Ellen Kaufman
A Small Green Ticket
Emma stared at the small, green ticket in her hand and giggled with glee. She twirled her ticket-grasping hand in the air, dreaming of someone announcing the number on her ticket. She was ready to collect the prize. Her parents smiled sweetly at her, holding their own tickets in hand, and hoping to win a prize of their own. So many green tickets were scattered throughout the room; clenched in sweaty palms, sitting in messy purses, resting on occupied tables. So many people were buying small, green tickets in hopes of being the lucky prize winner. Suddenly a man steps onto a chair with a clear, green ticket-filled bowl in hand. Everyone’s voice hushes as the man clears his throat. Emma looks at the announcer with unconcealed hope in her eyes, and soggy ticket in hand. The announcer flexes his hand, and plunges his fingers into the bowl of green paper tickets. Emma holds her breath, and stares at small, black numbers on her own: 55041. The announcer squints at the green slip of paper he pulled out of the bowl, and begins calling out numbers, “FIVE” he proclaims. Emma takes a breath. “FIVE-ZERO-FOUR,” he shouts. Emma squeals with anticipation, squeezing the ticket harder. The announcer pauses, and finally proclaims, “ONE.” Emma jumps into the air; giggling and squealing with delight, and runs to the announcer. The announcer smiles warmly at her and hands her the prize—twenty-five dollars. Emma twirls in circles imagining all the things she can buy with her prize. Raffle fundraisers have a way of bringing child-like joy and excitement to people. It doesn’t matter if people are Emma’s age, or the age of her parents—the feeling of anticipation that comes with buying a ticket excites everyone. Businesses can take advantage of the excitement that raffle fundraisers gain loyal customers, and money for their market.
Businesses can provide a “raffle ticket” after customers make a purchase at their store. During popular shopping period like the holidays a ticket should be provided after customers pay a certain amount of money like fifty dollars. This way, businesses can motivate customers to buy more during popular sale periods. During times where sales are lower, tickets should be provided after every purchase; regardless of price. As a result, businesses can gain shoppers during periods of low-sales. The raffle tickets can motivate customers to make purchases or purchase more because the customers will want a chance to win a prize a long with their purchase. Providing a raffle ticket can provide an air of excitement to every purchase, and will draw more customers to a store. In order to maintain customer loyalty, businesses can allow customers to trade past tickets that didn’t win for an extra ticket after another purchase. For example, customers can make one purchase and not win a prize, but then make another purchase and have double the chance of winning a prize. This can keep customers coming back to get better chances of winning a spectacular prize. Additionally, businesses can change the grand prize based on season to gain customers at different times, and provide many smaller prizes like ten dollar off coupons to entice customers. Businesses can advertise the raffle on social media and in the store. The prizes for tickets can be discovered once a customer comes back to the store at the cashier or online. Businesses can ensure the customers comes back later by setting the time that customers can discover their prize at a later interval. Overall, using raffle fundraisers is an effective way for businesses to entice customers to start shopping at a business and keep shopping there.