by ticketprinting on April 23, 2011
Having organised your school prize draw and sold most of your tickets, it’s time to turn your attention to the big event: the actual draw, where you will choose the winning raffle ticket and pass out the prizes. Make it exciting, draw a crowd, and keep selling raffle tickets right up until the moment you choose the winner.
Whether you’re holding the draw at a school dance, a reception, or a fundraising carnival, you can increase attendance with a celebrity appearance. Perhaps someone on your staff knows a true celebrity who can be persuaded to show up, but if not, consider that you do know someone whose presence will encourage others to attend: this might be a local sportscaster, a popular teacher, or even a popular older student.
Advertise the big event with posters and flyers. Print out invitation and event tickets to help your students and their friends feel special. Spread the word in any way you can. Use your social networks, website, and any other online forum where you can advertise the event.
Whatever the event, be sure to have students circulating with the remaining raffle tickets so you can keep selling right up to the last minute. Then, make a production of it! Use a microphone and an emcee. Gather a crowd. Find a drummer and get a drum roll. Draw out the moment: announce the number of tickets sold, the amount of money raised, and explain how this money will help your school. Then, have your celebrity draw the lucky winners and announce them. While the crowd cheers and the winners mount the stage, you can relax, knowing you’ve held a successful school fundraiser.
by ticketprinting on April 15, 2011
Having printed your customised raffle tickets online, you are now ready for the most difficult part of your big educational prize draw to support your school: selling all those tickets. Once those tickets are delivered, you can begin distributing them to your pint-sized sales force and send them out to sell.
Some things to keep in mind: how will you track sales? You need to decide in advance, but you should keep a record not only of how many tickets you’ve sold, but the names and contact information of everyone who purchases one.
While your students can certainly ask their friends, families, and neighbors to buy tickets, for maximum impact, you’ll want to use every tool in your arsenal. Other schools have had success with some smart ideas.
Consider finding a business or a festival that will allow you to set up a little table where your students can sell to passersby. If they have uniforms or costumes, they should wear them: the more adorable they look, the more tickets they will sell. Displaying the prizes prominently helps fuel sales. If this is not possible, at least have photographs of the prizes available.
Prepare your students by coaching them. You don’t want them to sound as if they’re reading off of cue cards, but they should be able to explain to potential customers where their money will be going. Let the students know why raffle ticket sales are important to their education. If they understand the meaning of the raffle, they can tell ticket buyers how their contribution will enrich the lives of children.
Next week: The Big Draw
by ticketprinting on April 8, 2011
Educational fundraising is an uphill battle: when your school needs money for extras (or even for essentials, when times are hard) and you must turn to the community for additional funding, generating interest and maintaining it over the long term requires a lot of forethought.
Long-term prize draws for nonprofit organisations such as your school can be fun, but they require a lot of hard work. Start planning in advance and make a success of the occasion. Choosing the appropriate prizes, proper sales strategies, and turning the final draw into an exciting event can all translate into success.
First, know your supporters. To whom will you be selling raffle tickets, and for what prize are they most likely to open their wallets? Ask around, or use an Internet quiz feature like Facebook Questions to get the best intelligence. Your draw will be a bigger success if people are excited about your prizes.
Next, prepare your sales force. Consider a separate prize draw for students who sell the most tickets, or else offer them their own tickets for a student raffle based on the number of tickets they sell. Get them excited to start selling, and teach them the fundamentals of sales. Be sure to teach them how to be safe as well as how to be polite and be good salespeople.
Then, set a date for the big draw. If you can incorporate it into a larger event such as a carnival, performances, or dance, you can increase interest and continue selling raffle tickets right up to the moment of the prize draw.
Once you know what prizes will be offered, how much they will sell for, and when the draw will take place, it’s time to print those raffle tickets. Choose an appropriate design online, fill out the ticket template, and print those tickets. They’ll be shipped to you so you can get your kids to start selling.
Next week: The big sales drive
by ticketprinting on April 7, 2011
Selling Raffle Tickets without a License
Games of chance fall under Gambling Act 2005: in most cases, your fundraiser will require a licence and some degree of government supervision if you intend to sell raffle tickets and hold a prize draw for a large, multi-day raffle open to the general public. One way to circumvent this oversight is to transform the game of chance into a trivia contest.
To do so, rather than simply selling the ticket, you are selling an opportunity to answer a trivia question, which may lead to a prize. In general, this is done by selecting a question that most of your contestants should be able to answer. For the most part, asking this question eliminates the need for a licence, and in general, there should be no problems.
However, there have been cases wherein organisations with higher profiles have been held under suspicion for asking questions that were too easy: common knowledge versus trivia. According to the law, the question must be complex enough to “deter a significant proportion of potential participants, or to eliminate a significant proportion of entrants.”
Don’t court trouble! Protect yourself by choosing a question that is not dumbed down. For instance, “Name the Prime Minister,” might be considered a no-brainer. Depending on your supporters, you might instead ask donors to solve a math problem, or answer a question that would only be common knowledge only within your group.
Naturally, there will be a number of correct answers. All these raffle tickets go into the hat, and from there, you may hold your fully legal prize draw!
by ticketprinting on March 22, 2011
Ready to print your own raffle tickets? If you’re uncertain, the advent of filling out your raffle ticket template is the perfect opportunity to determine whether or not you have taken care of the necessary details. An online ticket template, which prompts you to fill in all the required details, can help you identify any missing information.
Finding the prizes is your first step. Since you must identify the three largest prizes in your draw directly on the raffle ticket, it’s best to take care of this issue prior to considering the other details. What can you offer? The more attractive the prize, the more raffle tickets you can sell.
You must also identify the time and place of the actual prize draw. Don’t have this information? Figure it out immediately! If you do not already have a venue in mind, perhaps you can make a deal with someone who does have a space (such as a the owner of your local pub) and would appreciate the extra business your crown might draw. Choose a time and place.
How about prices? Typically, you’ll want to sell your raffle tickets for one or two pounds. Work out the sums: how many tickets will you need to sell at various prices to reach your sales goal.
Finally, if your raffle is to require a licence, go get it! This information must be printed on the body of the ticket, so you’ll need the licence number prior to ticket printing.
Review the information. If you’ve filled in all the blanks and it all makes sense, then you’re ready to print your own raffle tickets online and start selling!
by ticketprinting on March 13, 2011
Fundraising is always a gamble, but learning more about the successes and failures of those who have come before you can help ensure that you choose the correct path for your own financial accomplishments. Do you know others who have printed their own raffle tickets online, or organized their own prize draws? If so, have you not learned something from their experience? If not, would it not be helpful to find out how others have succeeded?
Coming soon, UK Ticket Printing will devote this space to sharing the stories of our customer’s successes (and failures!) for all to learn from. We’ll profile the best and worst prize draws you’ve ever seen, learn what to print on a raffle ticket, and see top fundraisers in action.
Have you a story you’d like to share? We’ll be contacting potential customers for future features, but if you have something to say right now, why not let us know through this blog? We’ll write an article about your group and your raffle, sharing links to your websites and pages for your upcoming activities, plus pictures of your event, your prizes, or your logo. There may even be some extra incentives for your future draws involved.
Keep checking this space for more top idea and the freshest thoughts on local and regional trends to make your upcoming activities more profitable than ever!
by ticketprinting on February 28, 2011
It may seem like a distant dream on a dreary day, but spring shall soon arrive, and with it, sunshine, flowers, and a mass migration to the out-of-doors. Your supporters have been holed up all winter. Why not provide them with a little taste of fresh greenery?
Printing colorful, vernal Raffle Tickets for your next fundraiser is the perfect way to welcome Persephone back from the Underworld while increasing your funds! Spread the joy of spring with the lush images of new life. Pictured above, one of UK Ticket Printing’s Nature Series, the Green Leaves Raffle Ticket, along with one of two Spring Fling designs. Both work wonders in providing some much-needed light after a gloomy season.
Consider giving your prize draw a festive name that summons the idea of new life and new possibility. Ensure your sales team maintains a sunny outlook as they go about selling tickets. Be sure to remind potential supporters that the weather is about to turn, the season will change, and that now is the time to support new ventures and nurture fresh shoots.
Your spring renewal starts with luscious, green Raffle Ticket designs, a splendid way to capitalize on the human heart’s hope for the new dawn of a new day.
by ticketprinting on February 22, 2011
Prize draws are a popular way to earn a little extra money for your business, club, or organisation. The simplicity of the prize draw, which can be easily arranged with nothing more than a roll of raffle tickets, or, if you are feeling ambitious, some lovely stapled booklets, perhaps printed with the name of your group or cause, and even customised with your logo.
If you’ve found success with a one or two day prize draw or raffle conducted within the auspices of your event (considered a “small lottery” under the law), it might seen logical to take it to the next step. Why not increase your profit by increasing the size of your prizes?
The answer to that is, of course, that this may be illegal. The law restricts small lotteries to prizes of with a value of 250 GBP or less, and forbids the awarding of a cash prize in such situations. You may already be aware of some of the other laws pertaining to small lotteries, lucky dips, tombolas, and sweepstakes. For instance, you may only sell these raffle tickets during the event, and you must choose the winner during the course of the event.
Cash Raffles may be arranged, but they require special licence and oversight. If you wish to maintain your fundraiser as a small lottery, you must avoid cash prizes. Otherwise, you must register with the Gaming Council and be subject to other rules and oversight.
If you’d like to learn more about using a prize draw or raffle as a fundraiser, you can ring the Institute of Fundraising on 020 7840 1000.
by ticketprinting on January 28, 2011
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.
by ticketprinting on November 27, 2010
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.
