"Luggage Lotto" - Raising Money For Red Cross During Disasters

Submitted 6 years ago

Upon returning from a very rewarding Hurricane Harvey Deployment to the Dallas Megashelter, when I had returned to the Appleton International Airport, I was awaiting my luggage at the carousel.

I noticed people jostling for position as though they knew their luggage was going to be there FIRST!

Immediately, I thought, wow! A new way for Red Cross and other charities to raise money! I mentioned my idea to two young women waiting for their luggage, and they laughed but thought it was a great idea, and that they would probably play, especially during times of a national or international disaster.

In a nutshell-
At time of checking luggage or paying for checked baggage- a) People pay an extra $5.00 for chance to play "Luggage Lotto"
b) They then select charity to receive winnings of luggage lotto- MINUS the 25% they get to take home with them as an incentive to play luggage lotto
c) Winners need to present their bar coded (not sure if there would need to be an extra barcoded tear off tab
d) ATM type machine would issue a check or debit card or if credit card was used to pay for luggage check, a payment of 25% of the winnings would be credited to their debit or credit cards or perhaps a voucher to use the next time they fly for free checked luggage

Doing the MATH-

On a typical 737, a popular aircraft, there are approximately 154 passengers. Of those 28%, according to StatisticBrain, check a luggage piece and have a carry-on. Out of 154 passengers, approximately 43 people on that flight will be waiting in the luggage return carousel area. Let's assume 25% play "luggage lotto" initially, (until charities and airlines start promoting this as good public messaging when we would expect this # of players to go up); that is nearly 11 people or $55. That is $41 raised per flight. If the airlines and or airports could do a match to those numbers, obviously they would double.

So the bottom line might be only around $50 per flight, but international flights would certainly have a larger pool of players as more luggage is checked.

Finishing the MATH-

2,586,582 people use U.S. airports- Domestic and International. Using that 28%
x .28

724,243 people have checked luggage
x .25% would actually play "Luggage Lotto"
181,061
x $5.00
905,304 TOTAL RAISED IN ONE DAY
- (less) 25% PAID OUT TO PLAYERS

DAILY SUM OF LUGGAGE LOTTO TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO CHARITY(IES):

$678,978.00
X 365.00 DAYS IN YEAR

ANNUAL $ RAISED BY "LUGGAGE LOTTO"

$247,826,88


Conceptually Sound Idea-

Can you have someone contact myself regarding putting together a business proposal to do something like this? With a proposal and a plea by the Red Cross, AND others with INFLUENCE, we could do this on a trial basis at one or more airports for a few months to analyze any problems or bugs to work out of the system, I am sure it could raise millions of dollars over the course of a year.


Let me know your thoughts.

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