People’s Postcode Lottery awards £5m to charities
Melanie May | 29 January 2016 | News
The People’s Postcode Lottery held its annual Charity Gala last night (28 January), awarding £5.1m to a variety of charities.
Among the charities awarded were Theirworld, Street League, APOPO, African Parks, Battersea Cats and Dogs Home, and Depaul UK. Three winners of a special Dream Fund were also announced, with charities Help for Heroes and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation both major winners. The fund offers organisations financial support to bring their dream project to life.
Theirworld received a £100,000 Extra Award to help give Syrian refugee children in Lebanon access to ‘double- shift’ schools where Lebanese children will be taught in the mornings and Syrian children in the afternoon.
.@Theirworld making an incredible difference & proud they’ve received £1.2m to date from players #PPLCharityGala pic.twitter.com/xuOhI1D5L4
— Postcode Lottery (@PostcodeLottery) January 28, 2016
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APOPO received a £200,000 Extra Award to start a new project in Zimbabwe using rats to detect landmines, while Depaul UK received a £200,000 Extra Award to bring its Nightstop service to Sheffield, which gives vulnerable youths at risk of homelessness a safe home for the night.
Street League received a £200,000 Extra Award to help expand its outreach education for unemployed 16-24 year olds in London, Nottingham, Ayrshire and the west of Scotland.
Guest of honour First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP presented Street League with its award.
We just won £200k at #PPLCharityGala! Great to meet @NicolaSturgeon who was very complementary about @Street_League! pic.twitter.com/HNu0zKPLmw
— Matt Stevenson-Dodd (@Matt_SD) January 28, 2016
Sturgeon said:
“Street League is making a difference to young people across Scotland and the rest of the UK. Using sport as a route to provide young people with the skills to turn their lives around is a fantastic venture. Everyone at Street league works so hard to give thousands of people a helping hand to improve their life. They deserve enormous praise and I congratulate them on this award.”
Other guests at the event included headline speaker and director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti CBE and TV presenter and People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador, Fiona Phillips.
People’s Postcode Lottery celebrated its 10-year anniversary last year. Since launch, players have raised £99.6 million for charities and good causes across Great Britain as well as internationally.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.