Can someone tell me how you draw, announce, verify winners and get the correct basket to the winning person without chaos. Our event was this past weekend, we had just over 100 tricky tray baskets up for grabs. We hosted a dinner also and the event was from 11-5...pretty much all day so not all winners were present. We used the new ticket system...fill your name on one card and turn it back in...and you have 20 little numbered tickets that you can drop in to win.
We drew numbers, taped it on the basket...announced the winning number...if they were there we gave it to them, if not we started calling. This is when it all fell apart. People came back without their stubs...so looking up became a nightmare...people were called that already left with their basket...went home to find a message on their machine and they came back to claim another one...some baskets just disappeared. It was a great event with an awesome turn out that ended bad...we all felt horrible. some people we even refunded their money to save face. Not sure how we can get around this messy ending and not look like idiots!
I just wanted to share a very simple trick when planning for a Tricky tray raffle, Bag Raffle, or Basket Raffle. Choose a fully enclosed solid box or container for the tickets that is not see-through or clear. Make sure that the box is light enough that a person can lift it to shake it, but cannot see the amount of tickets inside. You would not believe the difference in dollars when your crowd cannot tell how many tickets are enclosed. Because they want to guarantee a winning ticket, they will more then likely buy more. I also offer tickets priced at the typical breakdown, but include a $20 arm length special. For just a little more you get an arm length of tickets, more chances to win, and the school increases it's profits. Most people will take the arm length, and come back for more.
Are you talking about the model where there are multiple items, each with it's own container in front of it? The guest buys chance tickets and places tickets in the container for whatever item(s) they want to try to win. At the end, a winning ticket is pulled for each item.
We call this a "Bag Raffle", with colorful lunch or gift bags serving as the container.
In our events, this is supplemental to to the silent auction and either:
1) We single out a few (3-5) really popular items where we think we'll earn more with tickets than individual bids (bicycle, game system at elementary auction)
2) We set up an area of bag raffle items that are lessor value than most silent auction. For a school group, we may use $25 value as cutoff. I also belong to a professional organization that uses >$50 for silent auction, less than $50 for bag raffle.
In #2, I've seen anywhere from 10 to 80 items. Ticket prices depend on the situation, but there's usually a break for multiples. Examples:
$1 ea / 3 for $5
$3 ea / 4 for $10
$5 ea / 6 for $25
I'm involved with a variety of events. Normally there is no charge to attend unless it's a dinner. Our big fund raiser is a Reverse Raffle Dinner with silent auction, bag raffle, and some other fundraising games. Dinner tickets this year were $30 each.
I want to learn more about Tricky Tray events - as they really happen for the schools who frequent this board. They seem to be really popular, and I think it would be interesting for everyone to see some benchmarks, and share some ideas on how to make them successful.
Here's a few questions to kick off the discussion:
* how many guests do you expect to see on event night?
* how many baskets do you think you should have per 100 guests?
* do you charge admission to the event? If so, how much?
* what ticket-purchase options do you give your guests?
* Is it useful or necessary to accept credit-cards for payment at your event?
* how do you promote the event to your school community?
* do you serve food? beer/wine?
* Besides the sale of Tricky-Tray tickets, do you raise money at the event through other means?
