What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “National Lotteries Board”? What exactly is the NLB and what does it do? Flow PR has been working hard in the background together with the NLB to ensure people understand what the organisation does.
“Our biggest job has been making it clear in people’s minds that the NLB is the regulator of the National Lottery and other lotteries. This means that the NLB does not operate any of the lotteries. The NLB uses a portion of the money made from ticket sales to fund non-profit organisations that socially uplift the country,” says Flow PR CEO Shoni Makhari.
The NLB has a pool of about R2-billion annually to distribute to eligible charities, yet receives requests for funding in excess of R70-billion annually. Currently only non-profit organisations, charities, sporting bodies, and arts and culture organisations are funded and the NLB has discovered, following a thorough nationwide fact-finding mission, that “one of the challenges facing the majority of organisations in accessing grants is because of administrative issues on the applicants’ part”, adds Shoni.
This is the reason why the NLB undertook a national campaign that involved roadshows in all nine provinces from October to December last year, targeting mainly charities in rural and peri-urban areas to educate them about the application process and criteria for funding.
“The roadshows were extremely important because now more needy and worthy charities have the necessary information, and consequently stand a better chance of qualifying for NLB grants,” continues Shoni.
“People need to understand that there will always be a disparity between the funds available and the amount of money people need. The NLB is always under attack because people feel it hasn’t given enough money to everyone,” says Jerry Ramodike, MD of Tsalena Media, with which Flow PR is in a joint venture to represent the NLB.
The NLB gave over R11-billion to non-profit organisations in its first decade of existence.
“Our job as Flow PR has also been to communicate that, so that the NLB has a better relationship with its stakeholders,” concludes Shoni.