How does a small group have a successful raffle?

July 22, 2011 By 1 Comment

We recently got a great question by email from a Raffle Secrets newsletter reader.  I think a lot of small groups wonder about whether they can pull off a raffle.

Hi Sandra-

I want to have a “travel give away” raffle. I was thinking about giving away a 4 day cruise and the raffle tickets would be about $20. I think I would need to sell about 200 to make a profit of $5,000. However, my question is how would a “grass roots” organization pull of a successful event like this?

Thanks,

Kenita Pierce-Lewis, CEO & Founder
H.O.P.E, Inc
Duluth, GA

Hi Kenita, this is a great question!

First of all travel is one of the best prizes that you can give away!  People love the idea of winning a trip or even a mini-vacation.  I’ve been on three cruises myself and would instantly be attracted to a raffle with a cruise as a prize.

Now the next thing to consider is the ticket price.  Is $20 the best ticket price? As I mentioned I love cruises, so if I was already a supporter of H.O.P.E. or was a friend of yours or one of your volunteer ticket sellers I’d be happy to buy a ticket at $20.  However, if I were not familiar with your cause, I might hesitate at $20.

With tickets at $20 you would need to sell 250 tickets, for a gross profit of $5000.  If you were to get the prize donated then you would still need to factor in ticket printing and any advertising costs in the budget.  So depending on those, the real profit would be $4500 – $4900.

I always recommend setting a higher goal in order to account for both the budget and unexpected circumstances.  For example, you might give a volunteer a pack of 10 tickets to sell and they come back with only half of them sold.  So a goal of 300 tickets @ $20 each would help you reach your goal.

On the other hand, if you decided to sell tickets at $10 each, the goal would need to be at least 600 tickets sold.  Close friends, family and current supporters would still be encouraged to buy at least two tickets and yet the lower ticket price would attract people who are less familiar with your cause, but attracted by the prize.

All that math aside, let’s get back to your question!

There are two ways that even a small group can be successful with a raffle fundraiser: motivated volunteers and ticket buying incentives.  These are so important that we devoted a separate chapter to each of these topics in the Raffle Secrets guide.

Your volunteer ticket sales force

Board members, committee members and other volunteers can sell a lot of tickets to their personal networks. The personal touch is often the best way to sell the most tickets.

If your state and locality allow, have volunteers sell raffle tickets directly to coworkers, friends, and family. (When encouraging volunteers to sell tickets at work, advise them to check with their supervisor first. Some companies have a prohibition against sales in the workplace.)

Incentives for your ticket sales force

As an incentive, offer one or more prizes to your ticket sellers. Each ticket sold may count as an entry into a separate random drawing for a prize, or you can award prizes directly to those who sold the most tickets.  Again, gift card work well for these awards.

If volunteers cannot sell tickets, you can still reward those who motivate ticket sales. As tickets are sold, record who told the ticket buyer about the raffle. Offering referral bonuses to ticket buyers is another way to encourage word-of-mouth ticket sales.

In addition to individual prizes, competition among teams can drive ticket sales as organized groups of volunteers strive to outdo each other. Individuals who don’t see value in their singular effort can be highly inspired when asked to work as part of a team.

Ticket buying incentives

Besides offering incentives for ticket sellers, create some enticements for people to buy tickets.  These special offers make it even easier for volunteers to do their job of selling tickets. Here are a few ideas:

  • Secondary prizes at the final drawing – Adding additional, smaller prizes gives ticket buyers more opportunities to win.  So with better odds of winning something, people are more interested in buying a ticket. Secondary prizes should appeal to the widest audience so items such as gift cards work great.
  • Interim or “Early Bird” Drawings - To inspire ticket buying from the very first day, schedule prize drawings at regular intervals before the main drawing. These drawings spark sales and maintain deadline urgency between the excitement of the launch and the anticipation of the big event.
  • Multi-Ticket Discount – Offering bonus free tickets or a reduced price for a larger number of tickets encourages people to buy more tickets. For example, $10 for one ticket, $20 for 3 tickets. Or $20 for one ticket, $50 for 3 tickets, $100 for 8 tickets

Ready?

With motivated volunteers even small groups can be successful with a raffle fundraiser.  Add in ticket buying and ticket selling incentives and you are even more likely to achieve your goals.

Raffle Secrets includes more details on all of these strategies that can make a raffle for a group, large or small, a big success.

 

Filed Under: Questions, Raffle Basics, Strategies

How to have a successful raffle fundraiser

July 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

An excited crowd is gathered together, watching the two smiling faces on the stage. A shiny raffle ticket drum spins and slowly comes to a stop.  One of the announcers reaches in and pulls out a ticket.  THE winning ticket. Whose name will they call?

To raffle ticket holders and everyone at the drawing event, a raffle’s success is in the winning ticket. However, behind the scenes, for the organization putting on the raffle, it is defined much differently.

A successful raffle fundraiser—

  1. Complies with state and local gambling regulations
  2. Meets the fundraising goal with the net ticket proceeds

Just two keys to a successful raffle?  Yes, but of course the devil is in the details as they say!

To cover the first key, complying with state and local gambling regulations, first check with state raffle laws.  There’s no one US federal law that applies the same regulations to the entire country.  Raffle regulations, like other forms of gambling, are controlled by the states.

Raffle Secrets has an entire chapter on legal issues.  It includes a checklist to use when contacting the state attorney general, how to write the raffle guidelines, and ideas for getting help with planning your raffle.  Beyond contacting your governing authorities, many of the legal questions can be answered in step one in this book.

Beyond making sure that it’s legal, the most important aspect of having a successful raffle is that it meets the fundraising goal with the net ticket proceeds.

Five essential elements for a successful raffle fundraiser

While it may seem like selling tickets and selecting a winner are the obvious parts of a raffle fundraiser, there are other key aspects to consider. These five elements are critical to the success of a raffle fundraiser—

  1. Ticket sales. Your fundraising goal is the net proceeds from ticket sales. Balance your ticket price and the quantity of tickets to be sold with the costs of services, administrative costs, and advertising to make sure you can meet your goals.
  2. A desirable prize or prizes. Be sure to select a prize or prizes that your audience would be excited about winning. Whether large or small, stick to prizes with a universal appeal.
  3. An audience who is willing and able to buy tickets. Obviously, your raffle will be a failure if no one buys your tickets. Like with any other fundraiser, take a good look at your audience. Be sure your audience approves of this type of gambling, has money to spend, and can afford your ticket price.
  4. Staff and volunteers to sell the tickets. Ticket sales drive the raffle, so be sure you have enough willing people to sell the amount of tickets needed to meet your fundraising goal in time for the event.
  5. A location for the ticket draw event. A raffle ticket drawing can be its own event, but you can combine promotion efforts and venue expenses by making the drawing part of an annual gala or dinner, the county fair, or other regularly scheduled community event. Having these extra people in attendance may increase last minute ticket sales, and a public drawing held in front of a larger audience will diminish doubts that the winner was fairly drawn.

Each of these are absolutely essential to having a successful raffle.

 

Filed Under: Raffle Basics, Strategies

What is a raffle?

June 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It might sound simple, but by starting with answering the question “what is a raffle” you’ll be better prepared for a successful fundraiser. By knowing what a raffle is and is not, what it can and can’t do you’ll be able to avoid some pitfalls and be better prepared for success.

Raffle laws are different for every state, but they agree that, in general:

A raffle is a game where players buy tickets for a chance at winning a prize, or prizes. A raffle winner is selected at random, usually at a public ticket drawing event.

This random outcome with the players’ money at risk makes a raffle a gambling venture, and subject to state gambling laws.

For an organization conducting the fundraiser, a raffle involves inviting dozens to thousands of people to buy tickets for a chance to win a certain prize(s) at a drawing scheduled for a predetermined date. Typically, the winning ticket number(s) is drawn randomly from a container holding a representation of every ticket number issued.

In some raffles, the selected ticket number is matched to a collection of prizes that have numbers attached to them. This book addresses the style of raffle that does not assign a specific prize to a specific ticket. Instead, any ticket holder may win any one of the possible prizes.

What a raffle is not

For a complete understanding of what a raffle is, it may help to know what a raffle is not.

A raffle is NOT:

  1. A way to make personal or business income. Federal, state and local laws allow raffles only for federally recognized charitable organizations, if at all.
  2. A drawing or sweepstakes. Ticket purchase is not required for this type of random drawing.
  3. A contest.While not bound by law, this requires a winner be selected based on comparative skill, judging, or some other non-random method.
  4. An immediate money maker.Sufficient time is necessary to apply for a license and/or permit, thoughtful planning, and ticket sales.
  5. A guaranteed fundraising win. Expenses can exceed proceeds if there are insufficient ticket sales or an ill-prepared or disregarded budget.

So that should answer the basic question, what is a raffle!

Filed Under: Questions, Raffle Basics