Not Your Grandma's Bingo: How Charity Gaming Can Fuel Nonprofit Fundraising

Nonprofit Hub Radio sits down with Meggie Nauman and Rob Northrop, both from Lancaster Bingo Company, to explore why charity gaming can be a repeatable fundraising program rather than a once-a-year event. The conversation breaks down who bingo works best for, how to navigate licensing and compliance, and what it takes to make game night entertaining enough that players keep coming back and bring friends.

Meggie Nauman is the Director of Marketing and Customer Service at Lancaster Bingo Company, where she has spent eight years helping charitable organizations connect with sales support to build successful bingo and pull tab fundraising programs. Rob Northrop is the General Manager at Lancaster Bingo Company, where he focuses on helping nonprofits, veterans groups, and fraternal organizations fundraise more efficiently and grow their community impact through charity gaming.

Transcript

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Speaker 2 0:00

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Welcome And Guest Introductions

Speaker 2 0:19

Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer. Joined this week by two guests. We've got Meggie Newman and Rob Northrop, both from Lancaster Bingo Company. I'm so excited. This is, I think, not a topic we've ever addressed on the podcast. So I'm excited to dig in and get kind of their perspective on maybe a different avenue of fundraising than people have maybe thought about before. So excited to have them join me. Meggie is the director of marketing and customer service, and Rob is the general manager there. So excited to have both of their wisdom and experience on the podcast today. Guys, welcome in.

Speaker 0:53

Thanks for having us.

Speaker 2 0:55

Yeah. So as we get started, Meggie, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background that kind of brought us to the conversation today? And then Rob will have you introduce yourself after that as well.

Speaker 1:05

Sure. I manage the marketing and customer service departments at Lancaster Bingo. So spend a lot of time doing some customer outreach and helping our customers connect with our sales reps who are really the guiding force in helping these charities fundraise through Bingo, pull tabs, all sorts of charity gaming. And I've been doing it for eight years now. And yeah, it's been great. It's a really fun, fulfilling job.

Speaker 1 1:33

That's awesome. And Rob, how about you? Thanks. So I've been uh with Lancaster Bingo for over five years now. And uh in my role as general manager, I'm really focused on how do we best help the organizations that we work with, with charities and veterans and fraternal organizations to really fundraise successfully and to grow their fundraising. Uh so much of the really noble and community impacting work that these organizations do uh require money and require more and more money as things go on. So really to help them to better fundraise, more efficiently fundraise, uh so they can continue to do the great work that they do.

Speaker 2 2:18

Excellent. I love that. Okay, so to that end, Rob, we're gonna start with you on this one. I

Who Charity Gaming Fits Best

Speaker 2 2:23

think that in general, right, everybody has these grand fundraising goals that they're trying to meet. Because to your point, it does take a lot to run these organizations. And I know when we talk about doing maybe events and galas and all that, the cost can become prohibitive for trying to do events like that. But I think a lot of organizations tend to miss the opportunity that charity gaming could be for them. So talk to us a little bit about where you've seen it work best, right? Because there's obviously some organizations that maybe it's not a good fit or it's we're not gonna make millions of dollars necessarily to do, you know, life-changing mission work in Africa or something. But where are the organizations where you've seen this really work well? Like who should be considering it, I guess is my question.

Speaker 1 3:15

Yeah, so absolutely. So let's talk about a few different opportunities. So let's let's talk about bingo first. Uh so first of all, bingo is legal in 48 states. So if you're in those 48 states, I definitely think that you should be considering it. It is one of the most uh efficient ways to raise money, which is to host a weekly or multiple times a week bingo. And you know, just as an example, one of uh the bingos that we work with in California, last week they grossed over $370,000 in one night. Now that's before paying out in the prizes. Uh, but people are often surprised about the fundraising power of bingo. Now, Megan, to answer your your the second part of your question is, you know, what does an organization look like that can do bingo? And it's often one, you know, to do a successful bingo, you typically need about 10 to 15 volunteers, depending on the crowd size. So organizations that can you know bring in those volunteers on a regular basis are great candidates. And you know, the volunteers have fun. It's a great way for the volunteers to connect with the organization. Uh, and again, just the fundraising power of bingo, we think outweighs you know some of the other traditional fundraising measures, whether they have you know big galas or do letter writing campaigns or solicit donations, you know, it's a great way to effectively raise money and provide entertainment for people in the community. Now, some other options in certain states for veterans and fraternal groups, uh they could do bingo. They can also play what are called pull tabs, uh, which are self-contained lotteries in their facilities. And in 13 states, uh, they can play electronic pull tabs, which is just an electronic version of a traditional paper pull tab ticket. And those can also dramatically contribute to their fundraising.

Speaker 2 5:09

So good. So, okay,

Bingo As Community Builder

Speaker 2 5:11

so to that end, I like the point that Rob brought up, Meggie, and I'd love to hear you kind of elaborate on that. Is this idea that it does really build community? Because I think sometimes the pushback for events like this is we want to really be able to, you know, we want to focus on fundraising that connects people to the message, right? But this is an opportunity for folks to to get to know your people and really build that community. And so talk to us a little bit about that community building aspect of how it gets people engaged.

Speaker 5:42

Absolutely. I mean, bingo is I that's what we see over and over again visiting bingos and visiting uh the people that run these bingos is that they're so highly connected to their community and people show up for them. They're excited. Sometimes they're in rural communities, and these communities, this is the primary format of entertainment. It's highly valued, and they know that the money's going directly back into their community for these causes. People within these bingos are supporting each other, they're celebrating each other's birthdays and anniversaries. Um they are just really excited to come out and and support a cause and bring in it's a game, but it's also, I think it means a lot more to people than just a game.

Speaker 2 6:27

That's great. So I'm

Licensing And The Role Of Regulation

Speaker 2 6:29

curious, and Meggie, I'm gonna stick to you for a second. I'm curious where you guys or when it comes to bringing this kind of environment when we're we're helping people host bingos or doing some of the other charitable gaming pieces. I think where people get stuck is like, oh, I don't know what the rules are. I don't know what what licensing I have to have. I don't know what my state requires. I don't and so they tend to shy away from it because it's a lot of trying to figure out. So talk to us about that piece that you help like how do you help your clients figure out and navigate what they need to be able to do this?

Speaker 7:07

Absolutely. No one likes paperwork, but we are able to help people direct them to their government agencies. So it really is on a state to state basis different, um, what's required. But generally they will need a license and it's just some simple forms that they need to fill out to apply for the license. Usually there's a fee, but then the funds that they raise offset that fee throughout the year. Yeah, and it's really that simple. It's there's some requirements with reporting at the end of the year and things like that, but the licensing is the first step to getting started in charitable gaming.

Speaker 1 7:44

Okay, so oh yeah, I could just add, I think it's important that, you know, on one hand, people might be intimidated by the fact that bingo is regulated. Sure. Bingo is regulated, and that provides a tremendous benefit because it really brings integrity to bingo, both for the organizations that are hosting the bingos, uh, but also for the players that are participating to know that you know they're playing a game with integrity, that they're that the money raised actually is going to charitable causes. And you know, I think that's an important piece. Uh often, too, the states uh and the jurisdictions do a great job of educating the charities on how to effectively do bingo. They'll do bingo schools, they'll also be able to help provide some you know guidance and input in filling out their application. And, you know, it's one of those things that, yeah, it seems intimidating at first, but like once you do it, the first time you're like, oh, that that wasn't that bad. And now, you know, I have all this opportunity because I'm able to do it.

Speaker 2 8:42

Interesting. Okay, Rob, I want to ask a question as a follow-up to something that you had said originally too about um doing these things regularly,

How Often To Run Bingo

Speaker 2 8:52

right? Because I think when we think of fundraising events, typically, again, we're talking about gala's golf outings, things that are super labor-intensive, super high cost to produce, and so they are once a year kind of events. But I think I heard you say that this is like weekly or sometimes more than weekly that you see these events running. Is there a point of diminishing returns, right? Like we're like now we're doing it too much and we're shooting ourselves in the foot? Or what's the what's the best recommendation in terms of how often we should or could be doing these kind of things?

Speaker 1 9:26

So it it's a great question. What and look, we work with customers across the gamut and charity organizations across the gamut. Some do you know a bingo once a year, you know, some will do it uh, you know, seven times a week, often like three times a day. Uh what we find is that more often it's better. The once you sort of get the bingo machine going and you have your volunteers lined up and you know what to do, it's the sort of effort to put on multiple bingos isn't much more than the effort to put on the first one. Uh so it's a great way to the effectiveness of doing it more often uh is significant. Now, often where organizations uh it's like, look, I can sort of gear up and get volunteers excited to do you know the once-a-year golf outing or the once-a-year festival, but like getting this someone to be willing to volunteer every week, that's tough. So often what we see organizations will do is they'll either work together, multiple organizations will sort of work together on it. Or, you know, as an example, we work with a lot of athletic booster organizations that help fund sports uniforms, you know, sports-related expenses in their communities. And you know, what they'll do is they'll often say, okay, the volleyball team, you know, is doing the first week of the month with the parents or the team members, and then you know, the next week of the month is done by the wrestling team and then the football team. So they sort of divide up the responsibilities. But from a fundraising perspective, having a regular bingo where the players know you're doing it, they get used to coming, they get excited to come, uh, having that regularity does make a difference, and it does make that fundraising that much more effective.

Speaker 11:06

And it makes it a stronger community as well. I think the more regularly people see each other and interact and are reminded of the cause, the better.

Speaker 2 11:15

Yeah.

What Makes A Great Bingo Night

Speaker 2 11:17

And I'm curious when you so I'm sure you guys have obviously visited your clients that are doing these, right? Like you've watched the bingos happen or maybe participated in them yourself. What makes, and Meggie, I'd love you to answer first, but I would and then Rob, because I want both people's opinions. What to you makes a great bingo event as opposed to just like here we are playing bingo? Right? Where are the what are the things that whether it's like elements of we have concessions or there's people who are talking about the organization or what different kind of tie-ins that happen, what to you makes a good event versus one that's like eh?

Speaker 11:57

Concessions definitely help, but I think everybody likes a snack. But I think that the thing that makes a great bingo event is passion, first and foremost. Someone that's excited about it, and you know, I think that the crowd can feed off of that excitement oftentimes. Additionally, I think a theme is always fun. We see some our customers have some really great themes last year where there was a glow music bingo where they hired a DJ and passed out like fun glow-in-the-dark like trinkets and headbands and stuff, and then people did uh like a black light bingo. It was really fun, it brought in a really fun, like energetic crowd, and people, I think it just added novelty. I mean, really, novelty is what drives a great bingo and cycling through that novelty so it's not the same every time, like you were saying, just go and show up. And I think that is really what drives a great bingo event. So that's one example. But then we've had people give away great vacation prizes. So a variety of prizes makes a great bingo event. So they're getting something different every time. A variety of games makes an incredible bingo. So um, whether that's patterns or the pull tabs that they play along with bingo, keeping that exciting and um maybe tying everything together into that theme that they're working with, all of those things make it fun and exciting and bring in a different crowd and maybe expose different people to the cause that they're um fundraising for. So different people will show up for a glow music bingo, then we'll show up for I don't, we have people that do like drag bingos or people that do like more patriotic like celebration of the veterans in their community. Those are all very different crowds. So you could, I think a successful bingo kind of cycles through those themes and those additionally the prizes, people are always always excited to win, really, right? That's the goal. So making sure that they have a variety of prizes that they're promoting as well. And promoting on social media is really important with any of these events. Um, getting flyers out in your community is also helpful, putting ads out in there's like bingo publications. Um, in Ohio, there's the bingo bugle, there's something called bingo books, and there's different bingo bugles in different states, and bingo players look for those. So if they're looking for a bingo to go to, they can look in these publications and maybe find a bingo that supports a cause that they're excited about that maybe they've known about before.

Speaker 2 14:33

That's great. Rob, what makes agreement for you?

Speaker 1 14:36

So I think that it's fun, right? And I think that charities that are really good at putting on bingo sort of recognize that they need to make it fun. And as Meggie said, fun requires often innovation and variety. There's a ton of innovation happening now in the bingo space. Everything from the actual games that are being played at the bingo to all these themes where people come dressed up and people love to dress up to, you know, one month there's an Elvis impersonator there, you know, entertaining the next month. Rather than you know, winning money as the prizes, people are winning designer purses to, you know, the month after that. It's you know all about food and and and you know, celebrating uh veterans in the community, just by keeping it sort of interesting. Uh, it keeps the players really engaged. And as Maggie mentioned, encourages people to bring their friends and you know, they show up once, they have a great time, and they come back. Uh, and a lot of the charities have really sort of caught on and kind of recognize that you know they're they're a source of entertainment for their community too. And if they do a great job of that, uh it's gonna help their fundraising even more.

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Speaker 2 15:55

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Connecting Players To The Mission

Speaker 2 16:39

I have spent a lot of my career in fundraising, right? But in, I would say, like more the traditional uh events, direct mail, digital fundraising, like digital acquisition. And so much of what we talk about is telling a good story to help connect people to the mission, right? We want to we want people to care about our cause. So I'm curious how that happens or how you see it work best, right? Is it uh do you see it work well when people maybe get up at the bingo or at the event to talk about the cause? Or there is it better to just have some sort of like, here, give us your email address so we can follow up with you. How do we how do you take like, how do you build that bridge, I guess, from here's somebody who really just likes playing bingo and wants to wants to come to an event and have a good time versus I want them to feel connected to the cause and the mission of the organization. How do we help them bridge that?

Speaker 1 17:40

So I would say different different charities do it differently. And often what we find with the charities that we work with is obviously there's there's a ton of passion around their cause. So some will do it more subtly. Like what we work with a lot of organizations that adopt and shelter and find homes for animals. And you know, sometimes it's just as subtle as they have uh the pictures of the animals that they've adopted that month lining the bingo halls. You know, some that are focused on making it life for veterans, they'll invite veterans to come play at the bingo for free and wear you know something that denotes them as a veteran. So I would say different charities uh do it differently. And you know, we find it's it's sort of important for them to be the lead on that to kind of make it personal to them. And you know, and on the other end of the spectrum, some will some will separate you know their fundraising activity in terms of charity gaming from their cause work, but the the ones that uh are you know super passionate about it will try and marry them both together.

Speaker 2 18:45

Yeah.

Speaker 18:45

Maggie, what are your thoughts there? Uh I yeah, I completely agree. I also think that regular connection, face-to-face connection with people also helps drive that um connection to the cause. Like the people, like the volunteers that are coming to the bingo, the person running the bingo that's connected to the charity is usually quite passionate. They're usually very excited to be fundraising for their cause and they're out there talking about it. So it's just another reason for a face-to-face interaction with people to talk to them about the cause. I think that really helps reinforce ever every all the other things that Rob mentioned.

Speaker 2 19:22

Yeah, that's interesting.

Not Your Grandma’s Bingo Innovation

Speaker 2 19:24

I think, and Rob, I'm curious your thoughts here, because you mentioned innovation, and I admit I'm probably wrong, right? When I think about like a charity bingo game or something like that, I picture because I used to go with I'm I'm from Pittsburgh. It is a highly Catholic city, and so we do have all of the church festivals and all of the things. And I used to go with my grandma to church bingo. I assume that what's happening now is different than what happened 40, 30, 40 years ago when I not 40, 30 years ago when I would go with my grandparents.

Speaker 1 20:02

So when you went when you were two.

Speaker 2 20:04

Yeah, right. But I'm curious, what is it, how has that evolution happened? What do you or where do you see it headed that's different than what people might picture from you know back in the day?

Speaker 1 20:18

Yeah. So and we actually use the phrase, it is not your grandma's bingo. Uh there you go. For exactly that reason. And you know, we're we're seeing innovation on on a number of dimensions. So the the first is just the places where uh bingo's being played, like it's moving from kind of in the church basement in now, it's sort of everywhere. Sometimes it's in traditional bars, sometimes it's in like a traditional hall, but really everywhere. The second are what actually happens at the programs themselves. Like there's again, there's a ton of lean-in into this is entertainment. And to make it successful, we have to make it entertaining. So it's like, how do you go beyond just daubing numbers on a paper? Whether it's, you know, you have themes or you have literal entertainment acts that show up at the bingo just to kind of make it more fun and make it more interesting and engaging. The third is around the types of prizes. So people really get excited about different types of prizes. As I mentioned, like one of the most popular bingos that happen right now is bingos for designer purses, right? And everyone gets a ton of engagement and attracts, frankly, a different player, you know, to be able to win designer coach purse or designer Michael Kors purse at the bingo. Uh, you know, it's just it's just makes it fun and entertaining. And then the final piece is the different products that are being that are being played there. We work a lot with our charities to come up with innovative products that are bingo like, but you know, they're frankly easier than traditional bingo. You don't have to do all these complicated patterns. It's it's less intimidating. For a new person to learn that you can see on screens what's happening. So, you know, it feels like when you may have gone with your grandmother, you might have been in sort of deep fear of like, oh my God, the last thing I want to do is call bingo when I don't have it and do I really have it. Whereas here we've just worked with our charity organizations to make a ton of innovation on the products, to make the products really easy, really engaging, make it really clear what's going on. Uh, and that's sort of drawn more people in just because it becomes like a very comfortable experience versus one that you know people could find intimidating.

Speaker 2 22:34

Yeah, that's great.

How To Get Started With Lancaster

Speaker 2 22:36

Okay, so given all of this, and now that we understand the whole concept a little better, Maggie, if someone was like, Yeah, I this is interesting to me, I would like to consider it for my organization. How can they learn more about Lancaster Bingo and kind of what you guys can help do and provide for that?

Speaker 22:53

So they can check out our website, LancasterBingo.com, or they can call into our incredible customer service department. And depending on where they're located, they can direct them to a sales rep that specializes in their area. We have customer or we have sales reps all over the states where we operate. And our customer service number is 1-800-866-5001. Um, and reach out to them and they can get them directed to the right person to help them get started.

Speaker 2 23:24

That's great. Okay, so really appreciate this insight because it I do think a lot of people have that image in their head that we hopefully have now destroyed and put them back on the right track. We're almost out of time, but as we wrap up, the question of the season this year, uh, as we've here on the podcast, we've dubbed 2026 as the year of learning. So I'm curious what books you would each put on a to-read list that you would recommend everybody check out, maybe one that's really impacted you as a person or one that you really enjoyed. Uh Meggie, let's start with you. What's on your everybody should read this book list?

Book Picks And Closing

Speaker 23:59

My favorite book right now is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsalber. Yes. Really incredible book. Have you read it? Yes, so good. So good. Really lovely glimpse into well, it's has a lovely ending, I guess, but glimpse into Appalachia in just a really interesting perspective. I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 24:19

Yeah, that's a good one. Rob, how about you?

Speaker 1 24:22

Well, first I'll plug a magazine article, and that's the uh article published in Vogue about how bingo is coming back. It was published in December. But uh secondly, I recently read The Thinking Machine by uh Stephen Witt, and it's about the evolution of NVIDIA and their chip product that has really uh enabled a lot of the AI revolution. And I really found it to be both a great story, but also just about the power of you know bringing innovation and outside the box thinking to you know, sort of a very kind of traditional industry. And, you know, I think that there's a lot of parallels with charity fundraising, that you know, there's a lot of opportunity out there for charities to accelerate the great work that they're doing by growing their fundraising. And you know, that's why I particularly uh enjoyed that book, even though it was about AI, I just saw a ton of parallels to the industry that we love to work in.

Speaker 2 25:18

That's great. I love it. Thank you both. I appreciate those recommendations. Guys, thanks for joining me. I really I think this is a look at something that a lot of folks have kind of maybe not thought about. So I appreciate your insight and your wisdom. Uh, thank you both for being here today. Thank you.

Speaker 1 25:33

Thank you.

Speaker 2 25:33

Absolutely. Guys, this has been another episode of the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Spear, and we'll see you next time.