Novamedia
Novamedia was founded in 1983 as a marketing agency for charity organizations by Boudewijn Poelmann and his wife Annemiek Hoogenboom. Novamedia is the originator and founder of the Dutch Nationale Postcode Loterij, that was founded in 1989 by three former employees of Oxfam Novib, among which Novib-founder father Simon Jelsma. In 1998 the Sponsor Lottery (now FriendsLottery) joined forces with the Postcode Lottery, in 2002 the BankGiro Lottery also joined. Together these lotteries form the Dutch Charity Lotteries, contributing 50% of the stakes to charitable causes. The Dutch Charity Lotteries operate on a non-for-profit basis.
In 2005 the success of the Postcode Lottery in the Netherlands prompted Novamedia to launch two Postcode Lotteries abroad – the Svenska PostkodLotteriet in Sweden and The People’s Postcode Lottery in Great Britain. In 2016 the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie launched throughout Germany. These postcode lotteries are based on the format of the Dutch ‘Nationale Postcode Loterij’.
The Postcode Lotteries have grown for the 27th consecutive year, thanks to its millions players. From the € 1.58 billion raised in ticket sales internationally in 2016, the lotteries together awarded € 664 million to charities. Since 2009 they have raised € 7.9 billion for 355 charities supporting good causes, increasing awareness for their work and supporting new initiatives in the fields of people, the environment, development cooperation, sport and health care, culture and welfare.
World third largest donor
For the fifth consecutive year, Novamedia/Postcode Lotteries have been ranked the world’s third largest private charitable donor and Europe’s second biggest by London's business newspaper City A.M. And the organization remains the world’s largest fundraising private charity donor.