Archive for December, 2010

Loving this story today. The Centralia Police Officers Association recently raffled off a truck in hopes of raising a small amount of money. But guess what? The man who won the truck (a business owner from out of town) donated it right back! That’s right–not only did they get some money by selling their raffle tickets, but they got to keep the truck for their own use in the community. That’s some serious generosity on the part of the towing company owner who won the raffle.

I really love this idea. I like to buy raffle tickets from charities when I can afford it. They don’t usually cost any more than $20 at most, so I’m not really out much when I don’t win (and who ever expects to?). But say I did win a prize from an organization that I really cared about? It never would have occurred to me to donate the prize right back, but what a great thing it would be. Say the prize is worth something like $1000 (or even more like the truck in this story). That’s like being able to donate all of that money to a cause that I care about for only $20. It doesn’t hurt my budget, and could do so much for an NPO.

I just saw an article about a raffle going on in my hometown that I think is a fantastic idea: an instant wine cellar raffle. They’re raffling off two cases of premium wine to the lucky grand prize winner, plus a couple gift certificates to a local restaurant for runners up. As a wine-lover myself, I can’t think of a more fun prize to hop for for the holidays. One $5 raffle ticket, and I could create a wine cellar in one day.

And not only is this a fun idea for a prize, but it is totally customizable to your organization’s budget. If you have a good amount of money to lay out initially on prizes, you can either increase the number of bottles of wine included in the prize or buy better quality wines. Or, you could offer more prizes, so that more ticket holders have a chance at winning. If you’re lucky, you can even find individuals willing to donate a bottle of wine each toward the prize.

If you buy pre-printed, standardized raffle tickets for your event, they do nothing more for you than to identify the ticket buyer with the ticket stub when it is drawn. Custom raffle tickets, on the other hand, allow you to get creative and communicate much more to your audience. Our standard tickets allow you nine lines of text. Think about how many things you could include in that space. And if you need more than nine lines, we’re happy to oblige–just fill out the “Optional Features” section of our order form. This section also allows you to request text on the backs of your tickets.

So what exactly should you put on your tickets? Well, of course you’ll want to start with the name of your organization or the specific event. We’d also suggest you include the date of the prize drawing, plus information as to whether or not the ticket buyer needs to be present at the drawing to win. This is simple courtesy and very helpful to your buyers. But adding other types of text can be even more beneficial to you. In order to get others who might see the tickets interested in the raffle, consider listing the top few prizes on the tickets, as well as the ticket prices (1 for $1, 6 for $5, etc.).

You can also get your logo or another image printed on your tickets. How better to brand your raffle event than to make sure that everyone who purchases your tickets sees your logo every time they look at the stub? We’ll even send you a proof of your tickets so that you can make sure that your artwork prints correctly before we ship your entire order.