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.

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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

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It’s time once again for

More Raffle Prizes That Never Were!

For the busy fundraiser, drumming up suitable donations for your organisation’s prize draw can be a time-consuming element of the job. Bumping elbows with the bigwigs, drumming up sympathy for the cause. Courting your monied supporters can get tiresome. Perhaps you have some valuable prizes right there in your own home. You can start printing your own Raffle Tickets even sooner once you know what you’ll be raffling.

• Your child’s macaroni collage: It’s priceless! The only question is, can you bear to part with it? It’s for a good cause, you know!
• Pile of comic books: Your spouse swears “they’ll be worth something someday.” Why not today?
• Collection of old tins from back fence According to Grandfather, these are genuine antiques! Suitable for target practice.
• How about a nice shrubbery? There’s loads of them just growing by the side of the road. Bring your own shovel.
• Chance to win more Raffle Tickets You could get quite a bit of mileage out of this one. No shortage of prizes, no end to the fund raising possibilities.

Of course, you’ll need to make all these decisions in advance prior to printing your Raffle Tickets. Must abide by the law, after all. Your supporters will thank you for it, and so with the Gaming Council!

Happy drawing!

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