Maximising Raffle Ticket Sales

We’ve all seen raffle ticket sellers at the local shopping centre – be it the local school, sports club or community group. Here we look at some ways to maximise raffle ticket sales.

We were recently asked by a Facebook reader for some tips on how to make the most of this opportunity. In particular, what will entice your average shopper to stop and buy some tickets or keep on walking?

Signage

Our top tip (and this was reinforced when we asked our Facebook community) is signage. Most importantly, clearly displaying who you represent, tickets prices, but also to advertise the prize/s. It’s even possible to take this one step further in some instances, and have the actual prize on display. But if you can’t display your prize, have some good quality pictures of it to gain interest.

Colourful balloons, streamers or bunting in your school or club colours will be eye-catching or if your upcoming fete or community event has a theme, run with that as well! You can also use giveaway balloons to attract younger children (and their parents) to stop.

Payment Options

Traditionally it is easy for passers-by to say, ‘sorry, I don’t have any change’ and keep on walking. Make sure you have an EFTPOS/Tap and Go option available. It is amazing how many extra people will stop if you can make payment convenient for them.

Goal

Another suggestion is to have a ‘project board’ showing your group’s fundraising goal. This might be photos/drawings of playground equipment or projects, air conditioning goals, future technology purchases etc. Your ticket buyer will more than likely be interested to know what they are contributing to and this presents a ‘feel-good’ moment for your purchaser and is a great and creative way to let them know who you are and what you are fundraising for.

Get the kids involved!

Get the kids involved too! Put them in their uniform and get them to sell the tickets or promote your raffle (in limited circumstances, depending on the prize and your State, there may be restrictions, check out the rules in your State here). Even if they are not able to do the selling, they can do the talking and who can say no to kids in uniforms? It also makes it clear that you are all volunteers.

This teaches kids a valuable lesson about the work involved in providing important resources (these things don’t grow on trees!)! But make sure they (and your volunteers) don’t harass people to purchase tickets.

Promote your event

If your sales opportunity is in the lead up to a fete or other community event, have posters, flyers or invites made up and cross-promote your event by handing them out, even to shoppers who don’t purchase tickets. These don’t have to be fancy or full colour and you can keep costs down by creating a simple black and white four-to-a-page invite and printing them yourself. In addition to this, you could have the details of your fete or community event printed on the back of the raffle ticket in the form of an invite with address details and times included.

BONUS TIPS for Raffle Ticket Sales

A Facebook reader said that they do up laminated ‘front and back’ A3 signs of the prizes as sandwich boards that the students wear to attract attention and direct shoppers to the ticket sales. Another idea here is to have your intended project on the boards instead to help connect passers-by to your goal.
Where you are allowed (registered raffles are often not!) sell your tickets ‘cheaper by the bundle’ to encourage more sales, for example, $2 a ticket, 3 for $5, 7 for $10 etc … As an added bonus (again, where you are allowed), you could make up small lolly bags as a gift for those who buy a certain number of tickets (for example, $10 worth).
Where you sell tickets in bulk, have groups of tickets pre-stapled in the correct number of tickets, that way the purchaser only has to write on the front one and you can do the rest once they have left.
Important: don’t ever forget to keep a donation tin close by. Shoppers won’t always want to purchase tickets but they too might like a ‘feel-good’ moment and drop a few dollars into a donation tin to support your cause.

xMandy Weidmann

The Fundraising Whisperer

Author of the Practical Fundraising Handbook: for School and Club Volunteers

Originally published on 23 June, 2018