Dutch Postcode Lottery

The Dutch Postcode Lottery (Postcode Loterij) was founded in 1989 to support charities working towards a just, healthy, and green world. The lottery raises funds for its charities and publicises their work.  

With the Postcode Lottery, your zip code forms your lottery number. That means you and your neighbours can win together. There are now three million participants in the Postcode Lottery. Participants have the chance to win hundreds of thousands of prizes each month and support 148 charitable organisations with at least 40% of their ticket price. Since the Postcode Lottery was founded, more than €8.7 billion have been donated to people and nature. IFAW and many other organisations receive support each year.  

The Postcode Lottery and the Friends Lottery form the Holding Nationale Goede Doelen Loterijen. These lotteries are included as a Dutch tradition on the Inventory of Intangible Heritage (UNESCO) list. The format of the Postcode Lottery is also active in Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Norway. The Charity Lotteries, together with the lotteries in these countries, are the third largest private funder to charities in the world.   

The Postcode Lottery supports IFAW’s Room to Roam initiative in Zimbabwe, helping both wildlife and people thrive. The project focuses on rescuing animals in need and protecting the landscapes they depend on. Working closely with local communities and guided by science, it helps ensure nature can flourish now and for generations to come. This is especially important for wide-ranging species such as elephants, which spend much of their time outside protected areas. 

Through Room to Roam Zimbabwe, Postcode Lottery funding helps secure and reconnect habitats, creating safe passage for elephants and other wildlife to move freely across their natural ranges. This support strengthens wildlife protection, improves local livelihoods, reduces conflict between people and animals, and helps monitor rescued elephants after their return to the wild. Together, these efforts create space for wildlife to roam while supporting communities living alongside nature. 

We are very grateful to the Dutch Postcode Lottery for supporting IFAW in our work to help save as many marine mammals as possible.  
  

Past IFAW projects funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery include the Resolve project from 2022 to 2024, which supported marine conservation and the rescue of whales, dolphins, and porpoises; Operation Jaguar from 2019 to 2022, which helped combat the illegal trade in jaguars and strengthen law enforcement across South America; and Born to be Wild from 2017 to 2020, which supported the protection and recovery of endangered Barbary macaques in Morocco.