The Health Lottery · good causes

Where Does Health Lottery Money Go?

Follow the money from a £1 play to the Health Lottery Foundation, see how grants are chosen, and look at real organisations, amounts and projects funded across Great Britain.

Quick answer

20p from every £1 played goes towards health-related good causes

The Health Lottery operates on behalf of The Health Lottery Foundation. The Foundation receives the good-cause share and distributes grants to voluntary and community organisations working to improve health and wellbeing across England, Scotland and Wales.

20p of every £1

Current Health Lottery terms state that 20% of the proceeds of each lottery goes towards health-related good causes. This applies across its lottery draw games and online scratchcards.

Not a direct NHS payment

The money is distributed as grants to charities, CICs and other voluntary organisations. Some funded projects work alongside the NHS, but the good-cause allocation is not simply paid into the NHS budget.

Where the money goes

How The Health Lottery currently breaks down game proceeds

The operator publishes the following overall allocation across its games. The figures are best read as the published split of lottery proceeds, not as the budget for any single grant.

20pGood causes
Retained for health-related good-cause funding through The Health Lottery Foundation.
34pPrizes
The operator says 34% across all games is spent on prizes.
46pExpenses
The published allocation is 46% for expenses; THL notes that actual expenses exceed this figure.
MLL calculation: The Health Lottery currently states average annual lottery proceeds of about £14.5 million. At a 20% good-cause allocation, that is roughly £2.9 million per year. That is a simple percentage calculation, not a claim that exactly £2.9m is paid out as grants in every calendar year.
Scale

How much has The Health Lottery raised for good causes?

There are two current official headline figures using slightly different wording and update dates. We show both rather than pretending they are identical.

£136m+The latest Health Lottery operator article says more than £136m has been raised for good causes since launch in 2011.
£134m+The Health Lottery Foundation's current About page separately says £134m+ has been donated to health-related projects.
3,500+Projects funded with the help of Health Lottery players, according to the Foundation.
769,000+People the Foundation says have been supported to live healthier lives.
Who chooses the recipients?

The Foundation assesses and awards the grants

Since 23 January 2025, The Health Lottery has operated on behalf of The Health Lottery Foundation, a trading name of The Health Lottery Donations CIC. Grant decisions sit with the Foundation and its funding process.

1Players buy entriesLottery and scratchcard play creates the good-cause fund.
220% goes to good causesThe current rules reserve 20% of lottery proceeds for health-related causes.
3Funding rounds openThe Foundation uses open, closed, voting and Community Choice rounds.
4Applications are assessedThe Foundation team reviews applications against published criteria and carries out verification checks.
5Grants are monitoredRecipients must use the money for the agreed purpose, retain records and may be visited to evidence impact.

Who is ultimately responsible?

The Foundation's team page says Chief Executive Delva Patman is ultimately responsible for how The Health Lottery is run and for the grant process. For ordinary application rounds, published guidance says applications are assessed by the Foundation team against the stated criteria.

That does not mean every award is made in exactly the same way: public voting has been used for a chronic-illness round, while Community Choice rounds invite nominations and closed rounds allow the Foundation to approach organisations directly.

Current Foundation

What has the Foundation distributed since taking over in 2025?

The present Foundation model is much newer than The Health Lottery itself, so it is useful to separate its own grant record from the £136m+ historical headline.

2025£1.5m

The Foundation's first Impact Report says it distributed £1,500,000 to 75 charities in its first year. Most grants were between £10,000 and £25,000, with four grants of £75,000.

10 Sep 2026£512,740

The second open application round awarded £512,740 to 29 organisations using arts and activities to improve adult health and wellbeing.

Other 2026 awards£451,607+

Selected separate announcements include £241,807 for St John Ambulance, £199,800 additional funding to six existing projects and £10,000 through Community Choice Norfolk. These are examples, not a full 2026 total.

Why the annual numbers do not neatly equal 20% of one year's ticket sales

The 20% figure describes the good-cause share of lottery proceeds. Grant announcements and impact reports describe money awarded or distributed in particular funding periods. They are related, but they are not the same accounting measure and should not be presented as if they must match year-for-year.

Real grants, real outcomes

Examples of where the money has gone

These are specific grants published by The Health Lottery Foundation, with a short explanation of what the recipient said the funding was for or what later project updates reported.

SJA

St John Ambulance

£241,807

A two-year grant to expand the Young Responders programme into the East Midlands. The project aims to train around 15,000 young people by December 2027 in confidence and emergency-response skills.

DCT

Dreams Come True

£75,000

Funding for community and individual dreams for children with disabilities, serious illness or life-limiting conditions. The charity said the wider grant would help reach 1,560 children; £20,200 of it funded six adapted tricycles at Foxfield School in Wirral.

FC

FoodCycle

£15,000 impact grant

The April 2025 grant supported community meals tackling food poverty and loneliness. A later update reported 4,416 meal sessions and 172,377 three-course meals served over 12 months, plus 5,272 takeaway meals. FoodCycle later also received a separate £75,000 award.

FFC

Farms for City Children

£20,000

Used to support immersive five-day farm residentials. The Foundation later reported participation by 3,396 schoolchildren and 157 young people from youth/community groups in 2025. A further £50,000 was announced in 2026.

DS

Down Syndrome Training & Support Service, Bradford

£21,513

Funding for speech and language groups from age five through adulthood, supporting communication, oral skills, independence and inclusion.

SIM

Sport in Mind

£15,000

Supported mental-health and physical-activity programmes in Hampshire delivered with NHS partners. The Foundation reported 467 people accessing 3,608 sessions, including adult, children, mum-and-baby and education provision.

BB

Beauty Banks

£75,000

The grant supported hygiene essentials through four warehouse regions. The published plan included £15,000 per region to supply around 210 partner charities for three months, plus a Christmas fund to distribute 4,000 gifts and support operating costs.

FB

Feeding Britain

£20,000

Awarded to expand holiday food and activity provision in areas of deprivation, with the Foundation saying the grant would help create around 1,900 holiday-club places.

CAST

CAST

£20,000

Funding for learning resources, peer sessions and mentoring designed to help around 50 health and social-care charities use AI more confidently and efficiently.

2026

Arts & Activity open round

£512,740 across 29 organisations

Announced 10 September 2026. Examples include £17,300 to Elisha House for arts, movement and wellbeing in addiction recovery; £4,370 to Disability Snowsport UK; and £14,773 to Tir Coed for woodland-based therapeutic activities.

How the system changed

The good-cause structure changed in January 2025

This matters when reading older articles about The Health Lottery.

2011 to January 2025

For more than a decade The Health Lottery raised money on behalf of multiple local Community Interest Companies. Good-cause funds from that structure were distributed through People's Health Trust.

Older pages may therefore name local societies, CICs or People's Health Trust rather than the current Foundation.

From 23 January 2025

The Health Lottery began operating on behalf of The Health Lottery Foundation, the trading name of The Health Lottery Donations CIC. The Foundation now allocates the good-cause funds across Great Britain.

The Donations CIC is registered in England and Wales under company number 15726796 and states Gambling Commission account number 64866. The lottery operator, Health Lottery ELM Limited, has separate Gambling Commission account number 26057.

Accountability

What happens after a grant is awarded?

The Foundation's standard terms place controls on how recipients can use and evidence the money.

Recipients must use the grant for the agreed purpose

If an organisation wants to materially change the project, cannot use the full grant, or receives duplicate funding, it must tell the Foundation. Unspent or improperly used money can have to be repaid.

Spending and outcomes can be checked

Recipients are expected to keep spending records. The Foundation's terms allow it to inspect records and visit funded organisations to see the work, evidence how money was spent and understand the difference it made.

Common questions

Health Lottery good causes FAQs

How much of every Health Lottery ticket goes to good causes?

The current published figure is 20% of lottery proceeds. On a £1 play, that is 20p. The operator also publishes an overall split of 34% for prizes and 46% for expenses.

How much has The Health Lottery raised for good causes?

The Health Lottery's latest operator article says more than £136 million has been raised since launch in 2011. The Foundation's About page separately reports £134m+ donated to health-related projects. Because the two pages use different wording and appear to update on different schedules, MLL shows both rather than merging them.

Who decides which charities receive Health Lottery money?

The Health Lottery Foundation distributes the good-cause funds. Open-round applications are assessed by its team against published criteria. It also uses closed rounds, Community Choice nomination rounds and occasional public voting. The Foundation says Chief Executive Delva Patman is ultimately responsible for the grant process.

Does Health Lottery money go to the NHS?

Not as a direct payment into the NHS budget. Grants are awarded to voluntary and community organisations. Some projects, such as Sport in Mind, work in partnership with NHS services.

Can organisations apply for Health Lottery funding?

Yes, when a relevant funding round is open. The Foundation says eligible voluntary organisations can include charities, CICs, community groups, NGOs, social enterprises and faith-based organisations, subject to the rules of each round.

Is The Health Lottery Foundation the same organisation as The Health Lottery?

No. The Health Lottery is operated by Health Lottery ELM Limited on behalf of The Health Lottery Foundation. The Foundation is the trading name of The Health Lottery Donations CIC and is responsible for distributing the good-cause funds.

If you choose to play, part of the price is reserved for good causesCurrent Health Lottery rules say 20p from every £1 of lottery proceeds goes towards health-related good causes across Great Britain. Lottery play is 18+ and should be treated as entertainment, not as a way to donate efficiently to charity.
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Research sources · checked 11 September 2026
Independent publisher: My Lottery Life is not operated by The Health Lottery or The Health Lottery Foundation. The Health Lottery name and logo are used for identification and remain the property of their respective owner. Grant amounts and impact figures above are based on published Foundation/operator information and may be updated as projects progress.