The People’s Postcode Lottery had a record breaking year in 2015 donating almost double the amount it did in 2014
Almost £40 million was raised for charities by the People’s Postcode Lottery last year.
The figure is the highlight of a remarkable year for the lottery which saw it nearly double the £21.7m raised in 2014.
The lottery has now raised £99.6m since it formed in 2005.
It announced the impressive totals at its annual gala dinner in Edinburgh last night (Thursday) where First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was guest of honour.
Using sport as a route to provide young people with the skills to turn their lives around is a fantastic venture
Street League Ayrshire
Ms Sturgeon praised the lottery and helped announce £5.1m of funding at the event in the city’s Assembly Rooms.
One of the biggest recipients on the night was Street League which uses football to tackle youth unemployment in Scotland.
It was awarded £200,000 to help fund its aim of supporting 2000 unemployed 16-24 year olds into work, training or education by 2017.
Of the award Ms 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.”
Matt Stevenson-Dodd, chief executive of the charity which works throughout the UK, including at centres in Ayrshire, Glasgow and Edinburgh, said the funding would help it go a long way to reaching its goal.
He said: “Supporting a young person into sustained employment is essential in changing their lives, enabling them to become happy, contributing, financially-independent members of their community.
“This generous funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery will help us to reduce youth unemployment in the UK.”
Other guests at the event included headline speaker and director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti CBE, Dame Ellen MacArthur, Sarah Brown and TV presenter and People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador, Fiona Phillips.
Major award recipients included Help for Heroes, the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Throughout the year the lottery has supported a number of Scottish charities including donating to £350,000 to Mary’s Meals, £250,000 to Sistema Scotland and £450,000 to Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.
The exact total raised in 2015 for charities and good causes was £39,209,599.
