Raffle to raise money - iPod Touch raffle generated $750

Hello Walkers - Just wanted to let you know of a fund raising event I held this past week which was very successful. 

I raffled an iPod Touch.   I posted the information on my Facebook status and through email to everyone in my addressbook.  I decided to offer 75 "tickets" at $10 each.  Anyone interested in purchasing tickets was directed to my Avon Walk page and asked to make a donation in $10 increments.  The donor could choose to donate $50 and that would give them 5 chances to win the iPod.  I kept track of the people donating during the raffle period.  Once I hit 75 tickets sold, I closed the raffle. 

I was expecting it to take a couple of months to sell the 75 tickets, instead it only took a week.   You can take a look at my blog post about the raffle for information: http://amberstang.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/ipod-touch-raffle-to-ben...  The only paragraph that I removed from the post was the one directing people to the Avon Walk donation page (I don't want anyone to donate now and expect to be part of the drawing as it is finished).

I am thinking about holding another raffle in a month or two because of the popularity and success of this one.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Nowland on April 5, 2010 at 9:40am
Hi Karen,

WOW!! That is great and an easy way to generate money into your fundraising account! I like how you approached that. I have to ask you one question though...was the iPod donated or did you purchase it. Just wondering as it might be something that a few our team members who are struggling a bit might want to do. Even if you did purchase it on your own (on sale I'm sure), it still works out pretty well and who doesn't want an iPod. :)

Thanks for sharing!
Michelle :)
Permalink Reply by Kim A on April 6, 2010 at 12:33pm
I was wondering the same thing... I was thinking about doing another raffle and wondered if you bought it and then reimbursed yourself or if you found a buisness to donate it. When we did our purse raffle I bought and donated it to the raffle without reimbursing myself (figured it could be one of my personal donations) However if I do the IPOD I will reimburse the cost and use the rest of the money for donation, but if I do it allowing online donations like you did, I wouldnt be able to reimburse myself. Ahhh Im rambling lol

Anyway Congrats on your success and thanks for the great idea :)

Kim
Permalink Reply by Karen Rosenzweig on April 6, 2010 at 3:35pm
Actually, I had won the iPod in a raffle late last year. I already had one, so I thought, why not re-reraffle it :-) Because of the success of the previous raffle, I am planning on buying another iPod and doing another raffle.

I'm just trying to figure out how to collect money for this new raffle. If I buy the iPod, do I get reimbursed (get cash from people instead of having them donate on my Avon webpage) or do I just consider it my donation to the walk? I'd rather not deal with checks and cash. Any thoughts on what you would do?
Permalink Reply by Stephanie Krueger on April 7, 2010 at 8:27am
After seeing such a great turn out on your raffle, I was trying to think of ways that my team could do that. I was thinking after our next spaghetti dinner, since most everyone paid in cash, to take some of that cash and buy one and raffle that off.
Permalink Reply by Kim A on April 7, 2010 at 9:44pm
Wow the re-raffle is a great idea! When I did my purse raffle we did raffle tickets with cash/check donations, had a few people selling the tickets. I was thinking that you couldnt do online donations for raffle tickets because I thought that was against tax rules for some reason- I thought I remembered reading something about receiving nothing for the donation ( I could be way off this is my first year ever doing anything like this so maybe Im just confused)

I donated the purse (but cant keep donating high cost products or my husband will have heart failure lol). If you do exclusively online there wouldnt be anyway for u to be reimbursed (unless you reimburse from something else that is a cash event) Maybe you could do a combination? Sell enough tickets by cash/check to reimburse yourself and then do the rest online? I was thinking that if I reimburse myself I would do 100 tickets , cover the cost of the ipod still end up with around 800 dollars.

Good Luck :) If you think of another way to do this let me know please

Kim
Permalink Reply by Dawn Dossey on January 14, 2011 at 6:29pm
Do you know of any sites that do the online raffles?
Permalink Reply by Karen Rosenzweig on January 14, 2011 at 10:57pm
The raffle I did really wasn't an online raffle. Rather I posted the information to my Facebook friends and sent and email to those who aren't on FB.  I haven't heard about online raffle sites.
Permalink Reply by Dawn Dossey on January 14, 2011 at 11:33pm
Did they mail you the money? 
Permalink Reply by Karen Rosenzweig on January 15, 2011 at 10:50am
No. I provided a link to my Avon Walk page and told them to make the donation there. This way I did not have to deal with the cash and checks. I kept track of who donated during the raffle time period and how much they donated. Each $10 donation gave them 1 chance to win. If someone donated $100, they had 10 chances to win.
Permalink Reply by Rachel Holton on January 25, 2011 at 3:04pm

So what was the timing of your raffle?  I am going to try and get donations for a raffle but would like to hold off to see if I get enough unsolicited donations.  I know I will probably get a few hundred from my closer friends and family right off the bat.  I would feel a bit bad if they get "cheated" out of the chance to win something because they donated early.  But I suppose if they were truly my friend they would be glad to support whether or not there was an incentive.

 

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Dawn Dossey on January 25, 2011 at 4:37pm

I have started my raffle and had a few donations prior to it.  I did have one "friend" that brought up that they should get raffle tickets for their donation and I went ahead and gave them to her.  I offered it to another friend and she told me NO that she wanted to buy the raffle tickets that it was a cause that was dear to her heart.  She gave me a $50 donation AND bought $50 in raffle tickets!  

 

I have a few other true friends that are selling the tickets for me!  I can't sell them at work, so I'm selling through facebook and emails and my friends. 

 

Good luck!

 

 

Permalink Reply by Rachel Holton on January 25, 2011 at 4:40pm
Awesome!  What are you raffling? I really need to hit the pavement for donations as I will be walking in Houston and it's the early one.  Thanks for the response!

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