October 29, 2007

Continuing growth in net returns for Endeavour Prize Home lotteries

The Endeavour Foundation, Australia’s largest provider of services for people with intellectual disabilities, has announced strong and increasing net annual returns in revenue from its commercial prize home lottery program. 

Endeavour CEO, Kelvin Spiller, said until recently the sale of lottery tickets and income from the lotteries had been trending down for several years.

“We conducted market research which showed that our prize homes were not perceived as being as appealing as they once were and we were not able to attract a larger market share,” Mr Spiller said. “Campaigns to raise funds for overseas relief had also impacted on sales in recent years.

“There has been strong competition for charity lotteries over the past couple of years in Australia and we have made a major effort over the last 18 months to lift the appeal of our prize home lotteries by offering more stylish and luxurious homes as prizes.”

“We spend a lot of time selecting the most sought after homes in desirable locations. Our production team then works closely with interior designers to create an attractive theme and ‘feel’ for the houses. This approach has created premium offerings which have helped to lift our returns on investment substantially”.

Mr Spiller said the commercial lotteries program generated a substantial amount of net revenue in the order of millions of dollars from prize homes in the last year and revenue was expected to increase further during the current year.  The last commercial lottery produced a significant increase on investment and a greater return than the average over the past year.  Prior to this the organisation found it difficult to make ends meet in relation to the lottery program.  One of our major challenges is to continually increase the return on investment at a time when the cost of the prize home and homes generally are spiralling especially in sought after locations in Queensland.

“We are very pleased with the results achieved to date and the contribution that the prize home lotteries are now making to Endeavour’s overall fundraising efforts,” he said. “The net funds raised are allocated to services which enhance the lives of people with intellectual disability in Queensland.”