Twotto, Twitter lotto, aims to raise thousands for charity

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Twotto, Twitter lotto, aims to raise thousands for charity 8

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 6 Oct 2011

A Twitter-based lottery, launched this week, is hoping to attract 100,000 users to a weekly online draw which aims to give money to both Twitter followers and British charities.

National Twotto will need to attract 100,000 Twitter followers before it starts to give away a weekly prize draw, based on a fixed percentage of how many people follow the lottery.

It will give away an amount equivalent to 2 per cent per cent of the followers, so at 100,000 followers £2,000 will be given away. The first prize of £1,000 cash will be given directly to a randomly-selected Twitter follower, and a second prize of £1,000 will be awarded to the person who recruited the most other Twitter followers, to be donated to a charity of their choice.

At present Twotto is far from reaching its 100,000 follower goal, with fewer than 300 followers. Jono Casley, founder of Twotto, said that there is no timeline for reaching the 100,000 target – or indeed the one million followers the Twotto website lists as an aim – but he told civilsociety.co.uk that “hopefully it will go viral”.

The prize draw will be funded by advertisers, who will be allowed to tweet the Twotto followers up to five times a day. There are no sponsors on board yet, but Casley said he has a number of companies in mind to approach once the number of followers gets closer to the 100,000 figure, when there will be a commodity to pitch to them.

Interested in how Twitter can help raise money? Check out our line-up for the Fundraising Mobile and Digital Conference 2011. Amanda Rose, founder of Twestival, will talk about her experiences and what charities keep doing wrong online.

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Jono Casley
Founder
Twotto
7 Oct 2011

@Colin All of your lotteries you mentioned there, you have to pay for. Twotto is free, so not too sure why you think the British Public don't need it? You follow on twitter, and that it...I would love to hear your feedback especially on what you would call a Twitter based Lottery.

@Daniel Thank you for your analysis of the experiment. Just for the record - we are not looking for a government grants or any funding - other than that of a sponsor. The business model should allow this scheme to perpetuate itself. If it doesn't spread through Twitter then it just won't work, and it won't go ahead.

Just want to say a big thank you to civil society for publishing the article, and for all the feedback received so far. The concept has been generally well received and have had positive conversations on twitter, bar the name :) But if you can't see past a name - to see what I am trying to achieve with all this then its a real shame.

[Reply]

Michael Hodgson
Cause4Effect
7 Oct 2011

It's an interesting concept, and I think it could well work.

2 key areas that might prevent it:

1. Trust - it may be standard application info - and they may plan not to use anything but follow@nationaltwotto, but will people trust them not to do more?

2. Buzz - it needs a big launch to grow quickly, if it doesn't, then it may never reach the goal. I hope there's a lot more buzz generating coming soon, but we shall see.

Overall, I quite like the idea, let's se what happens.

[Reply]

Daniel
7 Oct 2011

Great concept, but...

"Jono Casley, founder of Twotto, said that there is no timeline for reaching the 100,000 target – or indeed the one million followers the Twotto website lists as an aim – but he told civilsociety.co.uk that “hopefully it will go viral”."

You have to admire his honesty, but please, is that any sort of business plan?

My big fear is that this is exactly the sort of flimsy, muddled idea that the government will happily pump silly money into from the giving innovation fund, only for it to never happen because it never 'goes viral'.

[Reply]

Jono Casley
Founder
Twotto
7 Oct 2011

@Barry Free lotteries do not require a gambling license.

[Reply]

Colin Stewart
7 Oct 2011

We've got The National Lottery, Euromillions, The Spanish Lottery, Irish Lottery, Peoples Postcode Lottery, The newly launched Health Lottery, thousands of small local lotteries i.e. Hospice lotteries and now Twotto!!! At this moment in time do the British public need another Lottery? I don't think so - plus I couldn't bring myself to play a game with a stupid name like Twotto!!

[Reply]

Barry
7 Oct 2011

So he is licensed to run a lottery in the UK then..? Ooops.

[Reply]

Jono Casley
Founder
National Twotto
6 Oct 2011

@SimonRydings That is STANDARD for the twitter api, if you READ the rules you will notice what the api is used for, and that is ONLY used to follow @NationalTwotto

[Reply]

Simon Rydings
Managing Director
Rogavi
6 Oct 2011

"Authorize NationalTwotto to use your account?

This application will be able to:

Read Tweets from your timeline.
See who you follow, and follow new people.
Update your profile.
Post Tweets for you."

No thanks.

[Reply]

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