitted alongside the application to organise a raffle:<\/p>\r\n
We have also agreed with the Cystic Fibrosis Society that we will provide additional documents should such a request be made. To this end, we submitted the following documents along with our application:<\/p>\r\n
As one might imagine, compiling these documents was no easy task, especially given the large number of members on the Association\u2019s management board. Furthermore, the requirement to provide the personal details of all members gave rise to considerable controversy amongst them.<\/p>\r\n
Interestingly, when we submitted a request to the relevant tax office for a certificate of no criminal record, our request was refused. This was most likely because the officials had no experience of dealing with such a request. Ultimately, the certificate was obtained following a formal written request. In addition, we also provided a copy of such a document as a template, which had previously been issued in another case for i360.<\/p>\r\n
It is also worth noting the required content of the rules for a raffle, which differ from those for promotional or audiotext lotteries. In this case, it is mandatory to attach a draft of the purpose and to specify the purpose for which the proceeds from the lottery are intended, as well as to indicate the percentage ratio between the revenue from ticket sales and the value of the prize fund.<\/p>\r\n
In the application, we therefore stated that the tickets are exclusively electronic and that we do not intend to produce paper tickets. We specified the purpose as charitable, namely to provide comprehensive support to people with cystic fibrosis and their families, which is, in any case, the statutory aim of the Cystic Fibrosis Association. The total value of the prizes amounts to 75,17% of the sum allocated for the sale of tickets.<\/p>\r\n
Once all the necessary documents and attachments had been submitted, we, together with the Association, turned our attention to the documents relating to the fulfilment of the obligations set out in the Gambling Act and its implementing regulations. The number of letters that need to be sent to three different authorities can come as quite a surprise. It certainly was for the Cystic Fibrosis Society, which was required to submit them.<\/p>\r\n
The mandatory documents relating to the conduct of the lottery include the following records:<\/p>\r\n
In addition, an application must be prepared to obtain certificates confirming the winnings from the Head of the First Tax Office, Warsaw \u015ar\u00f3dmie\u015bcie. These documents must be submitted to the relevant authorities. Records of the tax bases and records of the calculation of gambling tax must be made available to the Head of the Ma\u0142opolska Customs and Tax Office in Krak\u00f3w, as well as to the Krak\u00f3w Branch Office, for the purpose of their registration and affixing of official seals. Of course, the jurisdiction of these authorities specifically concerned the Polish Cystic Fibrosis Society.<\/p>\r\n
In turn, records of winnings paid out (disbursed), amounting to at least 2,280 zlotys, as well as records of certificates confirming winnings, must be submitted to the Head of the Krak\u00f3w Nowa Huta Tax Office and the Excise and Gaming Tax Department for the purpose of certifying the documents by registering them, as well as affixing an official seal to the binding.<\/p>\r\n
The number of responsibilities resting on the shoulders of the organiser of a charity raffle is therefore considerable. It is no wonder that this came as a surprise to the staff of the Polish Cystic Fibrosis Society. At present, we have managed to prepare and send the above documents. This article will be updated as soon as the next steps have been taken following a response from the authorities.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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