Raffles?

[Ambersafghans]

Has anyone had any experience with raffles? I have none at all and the fleeting thought of putting together a scrapghan to raffle off at a festival in July ran across my mind today. Any ideas? Do you have to get a permit of any kind, pay for tickets... oh yah, and maybe an afghan in July wouldn't sell so well. Hm. Any ideas?

Amber

[sjkmaurice]

I don't know what your festival is about, but I used to live in the backwoods of nowhere and hand made items are always popular there. Especially if it's a town celebratory festival. I think enough people appreciate hand made work that they can win and would be willing to pay a buck for a ticket.

[Ambersafghans]

It's the Lenord (Small town) Strawberry festival. They have a parade and booths, some activities and obviously, Strawberry Sundays. :) I had a booth there last year and didn't sell much. But maybe a raffle would be different. Do you think $5 would be too much? Anyone know the technicalitites of a raffle?


Amber

[aliassak]

Amber, I was just reading over the rules and regs for vendors at our state fair, and they did cover the topic of raffles. In my particular case, if I had a booth and wanted to raffle something, I would have to get special permission from the fair ppl the same time I signed up for my booth-- some kind of temporary license if you will. You might want to check with the festival organizers in your area if they require something like that as well.

Also, unless you're raffling off a ginormous prize ($$-wize) such as a car or other high dollar item, anything over $1/ticket might come off tacky. If someone REALLY likes the ghan that you are trying to raffle-and I mean likes it so much that they would buy it right then and there if it weren't a raffle item- then they are going to buy more tickets to improve their odds. You want ppl to think that they have a good chance at winning, and $5/ticket really limits that (mostly shows that you are money greedy when in reality you aren't, you just want to recoup the cost in making the ghan).

For example:
Situation A: Raffle tickets are $1 and someone buys $10 worth of tickets-- that gives them 10 chances to win and they're feeling pretty good about their chances and still feel like they haven't broken the bank by entering the raffle if they don't win.

Situation B: Raffle tickets are $5 and someone buys $10 worth of tickets-- that gives them only 2 chances to win, which isn't the greatest odds if you sell a ton of tickets. So, if they don't win the raffle, they may have some bitterness for spending that kind of money on just two tickets and might decide that they don't want to spend any more money at your booth.

I realize that it only takes one ticket to win any item in any raffle, but ppl like to think that they've got great odds. But, you want to be able to provide good odds at a decent cost so that 1) ppl buy more tickets to increase their odds, 2) you sell more tickets at the lower price because ppl want better odds.

Sorry so long!

[kariholtz]

Before we got our washer and dryer (when we were in MO) we would go to a certain Laundry to do our washing. They would around hollidays have raffles. It would be for gift baskets and such, once it was a guitar (I won it lol)

They proced it as such:
Tickets were 50 cents a peice or three for a $1.00


I've also seen some run for charity that were just 5 tickets for $1.00
Or $1.00 per ticket or 5 for $4.00

[Ambersafghans]

Thanks Amy and Kari! That helped. I see your points on the ticket costs.
Do you know if you have to buy proffesional tickets or if you can make your own? Or does it depend on the organization hosting the event?

Thanks again!
Amber

[aliassak]

You could go either way, buy a thing of tickets with pre-printed numbers (I know you can get it from Oriental Trading Co.) or you can make your own (my daughter's daycare has done this in the past for their holiday raffles.) It's really what is most cost effective for you.

[SoCalDonna]

I don't know where you live, Amber. In California, it's not supposed to be called a raffle--it has to be called an "opportunity drawing," so it won't be considered "gambling." I think there are some other rules as well, like you can't 100% require people to buy a ticket--if they come up and request a ticket but can't or don't want to pay, you have to give them one. Our schools have had to become more careful in raffling things off. :scrachin

Hopefully, where you live, it's easier.

[Ambersafghans]

Hi Donna.

I live in MI. Thanks for the warning! I'll check things out. I'm considering now trying an online raffle as well. Hm.
Amber

[Ambersafghans]

For some reason I can't find anything on raffles on the internet. Anything on organizing one anyway. Anyone know where I can find the rules for my state?

Amber

[sjkmaurice]

Your best bet is to go the organizers of the festival and ask them for their rules. If they are not outlined there, you may have luck at the Chamber of Commerce of your town.