How To Execute a Raffle For Maximum Success by Ashley Craw
How To Execute a Raffle For Maximum Success by Ashley Craw
Non-profit organizations are most successful with raffle fundraisers, if they execute them properly. Whether it is a large give away or simply a beautiful and well stocked gift basket, if done properly these organizations can bring in serious donations. The key tips that result in a positive raffle include promoting the raffle, presentation of the item(s), and presentation of the event all together. It is also important to have prizes that will appeal to everyone, not just a set group. Any raffle needs to be promoted. Whether it is an online ad with the name, location and list of prizes, a newspaper ad, flyers or word of mouth, if people don’t know it is happening, they will not find the raffle, or know it is being held. Presentation is everything. A nice booth is a much better way to attract donors than a plain fold-out table and a cellophane wrap over a collection of items in a basket is much more appealing than items sitting on a table. Making the raffle area look nice is a great way to draw in customers. Having prizes that only target women, men, golfers, dancers, sports players, bachelors with man caves or any other narrow group is not the way to go. If there is only one prize, it needs to relate to a large group of people. One way to get around this is to offer several prizes, and to let winners, in order chosen, pick the prize they would like.
Some examples of prizes that would increase ticket sales could be generic movie theater tickets, packs of family movies, gift baskets with food/candy, stuffed animals and more. Seasonal items work too. For Valentine’s Day roses. For Christmas an ornament set. Thanksgiving a voucher for a take home cooked meal from a local restaurant, grocery store or deli. Halloween raffles could involve large pumpkins or gourds of different shapes, sizes and colors. There are also group specific items that can be raffled if a target audience is chosen. A set of golf clubs with vouchers for a free round. A doll with a fresh wardrobe. A perfume/makeup bag with all of the ‘accessories’. There are so many items that can be raffled off. The best way for a non-profit to do this is to take high end items that were donated and sell tickets for these items.
This way of doing things it best for large non-profits, like a church, government group, homeless shelter and other charities. Things get a little different when you start to talk about sports teams, animal shelters, libraries and other groups with a specific purpose. Sports teams could raffle off signed memorabilia from professional sports teams, equipment or other things related to their team/sport. Libraries can raffle off book sets, single books, bookmarks and other reading materials. The books may be donated to the library, not necessarily purchased. Lastly, it is important to touch on animal shelters. Raffling off pet toys, food and gift cards to pet stores encourage people both with pets and those who seek to help the shelter can all pitch in. There are a wide variety of things that can be donated and raffled off, things that can be made and raffled off and things that can be purchased discounted that can be raffled off.
To encourage volunteers to sell more tickets, they could be offered an incentive. They could be entered in a smaller volunteer raffle. For every ticket they sell, there name would be entered once into a drawing for a special prize only available to volunteers. This could be something like a gift card, so that every person has motivation to sell, not just those who think the prize is something they want/need.
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Contributed by Ashley Craw
October 1, 2015