Hi Michele
Please can you let me know - the people you were asking for donations from - I find it hard in the san francisco area to get donations esp that amount in such a short space of time
I'm not sure how much more money you were hoping to generate, but we raffle off "Principal for a Day" several times a year, and it's ALWAYS popular. The winner basically shadows the Principal, visits classrooms, helps with carpool, and also has lunch out (at McDonald's or a pizza place) with the Principal...We usually make about $300 each time. Of course, the kids need to like their principal!
You have to be careful with raffles as they are often considered games of chance and have strict state rules to follow. Our school forbids most school groups from doing raffles where tickets are pre-sold. But if it's merely a "drawing" where chances get sold at the event and it's treated more like a door prize, then they don't seem to care. (And the legal definition of raffle vs drawing is a fine line. Our take is "don't rock the boat, just go with it".)
Anyway, one of our more popular items for that type of drawing is a lottery basket. Different members donate lottery scratch offs - mostly $1's but some bigger ones. Then you find a cute way to display them. We've had them hanging as ornaments on a plant, fanned out to cover a big box of gourmet cookies, mounted like a frame on posterboard with a collectible sign in the middle.
I also do this type of item for our family gift exchange game (limit $20) or as a silent auction donation. I always try to have a little something tangible like the cookies, so even if every card is a bust, at least the winner still has something.
Even more popular than that is a Gift Card Basket. But that does take either an investment or someone to drum up donations. Last year I won one the band did at a football game. Chances were $5 each and the prize included $300 worth of gift cards, mostly $10 and $20 that had been donated by local retailers. (Note -these were gift cards, not gift certificates -which can also be popular.)
Thanks for the advise Michelle! I guess I should have mentioned that we just had a silent auction a month ago. I'm afraid we have kind of ran through all the local restuarant & hotel donations! This is just sort of a last minute fundraising idea so I thought I would see if anyone had any luck with any particular type of item!
Raffles can be a great profit if you price them right in comparison to your prize. I know you said you only have three weeks but that should be plenty of time to request prizes. A great universal item that people like are restaurant certificates. You could bundle a bunch together and restaurants are usually very willing to donate. You may have better luck with non-franchise businesses for a quicker return on the decision.
Another item we have had success with is a romance night. Hotel room, dinner at a nice restaurant and flowers. Again, these have always been pretty easy items to get donated.
Last year I helped a friend put together a silent auction for an Eagle Scout project fundraiser and we obtained somewhere around $2500 in donations within 2 weeks.
Of course if you want to invest money rather than soliciting donations you can't go wrong with a prepaid visa card or a gas card.
Our school is participating in a community night at our local Buffalo Wild Wings. The manager there suggested to me that we would make significantly more money if we incorporated a raffle in with this event.
The board loves the idea but is not willing to spend much money. They also want the event to be in the next three weeks so requesting a donation is pretty much out! So I need to find an item that will be low cost but also create a lot of interest...anyone have an great ideas they are willing to share? Things you have had luck with? Ways to get the board to see that they will like make the purchase cost up and then some?
