THE HOPE INSTITUTE FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES RAFFLES OFF $1.2 MILLION DREAM HOUSE

Raffle launches September 7 to raise critical funds for children with

Autism Spectrum Disorders and developmental disabilities

CHICAGO, IL–September 6, 2011 – Some lucky person with a $150 raffle ticket will win an exquisite $1.2 million Hinsdale dream home or $1 million in cash, in the Chicago Dream House Raffle to benefit The Hope Institute for Children and Families. Individuals can purchase their $150 raffle tickets for a chance at the dream house, along with thousands of dollars in cash prizes starting September 7. The grand prize is a stunning 3,225 square-foot home with four bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths, a gourmet chef’s kitchen, private wine cellar, entertainment room and more. All proceeds will help The Hope Institute for Children and Families provide services to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental disabilities throughout Illinois.

The Hope Institute will sell up to 35,000 tickets for the Dream House Raffle. As incentive to purchase tickets early, the raffle includes cash prizes of up to $25,000 in each of three early bird drawings for tickets purchased before the deadlines of September 30, October 28, and November 18. The grand prize drawing deadline is January 20 and the drawing will be held on Feb 4. For a complete list of prizes, go to http://www.chicagoraffle.com

Any individual who buys more than one ticket will be entered into an additional, exclusive Multi-Ticket drawing to win a 2012 Porsche Boxster or $30,000 cash; a European vacation or $10,000 cash; or a Hawaiian vacation or $5000 cash. Multi-ticket purchasers will receive an entry into this drawing with each ticket they purchase. If ticketholders refer a friend to purchase a ticket, they will be included in the Refer-a-Friend drawing and given the chance to win $10,000 cash.

The grand prize Dream House is an exquisite 2-story custom home on a spacious corner lot. It features a luxurious master bedroom and bath, stunning living and dining room with arched doorways, three fireplaces, rich cherry hardwood flooring and French doors throughout. For photos and descriptions of the Dream House, go to http://www.chicagoraffle.com/Photos.aspx.

Proceeds for the raffle will help The Hope Institute for Children and Families provide educational, residential and health care services to more than 29,000 Illinois children per year with multiple developmental disabilities, including Autism Spectrum Disorders.

To enter the Raffle, call 1-800-697-7734, or go to www.ChicagoRaffle.com and register online. Forms can be mailed to The Hope Institute at 15 East Hazel Dell Lane, Springfield, IL 92712. Entrants may also print online ticket forms and fax them to 312-254-5014. Ticket purchasers must be 18 years or older, have US residency and meet other requirements in the Rules and Regulations as specified on http://www.chicagoraffle.com/Rules.aspx.

About the Hope Institute for Children and Families:

For 54 years, The Hope Institute has provided living, learning and health care services to children with multiple developmental and physical disabilities from across Illinois. For more information, go to http://www.thehopeinstitute.us/ or call (217) 585-KIDS.

2011-2012 Chicago Dream House Raffle Schedule

Date	Event	Prizes awarded
Sept. 5	Raffle begins
Sept. 21	House media tour (not open to the public)
Sept. 30	Early bird I deadline (tickets must be purchased by this date to be eligible for the first drawing)
Oct. 18	Early bird I drawing	$25,000, $10,000, $5000
Oct. 28	Early bird II deadline
Nov. 15	Early bird II drawing	$25,000, $10,000, $5000, $2500, $1000 cash
Nov. 18	Early bird III deadline
Dec. 6	Early bird III drawing	$15,000, $10,000, $1000, $1000, $1000
Jan. 20, 2012	Grand prize drawing deadline
Feb. 4	Grand prize, Multi-ticket, Refer-a-friend drawings	Dream House or $1 million annuity, $25,000, $10,000, $5000, $2000, $1000 (5x), $500 (5x), $150 (335x)

###

Patiently waiting...plus some metrics...plus a big thanks!

After weeks of quiet preparation and days of rounding-up and planning a campaign, yesterday I once again led the charge for an online voting campaign for The Hope Institute. So as I patiently wait results on this Sunday Morning, I thought I would share a few thoughts and some numbers.


I'm astounded by the response that we had from our community, supporters and parents. My biggest fear as I woke up on Saturday morning was that the event was taking during a Holiday Weekend, during the summer, and that I had noticed other charities, that had also won Pepsi grants, lose in previous days. However, at the end of the day, weeks of preparation, boots on the ground at events throughout the community, and the relationships we have forged nationwide, combined to carry us to an astonishing 48% of the total vote as the competition closed.

In the coming days, I will be sharing some background into our planning for this event and providing some insight into our campaign metrics. For now, I would like to thank our friends and voting groups from around the nation and provide some early numbers on how we were able to raise awareness.

• Twitter - Over the course of 2 days, our core supporters and networks included our custom created bit.ly link in more than 100 tweets reaching an audience of more than 600,000 twitter users.
• Facebook - Our custom created bit.ly link was shared more than 1,600 times, and shared through Facebook's "Like" feature an addition 825 times.
• More than 760 people commented on that custom link.

Please note that the above numbers only represent the number of times that our community shared the custom link that I created to help measure and monitor our outreach efforts, along with providing a direct link for smartphone users to use. Those numbers do not include the sharing metrics from our websites and content posted directly from the Toyota Application.

As voting wrapped up last night, the only thought running through my head, was that of gratitude for our community of supporters and network of do-gooders who went out there way during a holiday weekend to help a local charity.

Thank You to everyone who not only helped Hope to earn a new accessible minivan, but as importantly, for the incredible amount of awareness that you created yesterday.