If you are struggling for school fundraising ideas, what better way to raise money for your cause than return to the basics and include a raffle at your next fundraising event!

Raffles are a regular feature in many a fundraiser and can be a great success if they are run well. They are fun for everyone involved, providing excitement for the buyers of tickets that can be shared with the organizers. In addition raffles can be very lucrative for the organization that are raising the money. In this article I will outline how to implement this classic fundraising idea, and how to run a successful raffle.

It is possible to run many different types of raffle. The choice is yours and the decision may rest on the venue in which you are running your event, the time that is allocated to the event, or to the number or value of the prizes that are available to be won. The two raffles that will be outlined in this article are the tombola and raffle draw.

Where do the prizes come from?

One major benefit of running a raffle is that the prizes are donated. This means that any tickets bought provide practically a hundred percent profit. There are a number of ways in which a school can gain donated prizes.

One is to get the children to solicit the prizes from local businesses by writing letters to them, explaining what the school is raising money for, how they intend to do so. The letters should then ask for support for the cause in the form of a physical item to be used as a raffle prize. Success rates will be much higher if the children write the letters. This could also be done in class, as the writing exercise can be very educational and can also be beneficial for the children’s confidence.

Another way to achieve donations for prizes is through parents. Send letters home with the children appealing to parents to donate unwanted items for use at the school’s fund raising event. Again explain the cause and what the money made will be used for.

Promoting the raffle by gauging the desire of prizes

Before the raffle, the most valuable or desirable donations should be split from the least. The more desirable should be used in the raffle to entice people to buy tickets, whereas the less desirable should be sold at cheap prices in a car boot/junk sale type manor.

As the children will provide the majority of excitement for buying the raffles tickets, they should be used to gauge which items will be the most desirable prizes. Get them to clap or cheer at varying levels depending on how much they would want the various prizes. The items that create the most excitement and noise will be the best prizes to promote the raffle with.

Hampers, wine, and other prizes that will appeal to the parents rather than the children, should also be used to engage the parents in the raffle. Parents may get bored of buying their children raffle tickets with the chance to only win prizes that cater for the children. However, by including prizes which appeal to adults, the raffle more fun and worthwhile for the parents.

Running a tombola

One way to run the raffle is to number all the items allocated as raffle prizes and put them on display. Place the raffle tickets in a raffle drum (also known as a tombola). Charge people to spin and pick tickets from the raffle drum. Tickets picked can be exchanged for prizes if the numbers match.

The tombola can be run continuously throughout the fundraising event, or until prizes run out. This, however, also presents a negative aspect of the tombola; if prizes run out, then the ticket sales will stop. One way to try and prolong the lifespan of the tombola is to fill the raffle drum with many more tickets, and charge slightly less to buy them.

It is also a good idea to give people who do not get a prize a cheap sweet. This will keep the children happy!

Announcing the winners

An alternative to the tombola is a raffle draw. The tickets are sold throughout the event, and then, at a specified time, numbers are drawn from a hat for each prize. For this to work the prizes must be desirable. However if a raffle draw is run well with good prizes, the winners can be announced at the end of the event, giving people an incentive to stay at the fundraiser for longer. This will give you, the organizers, a longer period of time to sell, feed, and entertain people attending the event, providng the opportunity to raise more money for the school.

A benefit of the raffle draw is that tickets can be sold everywhere, as there is no need for a raffle drum. Ticket books can be given to volunteers preparing and selling the food, volunteers selling items at the ‘junk’ stall, and volunteers can approach people in order to sell the tickets and promote the raffle.

In both cases, incentives should be given to buy more tickets. For example, you could offer tickets at a dollar each, or a strip of eight tickets for five dollars. This will increase the volume of tickets sold, and help increase the profits made from the raffle.

Raffles are a great way to add money to the amount you raise at fundraising events. They are very low cost and are a proven school fundraising idea. Also, the children can get involved, but above all they are great fun!

Stuck for ideas for raising money ?  Check out this list of over 101 fundraising ideas !

This comprehensive list of ideas is the perfect resource for your church, charity, PTA, middle or high schools, christian kids groups, non-profit group, scout troop, youth ministry or sports club.

1.      100 Club
2.      Annual Dinner Dance / Party
3.      Annual Event – dance/fireworks/New Year party, etc
4.      Annual Subscription/Membership
5.      Art Sale / Auction
6.      Auction of Promises
7.      Auctions of Promises
8.      Bad Hair Day
9.      Balloon Races
10.      Balls & Dances – mid-summer, Valentines Day, New Year or Christmas
11.      Barn Dances
12.      Beetle Drive
13.      Bingo
14.      Bucket or Street Collections outside stores and in shopping malls
15.      Burns Night Celebrations
16.      Cake Bake
17.      Car Boot sales
18.      Car Wash
19.      Carol Singing
20.      Celebrity Speaker Event (eg.figures)
21.      Challenge Events
22.      Charity Stall for Sales of Second Hand items
23.      Cheese & Wine Evenings
24.      Chess Competition
25.      Christmas Card & calendar sales
26.      Christmas Fair
27.      Clay Pigeon Shoot
28.      Clothes Swap – ask people to donate those unwanted items with their price tags still on
29.      Coffee Morning
30.      Concerts
31.      Cookery Book
32.      Cookery Demo or Themed Food Evening
33.      Country Walk or Ramble
34.      Craft Fair
35.      Crazy Golf Match
36.      Disco
37.      Doughnuts – idea for students and young people.  High profit margin
38.      Donations
39.      Duck Races
40.      Easter Egg Hunt
41.      Face Painting
42.      Family Portrait / Photo
43.      Fancy dress party
44.      Fashion Shows
45.      Fetes
46.      50/50 Raffle – you sell tickets , the winner from the drawing wins half the money raised.
47.      Film Premiere – sponsor or show a new film, ask for “donations” rather than charge a fee
48.      Fireworks Display
49.      Flower Arranging Demonstration
50.      Football Match / Tournament
51.      Fun Runs
52.      Garden Parties
53.      Generous Giving from Wealth Individuals
54.      Gladiators / It’s a Knockout
55.      Golf Events
56.      Grants from Fundraising Bodies & Trusts
57.      Helping Hand service – offer to cut peoples grass asking for a donation in return
58.      Horse Racing evening
59.      International Evenings – themed evenings, Italian, Indian, Australian, etc
60.      Just Giving – use Facebooks and MySpace to let your friends and family know all about it
61.      Karaoke Evening
62.      Litter Picking – Sponsored
63.      Love-grams for Valentines day (for students)
64.      Make Overs
65.      Mile of Pennies / Coins
66.      Mufti, Dress Down or Non-Uniform Day
67.      Murder Mystery evening
68.      Music Quiz
69.      Mystery Tour / Trip
70.      Open Garden Events
71.      Paint balling
72.      Pancake Day party
73.      Parachute Jump
74.      Plant Sale
75.      Play station party – get your mates to bring their PS2 & PS3’s
76.      Poetry Competition
77.      Pub Tournaments – e.g. darts, Skittles, darts, pool, cards
78.      Quit It – give up chocolate / smoking / etc for a week / month
79.      Quiz Night
80.      Raffles
81.      Rambles
82.      Read-a-thon – ideal for primary schools, students get sponsored for every book they read
83.      Run a Marathon
84.      Santa Letters writing
85.      Santa’s Grotto
86.      Scavenger Hunt
87.      Selling Christmas Gifts from Catalogues
88.      Seventies Night / Disco
89.      Singing Telegrams on Mother’s Day. Ideal for students.
90.      Smarties tubes – collect £1 coins for your cause
91.      Sponsored Abseiling
92.      Sponsored Anything – Hot Tub-a-thon, you name it, having fun is the name of the game !
93.      Sponsored Head/Hair shave
94.      Sponsored Jail break
95.      Sponsored Silence
96.      Spring clean your wardrobes and sell on eBay
97.      Spring Flowers & Hanging Baskets – Demonstration & Plant Sale
98.      Strawberries & Cream Tea party – at Wimbledon time.
99.      Talent Show
100.      Ten Pin Bowling
101.      Tennis tournament
102.      Treasure Hunts
103.      Trips & Outings
104.      Unwanted Gift Sale – perfect after Christmas
105.      Used Stamps
106.      Wine Tastings
107.      Salsa Night
108.      Welly Throwing Competition

Helpful Tips for New Fundraisers

The first tip that I have for any new fundraiser is to find out what you want to get out the whole process.  There are a number of reasons why a person gets into fundraising.  Sure, it makes a person feel good because they’re contributing to a good cause, but there are many other reasons.  You may be raising money for your favorite charity, your church, your school, a business or any number of other things.

Another tip is that you should have clear goals.  You should have a goal for how much money you want to raise with your fundraiser.  You should also have a clear time frame for achieving this monetary goal.  Some fundraisers only last a day, but there are plenty others that are ongoing, over a period of time.

Another tip is to give yourself plenty of preparation time.  There is nothing worse than being unprepared.  You have to have everything organized and know what everyone’s tasks are going to be.  You need to make sure that everyone knows what they are going to be doing and what is going to be expected of them.  You don’t want to try and wing it at the last moment and have everyone running around, not knowing what they are supposed to be doing.

Another tip is to make sure that you know what all of your expenses are going to be.  There is nothing worse than going into a fundraiser and not knowing what your expenses are going to be.  You have to run it with a business mentality, so create an income and expenditure budget and try and stick to it!

It isn’t how much money you make.  It is how much money you make after expenses are taken out of the total.  You can say, well we raised $10,000, but we spent $9,000 to do it.  You only ended up raising $1,000.  It sounds simple, but there are so many people that make this mistake and that is because they don’t figure in the costs ahead of time or they didn’t take the time to get a good estimate of what the costs were going to be.

Lets say that you’re going to raise money by mowing lawns.  If you’re going to do it yourself, you don’t have to worry about labor, but there are plenty of other costs.  You obviously are going to need a lawn mower and have a form of transporting it.  You’re also going to have to pay for gas and maybe an oil change or other forms of maintenance.

If you’re going to make and sell some crafts, in order to, raise money.  You’re going to have to think about all of the material costs that are going to go into it.  Unless you’re planning to sell them locally, you’re going to also have to find a way to ship the items and think about the material costs that go into shipping.  That would be the boxes, labels etc.  You may also have to look into advertising costs.  You may need to advertise online, in magazines or in newspapers.  You have to be thinking about all of these things.

Another tip is to simply have fun!  There is nothing worse than treating a fundraiser like a job.  You won’t have fun and that might effect the people around you and they might not have fun.  Just remember that you’re doing a great thing here.  Most people wouldn’t do what you’re doing, they just aren’t motivated enough.  You always have to keep the reward in mind.  Anything that you can do to spice things up and make things more interesting and fun, go ahead and do it, within reason, of course.

Another tip is to motivate yourself and the people who are helping you in the fundraiser.  One way to do this is to provide a little competition.  A little competition never hurt anybody and it will help ensure a more successful and more interesting fundraiser.  If you’re selling a product, give the person that sells the most a special reward.  That will help motivate people to work harder.

They not only have the motivation of raising more money for the fundraiser, in order to, help the cause, they will have motivation for beating everyone else and getting the special reward.

With this many ideas, fundraising is easy.  Just don’t forget to have fun!

Found this article at http://www.simple-fundraising-ideas.com/101_Fundraising_Ideas.html and thought it could be helpful

Schools, Churches, Clubs, raise money with popular local businesses scratch-off cards

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What is a cookie dough fundraiser?

The basic concept is the same as all order taker fundraisers. You equip your sellers with a brochure, an order form, and a basic sales script.

Your group does catalog sales of a three-pound tub of cookie dough. Average retail price is $10 per three-pound tub.  The dough comes in a wide variety of flavors, including some that are sugar free.

Some suppliers are now offering the dough in pre-sliced packages to further simplify the baking process. Others are offering it in a dry mix that doesn’t need refrigeration. All you do is add water, mix by hand, and you have your cookie dough ready for baking.

Click here for a free fundraising kit and free samples from our preferred cookie dough fundraiser supplier.

Profitability

Most fundraising companies offer the three-pound tubs of cookie dough at a 40%-50% discount. Some suppliers also offer a larger four-pound tub for slightly more money.

Cookie dough needs to be refrigerated, so this fundraiser requires a little more delivery preparation. Schedule a delivery pickup day where pre-bagged orders can be handed to drivers on their way home.

Kids like selling this because it’s something that they enjoy themselves. The average seller sells ten units or approximately $100 in revenue. That translates to roughly $50 in profit per seller, which is quite good.

Factors affecting your cookie dough fundraiser profitability include freight charges, quantity discounts, quality of the brochure, number of available cookie dough choices, and the need to keep the dough refrigerated.

This product works well for both elementary school and high school fundraising. Larger groups can easily earn a quantity discount above 50%. As always, do an RFQ fax quote to companies and get your best possible discount up front.

Sample Fundraiser Sales Script

Here’s what they need to do to sell:

1. Smile, use their name in greeting, and introduce yourself
2. Use the power of “because” (give a reason why)
3. Ask for their help (ask for the order)
4. Make eye contact and suggest a favorite

Example sales script: (Keep it short & sweet)

Hi, Mrs. Johnson! (Smile and make eye contact)

I’m Jimmy Roberts from down the street. (Hand over sales flyer with large bold print)

Our school is doing a cookie dough fundraiser because we need new computers.

Can you help us out with a $10 contribution? That gets you a three-pound tub of cookie dough. My favorite is the chocolate chip, but peanut butter is real popular too!

(Pause and wait for their response)

The important points are to smile, use a sales flyer, use the word because, ask for their help, and suggest an order size, then wait for a response.

Each prospect has a potential dollar value to your organization. Don’t waste prospects by not being prepared. Make sure all your sellers know what to say and how to say it.

Cookie Dough Fundraising Summary

The product is an easy sale because kids like it and their parents appreciate the convenience factor of a ready-to-bake mix. Profit margins are high and sales are generally multi-unit.

Most suppliers have an excellent selection of flavors and fairly competitive prices. It pays to shop around though and make sure you’re getting the best deal possible.

In addition to the brochure, use an easy to read flyer explaining your fundraiser. prep your sellers on exactly how to ask for help and explain what the funds raised will be used for.

Good luck with your cookie dough fundraising efforts!

Reprinted from an extremely helpful site http://www.fundraiserhelp.com/school-fundraising-ideas.htm , These guys offer great information about fundraising