Alana Lyons
Non-profit organizations utilize fundraising by holding raffle fundraisers to increase financial participation and awareness of their organization's goal. I am familiar with this method of attracting attention due to my affiliations with non-profits such as my Church and the Cortland County Historical society where I spent 4 years of my life as both a volunteer and a payed worker. For a non-profit organizaton like a Church, maximizing the sales of their raffle tickets, including prizes that would encourage and stimulate ticket sales are both suggested ways to motivate volunteers to sell more tickets.
Non-profit organizations can maximize sales of raffle tickets by both increasing costs, and increasing awareness of the issue raised. For example, part of my volunteer service to my Church in 2011 was to make signs increasing awareness for the raffle we were holding, amongst other methods of fundraising, for the Church director who had been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier that year. Those involved in the raffle did not mind increased prices for tickets because they knew their funds were going to a cause they felt strongly about benefitting, their beloved Director.
More recently, I spent a semester studying at SUNY Cortland, and volunteering for the Cortland County Historical Society. This non-profit used raffling as a method of fundraising. Involving prizes like gift baskets increased engagement among college students and younger members, something this organization was seeking to ensure continued participation. Targeting the typical "broke college student" with prizes such as food, gift cards and cash increased participation among this age group exponentially. Raffling is a good way to increase involvement among any age because it is simply up to chance.
Increasing ticket sales among volunteers can be done by targeting new age groups that might typically be considered out of the organization's relm of typical members. This increases involvement from a new group of people who would not usually be interested in benefitting an organization that they did not previously have some type of involvement to. This can be done by expanding an open invitation to all types of people: young, old, men, women, and all different ethnicities. Raffling a method that allows for this type of oppurtunity because no person has odds over another in a raffle, except how many tickets they chose to purchase.