Friday, October 10, 2008

Fundraising: Improving 50/50 Success

A fundraiser at a convention included a 50/50 drawing - where winner keeps half the money raised. Instead of a flat fee for tickets, they were sold 4 tickets for $5 or an arm's length for $10. Really encouraged many purchases of the $10. A lot of money raised.

Few other tips for successful 50/50:

1. Need immediate gratification. More sales if drawing is that same day/night;
2. Have double-tickets and announce winner by ticket numbers (must be present to win). If add details like requiring names and phone number it slows down sales;
3. Have many ticket salespeople, not just a few. If they're just sitting at a desk selling tickets, it's not as effective as a lot of people walking to each table selling them too. But do need to sell at registration desk too.

1 comment:

Lisa Junker said...

I'm sure you already know this, Cindy, but I thought I'd mention this in case some of your readers might not know (I just learned about it last week): Depending on where your convention is located, you should definitely check with the state board that regulates gambling/gaming to make sure you have the appropriate permissions to run a 50/50 raffle. In at least one state that I know of, they're regulated as "small games of chance" and require special permits.

Other than that wrinkle, though, 50/50 raffles are great fundraisers. The best part in my experience is that the higher the total goes, the more people want to buy into it--it's a very nice virtuous circle!