We are a fundraising lottery, raising funds for local causes

We run a weekly lottery draw, where you can play to raise funds for the cause of your choice. It’s easy, and it’s fun!

It costs just £1 per play and you can play regularly or whenever you want.

Our aim is to provide our partners with a regular, reliable income from the lottery, give them the chance to make a difference, and make smiles!

We are run by St Helena Hospice in Essex, and we only exist to support good causes. Therefore, all the profits of our lottery go back into the charity sector, and to where the money is needed the most. St Helena receives a small income towards hospice care from each lottery play for administering the lottery.

Together, we can make a huge difference

Lotteries can be expensive to run, and therefore by working together in this way, it means that we can combine resources and more money can go back to good causes.

We have been running and administering lotteries for over 20 years and have run the successful Your Hospice Lottery since 2011. Seeing that we could use our lottery model to help other good causes too, we launched make a smile lottery in 2017, with our first partner Wessex Heartbeat. Since then, we have grown to support many causes and we want to help even more!

We have currently raised over £18 million for good causes from the lottery. In 2018, make a smile lottery won a National Fundraising Award in the category of ‘Most Innovative Fundraising Campaign’.

How To Play Our Lottery

It costs £1 per game and you choose which cause you want to support. There are lots of different options to play:

  • Set up a subscription to play and pay by Direct Debit. With this option you will be given a unique 6 digit number. By setting up a regular Direct Debit with us, you will be giving your chosen cause a regular and reliable income.

  • Pay by card for a set period of weeks in the draw, select how many entries you would like to play per week. With this option you will be given a different unique number each week. Please click Standard tab for this.

  • Play whenever you want to, with our single ticket facility, purchase up to 100 tickets per draw. Please click Standard tab for this.

Please note, your play numbers will be sent to you on completion of payment.

We allocate you a unique lottery play number for each draw you have paid to enter.

All of this can be done online, or if you would prefer to speak to somebody then please do call our team 0300 303 4500

Prizes

1 x £1000 1 x £250 140 x £10 Plus a rollover jackpot of £500 that if not won each week rolls over to a maximum of £25,000

How To Win

The make a smile draw usually takes place on Friday, automatically by our system which has been independently tested, using a variety of industry-standard statistical tests carried out by a Gambling Commission approved test house.

Entries will close every Friday (with exception when this is a Bank Holiday, when it will take place the working day prior). Tickets must be purchased before the draw takes place for guaranteed entry into the weekly draw. Please check the countdown on the website for specific cut off. If you purchase after this time, you will be entered into the following draw.

When you join, we will allocate you with a lottery play number. Our draws are randomly drawn each Friday (with exception when this is a Bank Holiday, when it will take place the working day prior). You don’t need to check the results every week, although you can if you want to. If you win, we will contact you to let you know. If we have your email, your prize winnings will automatically go into your make a smile account; where you can then request a withdrawal, after which monies are then transferred into your bank account, or if you don’t have an email with us, a letter and cheque will be sent via post (please make sure that we have your up to date address).

For more information visit our Terms and Conditions here. Over 18’s only, please gamble responsibly.

Where Does the Money Go?

From your first draw with us, you will be making a difference to the cause that you have chosen to support. In the last financial year (April 2022 - March 2023):

  • Lottery Income that went towards charitable causes = £573,922.20 (38.9%)
  • Lottery income that went on expenses = £741,499.80 (50.3%)
  • Lottery income that went on prizes = £132,500 (10.8%)

Chances Of Winning

In the last financial year (April 22 – March 23) there were an average 27,819 weekly plays across our charity partners, with 6,734 prizes being given away over the year.

Any prize = 1 in 204 tickets entered into the draw will win a prize.

These figures are estimated using current plays and figures and can vary slightly from each week. These are an approximate and can be updated at any time.

Play make a smile lottery today!


Can you help us make a smile today?

Support our incredible causes and have the chance to win up to £25,000

make a smile lottery

make a smile lottery - 5 Thousand

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