Raffles, Lotteries, Tombolas, and Auctions

Raffles

• Basic Raffle--This is a sure fire way to get more money out of any organized function. Get the prizes (donated if possible), sell the tickets, and the lucky winners go away happy. Everyone else has donated to a good cause. The raffle for the FAWCO Friendship Quilt raises thousands for The Foundation.
• "Strike It Lucky"--Each person buys a ticket. The winner wins half of the money collected. This works well as a regular club event, and the money adds up over time. You must insist that the winner takes the money she wins. She isn't allowed to give it back, or the raffle won't work so well the next time.
• Money Tree-This fundraiser is a variation of the "Strike It Lucky" idea. Make your tree out of a branch spray painted silver or gold or a holiday theme. Estimate the number of tickets you expect to sell and take a percentage of this estimation for your tree. Attach bills of various denominations (folded so that viewers can't see the numbers) to the tree. The winner is the person who guesses the correct amount of cash on the tree. Have a plan in advance to handle the situation of two or more winning guesses. They can either split the cash or have a drawing and the winner takes all.

Lotteries

• "Moo-Doo" Lottery-Divide a fenced off area into a 10x10 grid with a non-toxic powder such as flour to make 100 squares. Provide a little hay, water, and bring on the cow. The square where the cow first drops her "doo" is the winner. This works best as a part of an outdoor carnival or fair.
• Football (or other sporting event) Pool-This game can make almost any two-team event into a nice easy little earner, and the players don't have to have any expertise. Prepare a 10x10 grid, giving you 100 squares. Sell each square for a certain amount of money, e.g. $10, which gives you $1000. Reserve half of the money for the prizes. Put one team's name along the top of the grid and the other team down the side. Randomly assign a number from 0 to 9 along the top and side. Thus each square will have two random numbers from 0 to 9, one for each team. The winner is the person with the correct combination of numbers that match the last numbers of each team's score at the end of the game. You can have first, second, and third place winners by giving prizes for the scores at the end of each quarter if you like.

Tombolas

• Basic tombola-A tombola is basically a raffle where every purchaser wins a prize of some kind. The prizes vary from a few very nice things to small items worth less than the cost of the ticket. Use raffle tickets and stick one half of the ticket to the prize and put the other half in a bowl for drawing. The purchaser buys a chance to draw one of the numbers out of the bowl. She wins the prize associated with the number. Of course, the success of a tombola depends on getting many interesting prizes, because you can't sell more chances than you have prizes.
• Easter Egg tombola-Put slips of paper with the prizes written on them into plastic Easter eggs, and sell the eggs.
• Balloon Tombola-Put the slips of paper into balloons.
• Spinning Tombola-Each buyer buys an envelope with 4 different color tickets with a different number (each corresponding to a different prize) on each. After all the envelopes are sold, the organizer spins a wheel with four colors on it. You get the prize that corresponds with the number on the winning color. The fun of this tombola is figuring out which prize you would win if the winning color turned out to be red, blue or whatever. It is time-consuming to set up, however. This was used to raise lots of money for charity at the AWC of London's Golden Eagle Ball.

Auctions

• General auction tips
  
  • Auctions require a good deal of manpower in gathering and setting up the items for sale, collecting the money, and getting the items to the buyers.
  • Quality is important for an auction-this isn't a garage sale.
  • A lively auctioneer can make all the difference in the amount of money you make.
  • Keep track of who donates items, because thank yous are essential.
  • Try to have a good idea about the worth of items so that you can stipulate minimum bids if necessary.
  • You might want to establish minimum raises as well.
    
• Silent Auction
  
  • The auction room must be large enough for the items to be attractively displayed.
  • Allow enough room for the bidders to write down their bids.
  • Have pencils around so that the bidders can find them easily.
  • Each item should have a bidding sheet with a description, donor, and approximate value. The bidding sheet must also indicate the minimum bid and raise, if there is one.
  • Post auction rules around the room, and be sure that everyone understands them.
  • Bidding can be done by name or number. Bidding by number is usually preferable, because sometimes people won't bid if they know that their friends are bidding on the same item.
  • Display the exact time the bidding will close.
  • At closing time, have several committee members ready to immediately pick up the bidding sheets.
  • The winning bids can be announced at this time and the bidders can pay for their items and pick them up. This can be done later, if it is easier.
  • Be sure to collect the money before the item leaves the auction room.
    
• Some auction ideas
  
  • Used art auction-Members donate those things gathering dust and pick up something new and interesting.
  • One from the internet--Joey Faehnle writes, One thing my fraternity does is each year in September we write Hundreds of celebrities. In this letter we explain our affiliation with the local AIDS foundation and ask them to donate an item that we can auction off. Half of the funds go towards our fraternity and half go to the AIDS Foundation. Last year the grand total was $1500, because we did for the first time. It is annual event now. The actual action is in February.