10 Years of Support from Postcode Lottery Players
This year, Save the Children is celebrating 10 years of support made possible by Postcode Lottery players. Since 2016, thanks to their amazing players, we’ve received an incredible £30 million in funding from the Postcode Education Trust. We’re extremely grateful to Postcode Lottery players for helping make this impact possible for children and families across the UK and around the world.
Together, we’re creating lasting change.
Flexible Funders
We’re hugely appreciative of the funding approach that Postcode Lottery takes. They are flexible funders, meaning they trust the organisations they support to use funding where it can make the greatest difference. They trust Save the Children and our expertise to use the funding where the need is greatest and where the most impact will be felt. Flexible funding can allow organisations to develop innovative projects, adapt to changing contexts and new challenges, and respond to emergencies. Funding raised by Postcode Lottery players has also supported initiatives to shift power to local organisations like helping us launch our Baby Bank Alliance in the UK and piloting Education Localisation Funds in conflict-affected countries across the world.
Flexible funding raised by Postcode Lottery players has supported both urgent humanitarian responses and long-term programmes, reaching children and families facing some of the toughest challenges. From improving access to healthcare and education to supporting children in times of crisis, their support has enabled real and lasting change.
We are proud to highlight some of the valuable ways this flexible funding has been used to achieve lasting results for children. For the past 100 years, we've been constantly adapting to address the problems of tomorrow, and working hand in hand with children so they get the future they deserve.
UK Impact
In 2025, we partnered with more than 478 organisations, families and children in pursuit of a shared goal: ending child poverty in the UK. Together with our local partner organisations, such as health visitors, local authorities, and schools, we support the most vulnerable families and ensure more of them can put food on the table and children can continue to learn and develop.
One way we do this is through the Family Grants Programme. Delivered through trusted partners, the programme provides £300 grants to families in crisis for essential items, ranging from cots to carpets to shoes. As well as immediate relief, the programme strengthens local support networks and generates rich data, transforming lived experience into evidence to inform policy change. The programme has supported more than 2,800 children in 2025 alone.
Funding raised by Postcode Lottery players during COVID-19 helped develop and launch the Baby Bank Alliance in 2023. It’s mission: to ensure babies and children in the UK have access to the essentials that help them thrive. By the end of 2025, the Alliance membership had grown to 251 baby banks nationwide.
Uganda Catch Up Clubs
Sabimaana*, aged 16, at a catch-up club in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, Uganda. Photo Credit: Esther Ruth Mbabazi / Save the Children.
“I like the catchup club because it has helped me with confidence for public speaking, I have learnt many words and many moral stories that will help me in future. I dream to be a scientist to help people especially in psychosocial support.” – Sabimaana*
Flexible funding from the Postcode Lottery has also supported our Catch-Up Clubs in Uganda, which help children who are out of school or have fallen behind in their learning to get back on track.
The project is being implemented in Western and Central Uganda. It was piloted in 2021 in response to Uganda’s school closures after COVID-19 – the longest around the world. The catch-up clubs help children boost their reading and literacy skills so that they can learn independently from textbooks and confidence can be boosted in lessons.
In Uganda, these clubs run across 40 schools in 3 regions, supporting 4,214 children. Through this project, we’ve also helped 149 children with disabilities, to develop specific techniques to support the needs of children with disabilities in the future.
HUMANITARIAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
Thanks to funding raised by Postcode Lottery players, we’ve delivered training to 870,000 humanitarians as part of our Humanitarian Leadership Academy in 2025 alone. Our Humanitarian Leadership Academy has developed and delivered online learning courses on mental health and psychosocial support, safeguarding, cash and voucher assistance and inclusive education in emergencies.
This work is vital to our shifting the power agenda – sharing our knowledge and expertise with smaller organisations and local experts – to ensure more rapid, confident and high-quality humanitarian activations specifically in the context of education during emergencies.
Shifting The Power
The Education Localisation Fund in Burkina Faso is another example of how unrestricted funding from players of the Postcode Lottery is helping local communities lead the response to challenges facing children. By putting resources directly into the hands of local organisations, the Fund supports solutions designed and delivered by people who know their communities best.
The Fund supported four local organisations working in some of Burkina Faso’s most crisis-affected regions. These organisations were selected for their deep understanding of local education needs and their commitment to reaching children who are most at risk of missing out on learning, including girls and children with disabilities.
The organisations are providing education in emergencies support, including helping children return to school, distributing school supplies, training teachers and supporting older children and adolescents with vocational skills. Together, they have helped nearly 2,000 children enrol in education, including more than 1,000 girls, and have reached almost 5,000 people overall.
The Fund also invests in the long-term strength of these local organisations. Working alongside the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, partners receive coaching, training and organisational support to strengthen their systems and increase their ability to respond to future emergencies. This helps build sustainable, local leadership within the education sector and ensure communities are better equipped to support children in the years ahead.
As one of the few initiatives in Burkina Faso dedicated to funding local organisations working in education in emergencies, the Fund is helping to demonstrate how humanitarian funding can be led more locally. The lessons learned will help shape future efforts to ensure that resources and decision-making are increasingly placed in the hands of local organisations and communities.
Thank You, Players
Thanks to the generosity of Postcode Lottery players, children in the UK and around the world have been able to access education, essential support and life-changing opportunities over the last ten years.
Flexible funding raised by Postcode Lottery players has enabled Save the Children to respond to new challenges, support local organisations and invest in long-term solutions for children.
We are proud of what has been achieved since 2016 and deeply grateful to Postcode Lottery players for standing with children, today and in the future.
*Names changed to protect children and families.
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