Testimonials
Steve Howard The Climate Group:
We are extremely fortunate to be beneficiaries of the Dutch and Swedish Postcode Lotteries and are grateful to them both as enlightened supporters and lead funders of our organization. Their gifts of Euros 2.5 million and Swedish Kronor 4.2 million respectively give our organization the financial confidence to plan strategically for the coming months and at the same time to respond quickly to breaking news and changes in policy. This is vital for a charity like ours that works in such a new and fast-changing arena where knowledge of the problem and its potential solutions evolve on a daily basis.
Lottery funding is timely and comes at a crucial moment for all of us. The window of opportunity to reach a global agreement on climate change is closing, and real progress at the UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen later this year is essential to stop us heading towards ecological and humanitarian disaster. Strong advocacy for a low carbon future is more important than ever and with the current economic downturn, the need for a collective call for action and clear, practice-based examples of the benefits of clean technologies are vital.
Funding from the Dutch and Swedish Postcode Lotteries helps us step up our corporate and government outreach and through this extend the call for a cleaner, greener, safer world at the highest level. The Lotteries also find other ways support us too, for example through their own publicity, networks and programme of events they help raise awareness of the climate change challenge and the actions we can all take to meet it."
For more information about The Climate Group, please visit: www.theclimategroup.org
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Hans Westra, Anne Frank Foundation:
"In 2007, the Anne Frank Foundation became one of the beneficiaries of the BankGiro Lottery. For museums as the Anne Frank Foundation the support of the BankGiro Lottery is of great importance. The acquisition and restoration of objects of large cultural and historical value can be realised because of this financial support.
The maintenance of the hiding place of Anne Frank and telling the story of her life and ideals are the most important objectives of the Anne Frank Foundation. In 2006, more than 982,000 people from all over the world visited the house of Anne Frank and the number of visitors keeps increasing. This year, an extensive restoration started to preserve the Achterhuis (the former hiding place) and the tangible memories of Anne Frank and the other persons in hiding for future generations of visitors. The original pictures that Anne Frank used to put on the wall in her little room will be restored and at the same time, the Achterhuis will be provided with a better climate control system. The BankGiro Lottery finances this restoration for a large part.
However, the BankGiro Lottery means more to the Anne Frank Foundation. The lottery helps to bring Anne Frank’s life story to the attention of a broad Dutch and international audience. This way we can point out the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination to a large group of people and underline the importance of freedom, equal rights and democracy."
For more information about the Anne Frank Foundation, please visit: www.annefrank.org
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Bill Clinton, The Clinton Foundation:
“The Postcode Lottery is the best thing I have ever seen to involve ordinary people in charitable work. A whole community can win and it must be a great feeling to be a part of it. I urge everyone to continue to support the lottery and to try to get more people to do it and I hope it will be copied by other countries. Than you will see the most unprecedented partnership between ordinary citizens across the world that we have ever seen, which us helps to fight against worldwide problems.”
For more information about the Clinton Foundation, please visit: www.clintonfoundation.org
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Allard Stapel, WWF:
"“ We trust you to spend the proceeds well….
This is the final sentence of a letter send by the lottery every quarter. When asked what does the lottery means to us one’s first inclination is to mention the amount of funding we get …15 million euros. However it is not so much the amount but the nature of the funding.
Unrestricted funding is very rare indeed. In our world trust often has been replaced by bureaucracy and control. This makes it difficult for civil society organizations to operate effectively in a fast changing world. The trust of the lottery in our organization in contrast gave WWF enormous possibilities change, innovate, fend off threats, and take up opportunities.
But the lottery to our mind is more. It is a channel to reach a very large public in the Netherlands. We are an organization uniting 920.000 people in the Netherlands. The lottery provides us with an alternative channels to reach the public with our message. The lottery in all these aspects is a model of how to support civil society worldwide.
Civil Society Organizations should be an independent voice. All too often we are strapped in by Government funding and therefore cannot fulfil our role to the full extend. To realize our full potential we will need a broad base in society and unrestricted funding. The lottery can be one source for both.”
For more information about the WWF, please visit: www.wwf.org
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Willemijn Verloop, War Child:
“The lottery offers an opportunity to address many social issues at once. So people don’t have to choose for War Child exclusively, which is often difficult for people with a small budget, as they want to support many causes: the environment, children in war zones and all kinds of other problems. The lottery allows them to do it all" (...) "As the money from the lottery is non-earmarked, we rather receive this 'free' money than the money from the government which can impose the restriction that the money goes to DAC countries, i.e. countries with good government. Now we can use the lottery money in countries like Chechnya. Therefore, those independent funds are very important to us.”
For more information about War Child, please visit: www.warchild.org
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Harmienke Kloeze, Make-a-Wish Foundation:
“This is very important for us, because it helps us to realise our ambition; namely, to reach all the children in the Netherlands with a life-threatening illness and to grant their wish. This means a significant increase in the number of granted wishes. In order to achieve this we need to have a solid financial base. The Sponsor Lottery provides us with this.
The Make-A-Wish mission is comparable to the aims of the Sponsor Lottery: the Lottery also creates hope and happiness, for the public playing in the Lottery, and for the charities that the Sponsor Lottery supports.”
For more information about the Make-a-Wish Foundation, please visit: www.worldwish.org
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Simon Milne, Scottish Wildlife Trust:
"We are proud to work with the People’s Postcode Lottery. We feel that our relationship with Scotland’s own charity lottery will be of great benefit to the country’s wildlife. On behalf of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, I would like to thank all those who are now helping to protect Scotland's wildlife by supporting the Lottery. As a charity, we could do so much more but funds are a limiting factor. The money raised is making a real difference to our work. We share the belief that our legacy should be a Scotland rich in wildlife and one which future generations will and can enjoy."
For more information about the Scottish Wildlife Trustdation, please visit: www.swt.org.uk
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Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Save the Children:
"Our co–operation is proof that there is more than one winner in this game. This money is a fantastic boost to the work that we do for vulnerable children around the world."
For more information about Save the Children, please visit: www.savethechildren.net
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Ernst Veen, Hermitage Amsterdam:
“The realistation of changing a monumental 17th century nursing home the ‘Amstelhof’ in Amsterdam into a satellite museum of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is an example of a private initiative and how a charity lottery has worked as a catalyst to realise this unique project in Amsterdam.
A feasibility study showed that a branch of the Hermitage in Amsterdam could expect to attract 300,000 visitors a year and that, after substantial modification, the Amstelhof building could be turned into a fine museum with a perfect location.
The Hermitage Amsterdam operates without government support. In other words, half of its operating costs is covered by its own income and the other half by the permanent sponsors.
For the conversion – which costs €40 million in total, a one-off appeal for public funding was made. We felt that the public and private sector should raise this money jointly. And we found support for that approach.
The first backer to come forward was the BankGiro Loterij. It promised a substantial sum to support both the reconstruction work and operations. This large and early commitment immediately set the ball rolling.
A dream became reality thanks to the catalyst Bankgiro Loterij.”
For more information about the Hermitage Amsterdam, please visit: www.hermitage.nl
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