Hosting a raffle

A raffle can be a quick and fun way to get support from friends, family and colleagues. Holding a raffle at your existing fundraising event, e.g. coffee morning, quiz or bake sale, is a great additional booster for fundraising.

Sourcing the prizes

Make sure you leave enough time to source the prizes for your raffle. Think about what businesses might be happy to donate a prize. Local businesses may be more willing to support local fundraising.

Who do you already know? Do you have any connections to someone who would be willing to get involved or do they have a connection to an artist, celebrity or sports professional you could get some signed memorabilia from? Sports groups, schools, the office, churches and supermarkets are all great places to sell your tickets and boost your fundraising.

Shouting out on social media can be an effective and easy way to collect as many prizes as possible. Click here for some template social media post you can use to shout out your raffle.

Sourcing great prizes can have a huge impact on your hardworking efforts to raise money. This could be a gift basket from a local business, or discount vouchers for local attractions such as the zoo, city farm, theatre, or soft play centre. Click here to download a template letter for asking for raffle prizes.

It would also be worth having a think about the people you’ll be selling the raffles to. Could you tailor the prizes to this audience? E.g., football related gifts for a football tournament.

Tickets

For tickets, you could use the books of coloured strips or create your own!

Think about how much you should sell the tickets for, value up how much your prizes are worth and how many people you’ll potentially be selling to. Make it clear that you’re organising a charity raffle and that proceeds will help support people living with rare disease. You can share our Porphyria Factsheet with participants so they can read more about the organisation and where their money is going.

Make sure you note contact details of buyers on the ticket stubs, in case they aren’t around when you do the draw.

Rules and regulations

There are some requirements you’ll need to be aware of before holding your raffle, take a look at the rules and regulations for lotteries, raffles and tombolas. Most raffles held during a fundraising event are straightforward and will not need a licence.