Every school or school P&C should run a raffle as part of their fundraising program, every single year because ...
Raffles can raise lots of money for schools!
The amount of effort required to organise a raffle is minimal and there are a few steps/jobs that can be shared by a few people either staff or P&C members (you can also encourage the greater school community). The amount of money raised can be significant if you can get others to lend a help!
Primary schools and small high schools can run a "whole school" raffle (i.e. each family from the school is sent home with a small book of raffle tickets). Large high schools may decide to run smaller targeted raffles. They could do this to support the band or sports team etc. Raffles can also be combined with any school event such as fetes, trivia nights, or any school event where parents or the community are involved.
Below are the basic steps required to run a raffle and a few helpful hints to improve your results.
- Get your P&C and school principle/admin staff onside. We suggest getting one person that is aware of all proceedings and they can delegate jobs.
- Estimate the number of tickets you think can be sold (and the amount of money that could be raised). e.g. 200 families in the school may be able to sell 200 books of 10 tickets per book, each ticket being $2 for a maximum of $4,000 worth of sales (you may like to add a sellers prize to encourage children/families to sell more).
- Organise some prizes that "fit" with how much money can be raised. For example, if you believe you can sell $2,000 worth of tickets the first prize should be somewhere between $300 - $600. You can go higher or lower but you should try and be fair. Note: There are legal requirements about the value of prizes vs number of tickets sold to stop unfair winnings (if you be sensible there is nothing to worry about).
- It's best if you can get prizes donated, or at minimum sponsored by a local business. If you can get a business to donate a good first prize that is great - if not maybe ask if you can pay half and ask the donating business to donate the other half. Many schools get all of their raffle prizes donated and just put a "donated by ..." next to each prize! So ask everyone you know if they can donate a prize. If you don't get any prizes donated write a generic "asking for raffle prizes" letter, and drop it off at local businesses. You would be amazed at what local businesses will do if you just ask! If you get a major prize donated it is always nice to include their logo on the ticket.
- You will need to decide when the raffle will be drawn and ensure everyone is given enough time to sell the tickets, but not too much time for them to "leave it until later".
- So now you need raffle tickets. If it is a small raffle just buy some at your local newsagent for a few dollars - if it is a larger raffle (you can see us to get your raffle tickets printed!). Note: There are legal requirements as to what should be printed on the tickets so check your local state regulations.
- Ask the school admin staff to send a book home with each student - get them to send them home in an envelope with instructions (here at Budget Raffle Tickets we give you the option of including instructions on the front cover of each book to reduce the work load for admin staff). Have some spares that can be sent home if people sell more then 1 book or if they will be sold at any school functions etc.
- Encourage everyone to sell tickets - promote what great things will be done with the proceeds and put information in the newsletter, school website or large signs around the school. If you can come up with a sellers prize this is a great way to get children/families enthusiastic about selling the tickets.
- Collect all of the money and unsold tickets, put all of the sold ticket stubs into a barrel (we just use a large box - give it a good stir or shake!) and draw out the winners! It's best if the prize draw can be combined with a school event - but a regular school assembly will do.
- Count and bank the money and decide what great things you can buy for your school.
- Always be on the lookout for raffle prizes / ideas for next year.
There are dozens of ways you can use to improve sales like having themed raffles (Easter, Mothers/Fathers day etc), but we suggest you only run 1 major raffle per year and possibly 1 or 2 smaller ones targeted at smaller groups within the school.
We would love to hear of your success stories so we can share them with others.
Get started today! It's not that hard and only a few hours of work and you can raise some much needed funds for your school and this can make a real difference!
Good Luck! 