With Valentine’s Day approaching, it’s time to consider the sweetest prizes money can buy (or your supporters can donate). Standby favourites include:

• Chocolates
• Flowers
• Spa day
• Holiday getaway
• Massages

For an orthodox approach to Valentine’s themed fundraising, pair these prizes with a romantic raffle ticket, which you can print online and receive in just a few days.

How about an unorthodox approach? The prizes above work well for most groups, but perhaps you wish to try something a little different. Consider ways in which you could make your supporters’ lives more comfortable, or provide them an extra avenue for romance. Busy, two-parent families, for instance, might have difficultly redeeming those massages or sensual holiday getaways, for lack of time or childcare!

What can you do for them? What about:

• Gift Certificate for free childcare
• Catered dinner in their home
• Free house cleaning

Consider the reality of your supporters’ lives? What is most likely to make them feel loved and happy? If you can’t guess, why not ask? You may be surprised to find what people are willing to pay for.

Once you’ve settled on the perfect Valentine’s themed prizes, select a romantic, Valentine themed Raffle Ticket. Printing your tickets online helps save time and money so you can start selling your tickets more quickly.

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How does a savvy raffle organiser make the most of her supporters’ interests? By asking about her supporters’ interests before she prints her Raffle Tickets!

Today’s tip? Send out a survey!

If you have the money and a base that does not spend much time online, you can do this with a paper survey mailed with a stamped envelope. Otherwise, save time and money by using one of myriad online quiz-making applications. Then ask exactly what you need to know:

• Most coveted prizes
• General interests (this helps determine smaller prizes)
• Number of tickets supporter might want
• Prize range they consider reasonable
• Most convenient time of year for a prize draw
• Appropriate number of prize draws a year

Most people enjoy filling out quizzes and surveys on the Internet. It provides a stronger link to your organisation, demonstrating that you see your donors as individuals, not just financial amounts, and that you are interested in their opinions and feedback.

Of course, your prize draw will be far more successful if you are selling Raffle Tickets for items people wish to win, at prices they can afford, at times and in places convenient to them for purchasing Raffle Tickets!

Want to improve your next fundraising prize draw? Don’t ask my opinion! Ask the opinions of those to whom you hope to sell Raffle Tickets! Seek our your supporters, determine what they want, and enjoy more success by giving it to them.

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You may recall, some weeks back, a post about a prize draw where raffle tickets could not be purchased, but rather were rewarded for each instance of an online activity benefiting the sponsoring organisation. Recently, I participated in such a raffle, earning four virtual raffle tickets.

The prize? A free professional massage!

Yes, I wanted to win this very badly.

One of the nice things about this sort of draw is that the odds are very, very good. I was able to increase my odds by taking action to receive the maximum number of raffle tickets. And my efforts paid off. For the second time since I became your fabulous ticket girl, I won!

If only I had scheduled my massage a few days earlier. Little did I know that the therapist would cancel on me at the last minute, having contracted a disease that left him unable to stand for any period of time

However, the sponsoring organisation made a complete success of their raffle, garnering a great deal of free publicity. In this case, every raffle ticket represented, essentially, a free advertisement, written by customers, extolling their virtues! This type of prize draw is a winning situation for everyone!

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Time is of the essence.

Your fundraising needs may be extensive, and your schedule is important, but you must keep in mind the needs of your donors as well. If you intend to sell Raffle Tickets for multiple prize draws in 2011, it is in your best interest to stagger them out.

Our experienced correspondents note that constant requests for money, particularly in a sluggish economy, can be irksome for your supporters. You may need it quiet badly, but remember that your fans are also experiencing the economic downturn. If they are good enough to give money a few times a year, the last thing you want to do is alienate them with repeated solicitations that seem endless.

Instead, schedule your prize draws so that you are selling Raffle Tickets at particular times when you are most likely to have success. A big raffle at the end of the year is a good idea, as is one that corresponds with a large event you hold annually. If you hold too many raffle, however, you may trigger a compassionate burnout, where followers begin to resent your request. Rather than continual, small draws, combine your funds or your prizes to hold a few larger draws at fortuitous times throughout the year.

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Item 3 in our countdown to Christmas tips and hints for prize draw sales success is a combination of factors that can work on their own, or, when joined together, become a dynamic powerhouse for selling event tickets.

First, consider a large shop or department store where you know there will be increased foot traffic this month. If you represent a charitable organisation, or one that works for children, perhaps the owner will allow you to set up a table outside. This lets you bring your Raffle Tickets to your supporters, rather than forcing them to find you.

Second, man the booth carefully. If possible, have children or teenagers at the table, selling the tickets for you. Their pathos will improve sales. If your group represents a sport team, a band, a scouting group, or any club in which members can be identified by uniforms, make sure everyone wears their uniform!

Finally, if you can manage it, bring the prizes to the table. Set them up in an appealing arrangement. This raises interest levels in your prize draw and encourages people to purchase Raffle Tickets upon falling in love with your prizes!

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As the Christmas fundraising season hastens, we continue to advise you regarding the best ways to maximize your earning power and raise more money for charity than you’ve ever raised in the past. Foremost amongst the top tips for Raffle Ticket sales suggested by our professional correspondents is to have ones tickets stapled into booklets of 5 tickets each. If you print your own Raffle Tickets online, this should be a standard option, and adds very little to the cost of your order.

To what advantage? Stapled ticket booklets help make your prize draw a financial success by encouraging donors to purchase multiple tickets, rather than a single Raffle Ticket: one step toward multiplying your profits by 5! It’s simply a matter of convenience for you and for your supporters. Stapled booklets are simple to sell. You can encourage multiple sales by pricing tickets appropriately, and ensuring that the price of 5 tickets is an even number. Sell 1 ticket for 2 pounds and 5 for 10 and watch your profits soar!

Keep checking this blog as the winter progresses for more expert advice from fundraisers who have traveled this road before and know the best route to take.

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Has your organization begun planning your big Christmas prize draw? We’ve asked the experts for their top tips in aid of selling more Raffle Tickets this year, and might find yourself surprised to hear some of the best fundraising advice the Internet has to offer.

For instance, do you depend on a paid sales crew, or a group of dedicated volunteers? Have you not considered asking others to help? According to our most successful contacts, you’ll sell far more Raffle Tickets if you send stapled booklets to all members of your organisation. Consider the size of your mailing list. If each member receives 5 tickets to sell, how many additional sales would that create?

Include a letter asking each member to purchase the tickets themselves, or to sell those 5 tickets to friends, family, neighbors, or colleagues. It’s a small number, but it will truly add up. Just be sure that you provide a method for the home office to track these sales, so you can be assured that tickets entered in the prize draw have been bought.

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Of course, you expect your prize draw to earn money for your organisation, but you need not limit yourself to the money you earn selling Raffle Tickets. Consider these facts. Your supporters:

• Use social media platforms to connect with like-minded individual and learn about their world
• Are more trusting of their peers’ opinions than of paid advertisement
• Prefer to purchase goods and services after reading positive consumer reviews

It’s clear, then, that great modern business require great modern feedback. If your supporters or customers can’t be bothered to write a few lines about you on a website that appraises your sort of organisation, you’re far less likely to attract new customers. Instead of selling Raffle Tickets, why not use the promise of a coveted prize from your business to drum up those positive reviews. Chances are, you can circumvent some our those pesky gaming laws while you’re at it.

Simply select those websites where you feel you should make an impression (e.g. Google Places or FourSquare) and then let customers know that they will receive a free virtual Raffle Ticket for each site on which they write a positive review. With very little expense, you’ve created the best possible sales pitch. And, unlike traditional advertising, this feedback has staying power. Most sites will reveal how many reviews you’ve received and what your average rating is. That makes it simple for potential customers to judge whether or not they wish to do business with you!

Another bonus: social media feedback is a two-edged sword. If you’ve received negative reviews in the past, an influx of positive reviews can hide the bad ones and raise your overall ranking.

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Back in March, I reported on the human egg raffle, wherein one lucky UK couple won a human egg, along with IVF services, to be provided in the US (as UK law prohibited such a prize draw). Controversial or not, apparently, the Bridge Center were not the only organisation to realize how profitable such a raffle might be.

From the States, a similar circumstance, without the donated human genetic material. Dr. Mark Trolice, an infertility specialist, started the charity Fertile Dreams to help those who, like his own wife, have difficulty conceiving. Every year, they sell raffle tickets to raise funds for the organisation, with the grand prize being a full round of in vitro fertilization treatment. The group also encourages infertile couples to consider adoption, as Dr. Trolice and his wife have, completing their family with 5 children!

Last year’s raffle winners, Niki and Fred Trusty, won big. They had already decided, after many years of failing to conceive, to give IVF a try, and attended Fertile Dreams’ annual conference, Paths to Parenthood. Hearing of the prize draw, Fred calculated the odds and the couple decided to take a chance—20 chances, actually. The purchased 20 Raffle Tickets, spending $500 (about £320) and won the treatment. Doctors harvested 18 of Niki’s eggs, one of which eventually became her son, Harrison, now 6 months old. She calls him her miracle baby.

Planning your own prize draw? No, you can’t raffle off your own children, but you can think about what your group has to offer, and what your supporters likely desire. Like the Trusty’s investment, the price of your Raffle Ticket may seem small compared to the value of winning that top prize!

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Here’s a novel suggestion for leveraging the power of Gift Certificate, Raffle Tickets, and charity events, which benefits both the not-for-profit charity and the for-profit sponsor! It’s a variation on the scaled prize draw, which I had discussed at length in the past.

This version can truly benefit both organisations:

• Increases brand awareness for both groups
• Garners good will for both groups
• Provides attendees with a value-added bonus
• Boosts traffic at the sponsor’s shop

It works best at a charity event sponsored by a brick-and-mortar shop. Here’s how you do it.

Inside the venue, set up a small display of prizes: merchandise from the sponsor’s shop. A volunteer should monitor these prizes and sell Raffle Tickets, perhaps for a pound each. Other volunteers can certainly move about the venue selling more Raffle Tickets, if you wish to push sales.

At the gate, all entrant receive a Gift Certificate, good for a free Raffle Ticket for, say £50 of merchandise at the sponsor’s shop. Here’s the key: the Gift Certificate can only be redeemed for a Raffle Ticket at the sponsor’s shop. Donors who attend the event must stop by the shop to benefit from the prize draw. If the display inside the venue is done properly, customers will be eager to visit the brick-and-mortar location to see more goods.

In the meantime, the first prize draw adds an extra element of festivities to the evening. Guests can examine the merchandise, purchase tickets, and await the draw. You can increase excitement by awarding prizes throughout the evening, continually reminding people that there is still time to buy more Raffle Tickets (save the most valuable prizes for last) and that they can visit the sponsor’s shop after the event to arrange for another Raffle Ticket!

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