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!

While not widespread in the States, bars in the American state of Minnesota are also familiar with this tradition. It seems nothing heats up a frigid night in that region than the excitement of a prize draw. For most of the year, they need not even worry about the meat going off while they continue drinking. Simply popping their cuts into the boot keeps them even colder than an icebox!

In New Zealand and Australia, such raffles are also known as “the meat tray.” As the name implies, these prize draws usually offer a tray of meats. Perhaps it will contain meat suitable for the barbecue, but more often, the trays are breakfast trays (with sausage, bacon, and eggs) or seafood trays. Care must be taken in these climates to keep the seafood trays fresh and cold!

In any event, Raffle Tickets are sold, the atmosphere in the pub remains jovial, and the charity hosting the prize draw benefits. Everyone goes home happy. Meat raffles are a simple way to make a few pounds in a short period of time, while brightening the day of everyone in the pub. Looking for a new fundraising opportunity? Try some meat?

No!

The big moment should be, after all, a big moment! This is the minute your entire raffle campaign has been leading up to! Make it sparkle. make it a moment to remember. Turn it from a someone’s hand fishing around in a hat full of tiny scraps of paper to a spectacle that will keep the crowd talking and double your event attendance next year. Make it a moment people won’t forget, a moment people will regret missing.

• Announce the time left until the draw at regular intervals.
• Stress that Raffle Tickets are still available for purchase.
• If possible, display the prizes prominently at your event
• Have a microphone and a podium? Use them.
• Appoint an engaging MC, someone who can talk and joke with the crowd.
• Find a local celebrity to draw the actual Raffle Tickets.

When the winners are announced, don’t skimp on the celebration. Call them up to the podium if you can. Media attention may be helpful. Perhaps you can convince a local news source to cover your event, in which case photographs are in order. In any case, you will want someone from your organisation to take snapshots of your winners as they claim the prizes. Let them pose with your celebrity guest, or with their raffle prizes.

If you already have a band, get them in on the action! Let them play an upbeat song as each winner takes the stage. Inexpensive tiaras or paper crowns make an excellent and amusing addition to the celebration.

Whatever you do, keep the atmosphere charged with excitement! Your supporters will go home happy, whether or not they’ve won, and you will have created your own publicity. Next year’s event will be even more well-attended!

Your raffle will be unique. If you have held a similar prize draw in the past, you make have some basis of comparison, but your organisation and supporters change from year to year, and you will have to change your expectations as well. While your Raffle Tickets will print and ship in about twenty-four hours from the time you place your order, the length of your own event may vary.

Perhaps your raffle aims to earn a small amount of money to support an immediate cause. If you will be selling Raffle Tickets only to co-workers, or to customers in a particular pub, you may want to make an announcement in advance. A small sign may inform people that you will be selling tickets only during lunch hour, or between six and eight p.m., on a certain day. For small raffles, or raffles held along with a small event, it may be best to create a finite block of time for sales, and stick to it. Then you can hold the draw at the end of that time and announce the winners while all contestants are still there.

Larger raffles may require more time. You will still want to make an announcement regarding when tickets will be available. If you believe you can meet your sales goals in two weeks, that is a reasonable length of time. Some organisations may be more comfortable stretching the process out. You can sell tickets for a whole month, or an entire season. Just be certain to publicise and honor your own schedule.

Keep in touch with your sales team. They should have a better idea of how much excitement there is in the draw, how many tickets they think they can sell, and how long your audience will remain interested in the process. For large items such as houses and cars, your supporters will be willing to wait months to learn if they’ve won. If you are offering small prizes such as DVDs or books, you mostly likely will want to close the draw after a few hours and distribute prizes right away.

Keep your eye on the clock–or the calender–and you should be able to determine the best length of time for you!

from your benefit, it’s always a lovely idea to add a raffle to a big event. It’s like a dollop of jam on top of a scrumptious stack of ticket sales. If you’re already throwing a party or a charity affair, why not ride that publicity, exposure, and built-in customer base to even bigger profits?

It’s so easy to tie a raffle into the big event, because you can print your raffle tickets at the same time that you print your admission tickets. In fact, you can print a matching Event Kit, not only for raffle and general admission, but for invitations, posters, fliers, and postcards, even VIP passes and gift certificates! How convenient is that?

For example, just glance at these matching tickets, one for the raffle and the other a general admission ticket. How wonderfully professional and gorgeous they look together:

To me, such designs make purchasing the tickets much more compelling. And imagine the recognition if your mailing list has already received invitations with the same design.

When your big charity fund raiser offers the chance to win big prizes, your patrons will show that much more enthusiasm. They’ll have the opportunity to help you even more, while taking an exciting chance. Everyone loves to win, and even if they don’t win, they love the anticipation leading up to the drawing. Sell raffle tickets before the event and give your guests one more thing to look forward to.

Orchestrate the raffle so it becomes a focal point of your gala, along with the dinner, dancing, awards, and anything else you have planned. Remind your guests to bring their raffle tickets and stay until the drawing. You might even persuade some high rollers to buy more tickets at the last minute, to increase his chances of winning.

Match your fund raising efforts to your budget and your needs. Match your event to your print job. Match your dreams to the right tickets for every occasion!