With little over a week before the final draw, the Split the Pot Lottery is fast approaching the $1 million mark in ticket sales.
“We're completely stoked. All of the 22 partners had their own sort of lotteries at one point had 50/50 and we wanted to sort of see if we could combine the might of that and think about this Pan-Ontario concept. It absolutely exceeded our expectations and it's going to do a lot of good in the community,” said Paul McIntyre, present and CEO of the Grand River Hospital Foundation.
At the beginning of November, 22 hospital foundations, including four northern regional hospitals, entered the Split the Pot Lottery to effectively boost their fundraising efforts.
The objective of the Lottery was to combine their 50/50 lotteries into a single pot to maximize the amount both the winners and the hospital could gain from the fundraiser.
Traditionally, rural hospitals would run a 50/50 lottery that gained a modest sum compared to larger urban centres. By collaborating, hospitals and contestants will have 13 chances to get a larger portion of the jackpot.
Fundraising opportunities, like the 50/50’s, are crucial to ensuring that hospitals can afford to purchase new equipment. Mcintyre said that hospitals are basically set up to be community-funded. Aside from their annual operating budget which is typically provided through provincial and fed grants, any extra revenue for equipment is fundamentally through fees like parking and fundraising.
“It's the way the system is set up. So, hospital foundations and hospitals themselves are always looking for ways to find money frankly and donations are a primary driver to that. Hospitals have parking fees that typically go into that. But not everyone's a donor and hopefully not everyone is visiting the hospital. You want ways for people to participate and this is such a fun way to do it. A great chance to win the money,” McIntyre said.
Because the lottery encompasses hospitals from around the province, the way it is set up is that 13 people will split the pot and share in the winnings. Winners can pick which hospital they choose to donate the other 50 per cent winnings or they can choose all the hospitals in the end.
“It's just a great way to do that locally and also build up all of our community, especially the smaller ones. I'm in Kitchener and it's not a small community but it's not a Toronto or Ottawa. It's a different scale, and we need that support,” Mcintyre said.
Patrons can purchase ticket bundles ranging from 10 tickets for $10 to 400 tickets for $60. However, according to Mcintyre people are not limited to buying one 400 bundle of tickets. They can purchase a maximum limit of 1,000 tickets which can be purchased at a time.
Over the last month, McIntyre has seen people take advantage of the maximum amount.
“I love that because proceeds are supporting the hospitals and that somebody's chance to win as well. We highly encourage people to buy as much as possible,” said McIntyre.
