I can’t believe I missed this one! I’m going to resist the urge to weigh in and simply report the news. Apparently, in March, a group raffled off a human egg. This was an enormously controversial move, not only because trafficking in human genetic material is a moral grey area at best, but also because the very terms of the raffle violate UK gaming laws. To circumvent this quandary, the treatment will be provided in America.

I’m not certain how much they were selling individual Raffle Tickets for, but the value of the prize is placed at £13,000. This covers not only the egg from a healthy female donor (the winner can choose a donor who looks like her, or choose based on the donor’s racial background, upbringing, and education) but also the cost of the IVF treatment needed to fertilise the egg with the male genetic material of ones choose and the implantation of the embryo into the uterus.

The company’s idea was to sell Raffle Tickets in order to promote their new service: Baby Profiling. It was a joint venture between a London fertility clinic called Bridge Centre, and and American group, the Genetics and IVF Institute (GIVF) in Fairfax, Virginia.

No matter how you break it down, this prize draw helped the group reach its goals. Not only did they earn money selling Raffle Tickets, they garnered a remarkable amount of publicity, a great deal of it free. Yes, much of the publicity was controversial, but I would argue that those who decry this prize draw are not potential clients to begin with. Their outrage, however, has allowed a greater number of potential clients to become aware of the clinic, as well as the technology.

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Ready to end the school year with a bit of excitement? Encourage your students to become team players, raise money, and build life skills with a massive prize draw before the summer holiday!

Selling Raffle Tickets helps children learn important skills: presenting themselves in front of adults, the power of persuasion, accounting for money, and more. Encourage each child to reach an appropriate sales goal. Prepare them in advance with scripts explaining who they are, what their school stands for, and what programs the money will support.

You may choose to have two levels of Raffle Tickets: a larger prize with more expensive ticket for adults, and a lower level that most children will be able to purchase with pocket money. For instance, for twenty-five or fifty pence, you could raffle off lunch with a favourite teacher or administrator, or some other coveted prize. Do your students like to make announcements over the PA? Eat pizza and ice cream at lunch? Leave class for some undirected computer time? Offer the prize that will motivate the children.

Offer prizes for those children who sell the most Raffle Tickets to grown-ups. Turn your prize draw into a math lesson: let them keep track of earnings, perhaps with a large graph shaped like a thermometer. Announce the winners in a public assembly and let their peers cheer on their accomplishment.

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Want to sell more Raffle Tickets?

The first thing you’ve got to do is print more Raffle Tickets. Why? This provides that extra psychological boost you and your sales team need to keep hustling. More Raffle Tickets means more work, but it also provides you a visual estimate of how much you’ll need to work.

If you tell your volunteers they must sell fifty Raffle Tickets apiece, and each of them can do so easily, why not tell them instead to sell one hundred Raffle Tickets? Even if they don’t hit their mark on the first try, they’ll still sell more than they would have if they only had the option of selling fifty!

Plan ahead to determine when and where you’ll make up the difference. Get out the local event calendar to check out fairs, festivals, and other large, public gatherings where happy crowds can be found. You may want to check with promoters to see if you can have a booth, kiosk, or table where you’ll be able to sit comfortably and wait for the crowds to come to you.

If you’ve gone to the trouble of obtaining a licence for a large prize draw, why not make the most of it? Open up your sales to other villages or counties. Recruit out-of-town volunteers. Use the telephone and the Internet to increase your sphere of influence.

Want to get big? It’s time to start thinking big.

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Whether you’re selling Raffle Tickets for your upcoming prize draw or engaged in other forms of fundraising, staying connected with staff, donors, and volunteers is imperative. A connected sales force is an engaged sales force, and yours will perform better if they know that you’re paying attention. How do you communicate?

Most everyone has a cell phone, making it easier than ever to ring up and ask after the numbers. Keep your calls short, to the point, and unobtrusive. If you reach voice mail, do the same.

Easy for you, convenient for them. You can add as much information as you possibly need. Downside: easily overlooked or ignored.

For important information, you may want to splurge on a stamp. Getting an actual piece of printed paper in the mail is something of an event these days. It’s more likely to be read, less likely to be lost.

Maintain an active community of volunteers by creating an online space where they can post their questions, concerns, and best wishes for the rest of the group and interact virtually.

Of course, your best bet is to ask people how they would prefer to be contacted. Some people adore the phone, and others turn off their ringers and hate to answer. Some people feel electronic communication is too impersonal, and others are far more likely to participate if the action takes place on FaceBook.

Organising your Raffle Ticket sales team is merely a matter of keeping the lines open!

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If your supporters and customers are interested in environmental causes, natural beauty, or the great outdoors, capitalise on their predilections with a Raffle Ticket that celebrates the splendour of our world. The Nature Series offers you four stunning landscapes on customisable Raffle Tickets, which can be ordered alone, or with their matching Event Kits.

Choose a vibrant Green Leaves theme to summon up the lushness of the forest after a spring shower; the Ocean theme, illustrating with the calm blue of the open water on a clear day; a Desert Raffle Ticket in sere yellow, reminiscent of summer’s heat and the exotic landscapes of Arabia; or the stark, wintry beauty of the snowy high-altitude landscape of the Mountain Event Kit.

When selling Raffle Tickets is your goal, a proper image can give you the proper edge! Select these natural lovelies, or choose from over 500 different designs to speak directly to your consumer audience. Attractive images catch the eye and the heart, helping you make more money.

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You probably already know that your sales numbers are only as good as your sales team, and your team—volunteers or paid staff—are only as good as their commitment to selling. If you wish to sell more Raffle Tickets, you may need to find further methods of motivating your sales team.

In the past, we’ve discussed some common motivators:

• Coffee and doughnuts
• Weekly staff meetings
• Prizes for top sellers
• Penalties for not meeting quotas
• Regular email communication

If you’ve tried all these methods and still wish your team exhibited a bit more enthusiasm, try something new.

Involve them more deeply in the decision process. For instance, choose a selection of Raffle Ticket templates and let your team vote on which design they’d prefer to sell.

Offer recognition. Let the team know that the top seller will receive not only a prize, but also recognition, such as a photo in the organisation’s newsletter, or an award at a large event.

Commemoration. Plaques, certificates, or trophies may help a volunteer sales force stay motivated through a lengthy charity campaign. Display them prominently throughout the duration.

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It may surprise you to learn that the most attractive prize one can offer in a prize draw is a holiday getaway. It surprised me to learn, anyway, as a new telly lasts a lot longer than a trip to Majorca, and a new car can take you on all manner of holidays, but there you have it. If you want to sell more Raffle Tickets, team up with a travel agent, an airline, or a hotel.

Arrange the type of holiday your supporters are most likely to prefer.

• For outdoors types, a camping trip
• For singles, a resort holiday
• For young couples, a romantic spa
• For families, a theme park
• For elders, a group tour

Use your imagination. Who is likely to buy your Raffle Tickets? Where are they likely to want to go?

If your donors are generous, an all-expenses paid trip to an exotic country across the sea might help you earn more money, but even a few nights in a hotel in London will appeal to those who feel stuck in their village and simply need to get away from it all for a little while. Wherever you can send them, they’ll be happy to go.

The more you can include, the better. Remember, a true holiday will require:

• Airfare (or bus fare, or money for petrol)
• Hotel or other lodgings
• Three meals a day
• Some form of entertainment

If you have a choice of locations, think of the extra you can include, such as lift passes for a skiing holiday, theatre tickets in the city, or hour-long massages at an expensive spa.

Then book the trip and start selling more Raffle Tickets.

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…when you print Raffle Tickets

Now is not the time to be coy! UK gaming law requires you to spell it all out, and indeed, printing your own Raffle Tickets with intuitive Raffle Ticket templates makes it easy to get all that information right where it belong: on the body of your Raffle Ticket.

• By Law you must include your registered charity number as well as the organisation under which you’ve received your licence to hold the prize draw. You must also include descriptions of the top three prizes, the cost of the Raffle Tickets, and the time and location of the actual draw. Of course you need to name your charity or organisation.

• In addition you must number your Raffle Tickets individually and provide space on the ticket stub for your supporters to write their names, addresses, and phone numbers or email addresses. If your prize draw is to be help in conjunction with a larger event, or if it is an annual drawing, you should add the name of the event!

Now you’ve included all the information that potential supporters want, as well as everything the government needs. But you needn’t worry about remembering it at all! Just find the design you like online and the ticket template will guide you through, with suggestions as to where each piece of information should go, so you won’t miss a thing.

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As the rain drizzles down and the temperatures rise, so do our spirits. The occasional view of the sun does not hurt in the least! And with the spring comes thought of rebirth. Has your organisation succumbed to the winter blues? Why not perk up your membership and your fundraising activities with a fresh coat of paint, so to speak?

Consider adding these tools to your charity arsenal:

• A new homepage, or a homepage with an updated look
• A new blog, or a makeover for your old blog
• An email newsletter keeping member informed

Now is also a lovely time to solicit donations of prizes for this year’s raffles. Let your own search coincide with everyone else’s spring cleaning and you may clean up yourself! Who knows what treasures lurk in the attics or cellars of your supporters? Ask around and you may discover items of real value, available for the asking. Such searches can be quite as much fun as your own home version of Antiques Roadshow.

If you collect a substantial number of old and forgotten gems, consider organising your prize draw around this theme. You may attract an entirely new segment of supporters when you offer old, unusual, or rare objects as prizes for your upcoming raffle. Be sure to add these fabulous prizes to the details when you print your own Raffle Tickets!

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I’ve entered so many raffles this week!

Some of them were free raffles, and others cost a pound or so to enter. I could be winning extra borrowing privileges at the Uni library, a 50 pound gift certificate to the Uni book store, a year’s subscription to a newspaper, a Curious George doll, a few different books by unknown authors, or a tiny torch that clips on to your book so you can read in bed without keeping your partner awake with excessive light.

As you may have guessed, I attended a large book festival this week!

While I often write about printing your own Raffle Tickets online to help you raise more money, free raffles have their place in the world. Rather than selling Raffle Tickets for fund raising purposes, completely free raffles help your organisation in another way: they help you to build your mailing list and create free publicity for your group. While potential supporters are filling out the information on your Raffle Ticket, you have an opportunity to pass out literature, discuss your mission, and generally create goodwill around your name.

Once you’ve mined the data from these Raffle Tickets, you can add the names and details to your database. Spreading the word about upcoming events and promotions is easier than ever. Remember, with free raffles, you need not obtain expensive prizes. Small, coveted items work just as well. What do people like? As you can see, an item like a book can draw certain customers to you. Perhaps a tray of meats from a local butcher, or an attractive scarf. If it’s attractive and perhaps a bit frivolous, you will quickly collect plenty of names while drawing in new supporters!

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