The Heart Foundation launches new Big Heart Charity Lottery

Published: 16 May 2022

A new online lottery is launched by the Heart Foundation today. The Big Heart Charity Lottery has a total prize pool of $500,000 cash, with proceeds going towards life-saving heart research.

“We’re really excited to bring this new online lottery to New Zealanders,” says Alison Wheatley-Mahon, Head of Fundraising at the Heart Foundation.

“Significant challenges over the last two years, including the cancellations of our ‘Big Heart Appeal’ street collections, have impacted our fundraising by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Covid-19-related legislation amendments now allow the Heart Foundation to conduct lotteries online and has created a great opportunity for the charity to engage the support of more Kiwis in its important work.

“We’ve been running a lottery for nearly 30 years,” says Alison. “But we are now able to introduce a new online lottery that will raise additional funds for vital heart research.”

Heart disease is Aotearoa’s single biggest killer, claiming the lives of more than 6,500 loved ones every year – that’s more than one person every 90 minutes. More than 170,000 New Zealanders are currently living with heart disease.

Alison says many of these deaths are premature and preventable. “That’s why, over the past five decades we’ve invested $82 million of donated funds into leading-edge heart research and specialist training for cardiologists, resulting in innovative treatments which have significantly improved the heart health of New Zealanders.

“We’ve only been able to do this through the incredible generosity of everyday Kiwis who want to help save lives.”

The new lottery will complement the charity’s long-standing Heart Foundation Lottery, which gives people the chance to win a brand-new home along with other prizes.

The inaugural Big Heart Charity Lottery offers a must-win total cash prize pool of $500,000, with a ticket price of $10.

The main prize of $300,000 will be drawn on 5 July 2022, and prior to that, there’ll be four weekly draws each for $50,000. All tickets purchased will be entered into each of the remaining draws in the lottery.

Alison says, “For a small investment in the Big Heart Charity Lottery, Kiwis can help in the fight against heart disease, New Zealand’s single biggest killer, and have the chance to win major cash prizes.”

To purchase tickets in the Big Heart Charity Lottery, visit www.charitylottery.org.nz