Perhaps you’re a member of an environmental organisation, or perhaps you simply love Mother Earth and want to do all you can to preserve her sweetness for future generations. How can you reduce your prize draw’s footprint and communicate your values?

Prizes

The easiest way to show your supporters that you care is to offer them prizes that offer a solution. Perhaps you can find a company willing to donate some solar panels in exchange for a great deal of publicity if you’re holding a large raffle and expect to attract many donors. Or, for smaller prize draws, perhaps a simple compost bin, or a homemade solar oven. Ask a contractor to offer his or her services evaluating a home for energy efficiency.

Printing

Choose Raffle Tickets printed on recycled paper, or ensure that used Raffle Tickets will be recycled later. Find a printing company that uses environmentally sustainable processes such as recycling used printer cartridges, depending on alternative energy sources, and relying on environmentally friendly shipping companies.

Publicity

The Internet is quite green; it takes very little energy, especially if you’re using a newer computer. While you may not want to forgo traditional print publicity entirely, use all your online resources for the best coverage and promotion. Send email newsletter, post links to forums, and spread the word with social networking. Be sure to scan all your posters and upload the images. Put your website to work!

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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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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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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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The best intentioned fundraisers may court disaster if they are unprepared for the human element. You may succeed at bookkeeping, organising, and research, but if you can’t speak to your donors, you will find yourself disappointed again and again.

When you are selling Raffle Tickets, it’s ever so much more important to rehearse a proper pitch to potential customers. While you must of course be able to answer any questions regarding your charity, it’s best to lay all your cards out on the table straightaway.

For instance, rather than approaching strangers and asking, “Would you care to purchase a Raffle Ticket,” it makes more sense to provide the information that will persuade them to trust you and want to help out. Create your own introductory script, such as this one:

“Hi, my name is Ticket Girl and my organisation, Reading Seed, has been working to promote youth literacy since 1999. We send scores of volunteers to work with underprivileged children to ensure that every child in our city can read to standards by grade three! We’re selling Raffle Tickets, with all the proceeds earmarked to purchase supplies, including books for children who have none, small prizes to encourage young readers, and to cover the cost of training new volunteers.”

Speak with cheer and authority, with appropriate friendliness, and remember to smile!

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Have you ever participated in a cakewalk? There is something to be said for the game in which everyone wins. A spirit of camaraderie and joy infuses those gatherings. Each participant contributes something and goes home with a prize.

You can capture the spirit of the cakewalk with a book raffle. This is a fundraising activity for groups with no capital whatsoever. If your organisation can afford to print its own Raffle Tickets online, this adds a lovely souvenir to the game, but even if you cannot buy Raffle Tickets, you can still come out ahead.

Simply ask each participant to bring a gently used book to the fundraiser. Ask them to choose something they have enjoyed, which they believe others in your group will also enjoy. Each participant checks in, deposits their book on the prize table, and receives a ticket, depositing the stub into a hat or bowl. Charge a small amount to play; all those pence will add up! At an appointed time, or at intervals throughout the evening, stubs are drawn, and the ticket holder is called to choose a book from the prize table. Everyone receives a new book, and your group earns more money!

Of course, you need not make it a book raffle. Use this same model with any commodity your group may enjoy:

• Gently Used Toys
• Yarn or Fabric
• Baked Goods
• CDs
• Sporting Goods
• Clothing
• Craft or Scrapbooking supplies

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Spring is still a long way off. In the absence of the sun’s warming presence, why not warm the cockles of your heart with a flowery show? Summon up the presence of warmer days with a floral-themed Raffle Ticket. Just print out a stack of Rose Raffle Tickets and your team can start selling flowers that never wilt and have no need of water. It’s the smart way to brighten those cold, dark days.

A Red or Yellow Rose Raffle Ticket is a clever set-up for a Valentine’s Day prize draw, but it also suits environmental organisations, florists, Mother’s Day events, tea and garden parties, or any celebration that anticipates the vernal equinox and the verdant growth that follows. Whenever you want to rejoice in all that is lovely in the world, consider the intricate beauty of the rose, reproduce in faithful, high-resolution colour.

With designs this lovely, you may find yourself planning a Festival of Roses simply for the pleasure of sharing these beautiful roses with your supporters! Even with frosty winds and snow in the air, warm flowery designs anticipate the coming thaw. Can’t you smell the sweetness?

If you’re prepared to start planning a prize draw for later in the year, think about printing your own Rose Raffle Tickets online. Look smashing in print, earn more money for your organisation, and start spreading the joy of the upcoming season!

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Have you had much success selling Raffle Tickets to support your school, business, or charitable organisation? If so, you know it’s a smart way to add some extra cash to your annual budget. If you’ve never tried holding your own prize draw, or you’ve been disappointed with past results, now is the time to start preparing for a successful charity fundraiser.

Your success depends on a few factors:

• Your organisation’s reputation
• The value of your prizes
• The cost of your tickets
• The skills of your sales team
• Publicity and exposure

If your reputation is already stellar, you can build on that, but if people are skeptical of your group, use your prize draw as a means of getting your message out and creating better buzz around your name.

Regarding prizes and ticket prices, do put some good thought into these choices. You may have to make many phone calls, use your networking skills, and perhaps even call in some favors to find prizes that people can get excited about. Then, price accordingly. For big ticket items, you can certainly ask for two pounds per ticket (the legal limit), but remember, you can make the same amount of money even if you charge less, by selling more tickets.

Let your sales team speak for you and show you in your best light. Your team should be able to talk coherently about your mission, and they should be willing to follow the crowds! Sporting events and street fairs are wonderful places to send your team. The more exposure they give you, the more money you’ll make. Make sure to write about your upcoming prize draw on your own website, but also on blogs and forums. Send press releases to the newspaper. Let people know when and where tickets will be available.

Start planning now and reap the rewards throughout the year!

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