About Us
Sterling's History |
Sterling was formed in 1982 by Eddie Dixon and the company was originally involved in the development of databases and associated services for a range of companies in the North West of England. In the mid to late 80’s Sterling got involved with charity fundraising lotteries for the first time, working with a small number of organisations in the North West – in terms of both developing lottery software and as an outsourced data processing bureau. In the early 90’s we got involved with St Catherine’s Hospice in Preston and the setting up of their lottery – this was the first true membership fundraising lottery set up by a hospice in the UK and was a great success – recruiting over 18,000 lottery players and still going from strength to strength today. Following this success more hospices approached Sterling to assist them in launching their own fundraising lotteries and this led to Sterling becoming a specialist in this field.
By the late 90’s, Sterling was providing lottery administration services and software to around 50 charities throughout the UK.
The first decade of the 21st century has seen Sterling expand and develop their client list and their services, as well as becoming members of the Lotteries Council and a registered External Lottery Manager with the Gambling Commission. In 2007 we launched Unity, a whole new lottery scheme available to charities of all sizes, both large and small, which offers zero risk and guarantees the charity 50% of their lottery proceeds as profit.
Today |
Today Sterling employs 30 staff and works with over 160 charities and other organisations across the UK. In 2008, these organisations raised approximately £37.8 million through their lotteries and paid out over £7.2 million in prizes to their members. We have a range of fundraising lottery solutions to suit all sizes and types of organisations The organisations we work with have lotteries ranging in size from the single ‘000’s entries per draw up to 100,000 and have prizes ranging from a few hundred pounds per draw up to £27,000.
The Future |
We are continually improving and developing our products and services, to assist our existing clients in making their lotteries more effective, efficient and successful and to provide access to membership lotteries as an effective fundraising tool for more organisations.
