At the Annual Charity Gala of the Dutch Postcode Lottery, held at Amsterdam’s Carré Theatre on February 6, Rewilding Europe received 500,000 euros in support of its rewilding work across Europe.
Rewilding Europe first became a beneficiary of the Dutch Postcode Lottery in February 2013, with our initiative now receiving an annual donation of 500,000 euros.
In October 2016, the Dutch Postcode Lottery decided that Rewilding Europe would become a regular beneficiary from 2017 onwards. This generous support enables us to develop and extend our network of rewilding areas across Europe, with wild nature, wildlife and local communities all benefitting from this new approach to conservation.
“We are very grateful to the Dutch Postcode Lottery for its continued support of Rewilding Europe,” says Frans Schepers, Managing Director of Rewilding Europe. “We feel very privileged to be a beneficiary of the lottery. It gives us a real boost as we work towards realising our vision of a wilder Europe.”
Special guest at the event was former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. The Goodwill Ambassador of the United Postcode Lotteries spoke on behalf of the Clinton Foundation about taking action towards mitigating the impact of climate change.
Every year millions of euros in charitable donations are made possible by the 2.8 million people who participate in the Postcode Lottery (half the price of every ticket goes to charity). Increased revenues this year mean the lottery was able to give away 341 million euros to non-governmental organizations.
In 2017, two Dream Fund projects were awarded substantial lottery donations: a project to protect 10 million hectares of the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous people (14.8 million euros to Hivos and Greenpeace), and a project to reduce lepra disease (9.3 million euros to the Lepra Foundation). A full overview of all grants can be found here. Rewilding Europe thanks all the participants of the Dutch Postcode Lottery for making this donation possible!
The Dutch Postcode Lottery has been raising funds since 1989 to support organizations working towards a fairer and greener world. It has grown steadily to become the biggest charity lottery in the Netherlands, currently supporting 110 non-governmental organizations. It has dispensed over 5 billion euros to beneficiaries since foundation.