Nonprofits can use raffles to raise money and prizes, but they are also a great way to gain visibility and connect with the community. To maximize the impact of a raffle, it’s important to carefully consider all aspects of the event including ticket prices.
Ticket prices are often influenced by the retail value of your prize. Prizes with a higher retail value will need to be priced higher to attract attention and to ensure the organization can sell enough tickets. It’s a good idea to start by setting a profit goal for your raffle, and then work backwards to determine the required ticket sales to meet that goal.
The number of tickets sold is also influenced by the people who are selling them and how trustworthy they appear. For example, you probably wouldn’t hand over $10 to 2 scruffy teenaged boys wandering around a shopping centre, but would be more likely to buy tickets from a couple of well dressed older folk sitting at a table. If your raffle is held in conjunction with a public event like a fete or community celebration, have posters, flyers and invites made up that cross promote the event and encourage passers-by to buy tickets.
You can also use a variety of methods to sell your tickets, such as offering a discount if they purchase a certain amount (i.e., one ticket for $5, 5 tickets for $20). You can also use a jar or fishbowl to hold the tickets and have plenty of pens on hand so that people can write their names and numbers on them.
If your prize is worth less than $1,000, it may be worthwhile to offer a bundle of tickets, such as three for $15 or five for $10, to increase the number of tickets you sell. It’s also a good idea to offer early-bird incentives to encourage people to buy tickets before the event starts.
Once the event is under way, it’s important to make the drawing of the winning number an exciting part of the program. Nonprofits can do this by having volunteers present the prize to a crowd, explaining how it will be used and the purpose of the nonprofit that is being supported. This will help to keep the mission of the nonprofit in the minds of the audience as they are being encouraged to support the cause.
Another way to keep the excitement level high is by allowing the winner to “buy back” into the raffle if their number hasn’t been called, so that they can continue to be a participant in the game. This can add to the excitement and keep people participating until the end. This is an idea that we have seen successfully used by Child Network, a nonprofit that helps children in the Kankakee and Iroquois counties in Illinois. Thank the crowd and make sure they know how much their participation has raised for the nonprofit. This will leave them feeling great about the experience and the impact of their support.
