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.

Related posts:

1. The Long Draw: Your School Raffle Part II
2. The Long Draw: Your School Raffle Part I
3. Finer Points

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

Related posts:

1. The Long Draw: Your School Raffle Part I
2. School Raffles

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

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1. The Right Foot
2. School Raffles
3. Eyes on the Prize

Selling Raffle Tickets to support your local school is perhaps the simplest way to help earn more money for education. You need not organise food, drink, and entertainment, as you must for some charitable events, and no one need sort and delivery boxes of biscuits, candies, or other popular fundraising sales items. I might point out that such fundraisers also mean that a large percentage of your money goes to the organisation that sells the biscuits and candies to your school, whereas all prize draw profits stay at the academic institution.

The key to successful school prize draws is to motivate the salespeople: that is to say, your children. Small children may not be able to visualize the outcome of a successful draw. Perhaps they don’t understand why you need the money, or the long-term benefits they will receive. But they can certainly visualize winning a prize on their own.

You may choose to offer a large prize to the top salesperson, but an even better way to motivate them is to instead set up a second raffle for the kids, but they cannot buy tickets to this draw. Instead, they must earn those tickets. For instance, for every ten pounds of money they raise, they earn one ticket for a prize draw to win something they really want: such as an iPod or a new bicycle. Take a survey and determine what prize will best motivate them, and then watch them start selling!

Here’s a new tip for earning more money: the “fill in service.” If supporters buy a large amount of tickets, your students can fill in their names and contact information on the tickets for them. Make it a number worth your time: say, twenty-five pounds. You’ll be surprise how many people will buy more tickets to earn this free service!

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1. School Raffles
2. A Proper Number of Prize Draws
3. Need Help?

Your initial out-of-pocket cost in ordering your Raffle Tickets may be as low as fifteen pounds, meaning that you will spend no more than six p per ticket. That same ticket will sell for a minimum of fifty p (or, if you are feeling ambitious and have some brilliant prizes to offer), as much as two pounds! Are you ready to reinvest that thousand percent return on your investment? Where? How?

Most fundraising falls into four basic categories:

• Education Schools can always use a little more money for special programs. Printing your own Raffle Tickets in support of education at any level is a smart idea. With an army of adorable little salespeople, you can easily persuade donors to help raise money for new art supplies, athletic equipment, or field trips.
• Nonprofit Charitable organisations are subject to economic whims. While some benefactors will always give the same amount, others will donate less or not at all when their finances take a hit. Charity raffle draws are an easy way to make up the gap in less profitable years, or top off the coffers in prosperous times
• Theatre Most people enjoy live theatre, but do not realize what it takes to keep a small theatre viable. One easy way to generate excitement about a play or other theatre project is to hold a raffle in conjunction with the show. It’s a superb way to remind fans about your group while drawing a larger crowd.
• Music For bands, musicians, and promoters, the days leading up to a huge gig or record release can be tense and uncertain. Obtain added exposure for the launch when you print Raffle Tickets and offer them for sale, along with publicity materials that promote the music. Make sure you’re seen as well as heard when you sell Raffle Tickets

Athletic clubs, popular business, museums, and local governments can all find success selling Raffle Tickets as well. Wherever the money goes, you can print your own Raffle Tickets, resting assured that will only a little extra work, you can recognise a maximum benefit.

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