Where Most Needed

Chariot, the operators of the new UK charity lottery, had expected demand of 500 hits per second.  What they got was peaks of 10,000 hits per second and steady level of 4,000 throughout the day (according to ZD Net UK).  The site slowed to the extent that the drawing was delayed four hours until midnight, and so many people were locked out that the five featured charities each received £30,000 rather than an anticipated £120,000—still a good take in "free" money.

For more background on the new UK charity lottery: "New UK Lottery Features Choice of Charity to Benefit."

There's been more push back on the premise of the new lottery, which benefits a pool of 70 name-brand charities rather than the diverse array of groups and causes that can apply for National Lottery proceeds.  Monday requires groups to have income of £500,000 or more. 

The National Lottery yields 5.6% to UK registered charities, but an additional 23% goes to "good causes" which include community groups, culture, heritage, and sports, many of which would be considered 501(c)(3) groups were they in the US.  But the discretion in these "good cause" grants has caused discontent, for instance when a grant went to the Manchester United football club for staff health & fitness training (roughly equivalent to giving a charity grant to an NFL team). 

Small groups are unhappy not only with being frozen out of the proceeds: they also complain that the impression given by the advertising campaign for monday is that their causes aren't legitimate.