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 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 28, 2011
Educational Fundraising Success
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!
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 14, 2011
At a local fair last weekend, a pair of young boys approached me as I was talking to a fellow I knew from my gym.
“Buy a raffle ticket?” the bigger one said, waving a single ticket in my face.
“Um…” I replied.
“What’s it for?” my friend asked.
“For our school.”
But what would that ticket do for his school? The little chap couldn’t say. He didn’t know anything about the cause for which he was raising money. All he knew was the name of his school, but he couldn’t say whether they needed to raise funds for a new gym floor, to send the band to a competition or (as is the case with some schools) to purchase base essentials like paper and pencils!
“You can win $500!” the kid continued. “And the ticket is only $1!”
“But how many tickets do you think you’ll sell?” I asked. “How many did they print?”
The child didn’t know. And while $500 is a fair sum, the odds of winning depend only the number of tickets sold. For a cash raffle with a prize of $500, they would need to print at least 1000 raffle tickets and sell them all to make an appreciable profit. A “50-50″ cash raffle is the standard, although, by selling enough tickets, one could offer a large prize and still keep an even larger profit. In the case of a $500 50-50 cash raffle, that $1 ticket has a 1 in 1000 chance of winning.
But I couldn’t calculate the odds. I simply wasn’t given enough information to be moved by the child’s pitch, and these boys were old enough that there were no adults kept handily about to answer my questions. (Meaning, of course, that they were old enough that I wasn’t moved by the cuteness factor of their pitch, either.)
This underscores the need to prepare your sales team, whether they are seasoned professionals or 10 years old. Make a list of all the questions someone might conceivably ask about your raffle before you start selling booklets, and coach your crew to memorize the answers.
Needless to say, those kids didn’t sell me a raffle ticket that day.
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 January 8, 2011
Time is of the essence.
Your fundraising needs may be extensive, and your schedule is important, but you must keep in mind the needs of your donors as well. If you intend to sell Raffle Tickets for multiple prize draws in 2011, it is in your best interest to stagger them out.
Our experienced correspondents note that constant requests for money, particularly in a sluggish economy, can be irksome for your supporters. You may need it quiet badly, but remember that your fans are also experiencing the economic downturn. If they are good enough to give money a few times a year, the last thing you want to do is alienate them with repeated solicitations that seem endless.
Instead, schedule your prize draws so that you are selling Raffle Tickets at particular times when you are most likely to have success. A big raffle at the end of the year is a good idea, as is one that corresponds with a large event you hold annually. If you hold too many raffle, however, you may trigger a compassionate burnout, where followers begin to resent your request. Rather than continual, small draws, combine your funds or your prizes to hold a few larger draws at fortuitous times throughout the year.
