How to organise a raffle?

Raf­fles are an excel­lent and easy way to raise funds for an asso­ci­a­tion. It is also a com­pelling event to raise aware­ness of your organ­i­sa­tion and the cause it sup­ports. A raf­fle allows you to cre­ate a fun moment for your employ­ees. You can organ­ise one for spe­cial occa­sions, such as Christ­mas.

Think­ing of organ­is­ing a raf­fle but don’t know where to start? Here’s every­thing you need to know to make your event a suc­cess.

1. How does a raffle work?

It is a game of chance that requires the pur­chase of at least one tick­et to par­tic­i­pate to be eli­gi­ble for a prize draw. Raf­fles can be organ­ised for var­i­ous events (asso­ci­a­tion, foot­ball tour­na­ment, school event, com­pa­ny anniver­sary…).

The con­di­tions are the same as in the lot­tery, i.e.:

• Usu­al­ly, every­one can par­tic­i­pate in this event, as it is open to the gen­er­al pub­lic, but it can also be a pri­vate raf­fle.
• Par­tic­i­pants have to buy tick­ets to par­tic­i­pate.
• The win­ners are deter­mined ran­dom­ly.

Final­ly, in a raf­fle, you don’t get to choose your num­bers: you are giv­en a pre-print­ed tick­et at ran­dom, and there is always a win­ner at the end of the raf­fle.

2. Check the necessary permits or licenses

Make sure that your organ­i­sa­tion is legal­ly autho­rised to hold a raf­fle.

In Cana­da, raf­fle reg­u­la­tions and licens­ing require­ments vary depend­ing on the province or ter­ri­to­ry in which the raf­fle is being orga­nized. Gen­er­al­ly, raf­fles are con­sid­ered a form of lot­tery and are reg­u­lat­ed by the respec­tive provin­cial or ter­ri­to­r­i­al gam­ing author­i­ty.

Before orga­niz­ing a raf­fle in Cana­da, con­sult the gam­ing author­i­ty in your spe­cif­ic province or ter­ri­to­ry for detailed infor­ma­tion on licens­ing require­ments, rules, and reg­u­la­tions. Fail­ure to com­ply with these reg­u­la­tions may result in fines or legal penal­ties.

3. Set specific goals for the raffle

As with any event, even a non-prof­it event, it is essen­tial to set goals.

Set dead­lines, par­tic­i­pa­tion tar­gets and, most impor­tant­ly, a finan­cial tar­get (the amount of mon­ey you want to raise from the raf­fle). Also, define in advance the num­ber of peo­ple need­ed to receive the atten­dees, give the prizes, etc.

In addi­tion, know­ing your finan­cial goals in advance will help you in the sub­se­quent use of the funds raised.

4. Define your raffle prizes

Anoth­er crit­i­cal ele­ment is to find a bal­ance between the over­all cost of the prizes and the fundrais­ing goal.

In gen­er­al, it is advis­able to cre­ate sev­er­al cat­e­gories with amounts indi­cat­ing the val­ue of the prize, such as:

• Prizes of less than CAD 25
• Prizes of less than CAD 50
• Prizes of more than CAD 100
• A sin­gle prize, for one win­ner, of more than CAD 200.
• Etc.

Gen­er­al­ly, the total cost of prizes should not exceed 25% of the planned resources to stay with­in the bud­get. The ulti­mate goal of a raf­fle is to raise funds for your asso­ci­a­tion.

5. Sets the price of tickets

You can decide on the price of your raf­fle tick­ets, just as you would for a tick­et to an event (fair, con­fer­ence, etc.).

As men­tioned above, the cost of your raf­fle tick­ets has to be deter­mined by two main fac­tors:

• Your goals, in par­tic­u­lar your fundrais­ing goal.
• Total cost of the prizes.

Remem­ber that it should be afford­able and open to every­one when pric­ing your raf­fle tick­ets. In gen­er­al, the price of raf­fle tick­ets should be low.

6. Create a list of suggestions and decide on prizes for your raffle.

Short of ideas for prizes? Here are some ideas:

• Gift cards (Marks & Spencer, Ama­zon, Apple…).
• Elec­tron­ic appli­ances (iPad, toast­er, TV…).
• Tick­ets to a theme park or a vouch­er for din­ner in a restau­rant.
• Tick­ets for con­certs in the area.
• Gourmet ham­pers (wine, cold meats, sweets…).
• House­hold objects.
• A trip or a week­end, depend­ing on your bud­get.

Don’t for­get that you can also use spon­sors to increase your bud­get or offer you prizes direct­ly.

7. Registration and ticket sales

In addi­tion to phys­i­cal sales, sell­ing your raf­fle tick­ets online is nec­es­sary to increase par­tic­i­pa­tion.

We strong­ly rec­om­mend cre­at­ing a page for your raf­fle on social media or your organ­i­sa­tion’s web­site. You can also inte­grate an online reg­is­tra­tion solu­tion to deter­mine how many peo­ple will attend the in-per­son draw.

Weezevent offers quick and easy-to-imple­ment options for organ­is­ing a raf­fle, includ­ing online reg­is­tra­tion or man­ag­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion with our CRM solu­tion.

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