Lift Ticket Raffle for Breast Cancer

[JasonE]

Wewt! So after the fact, how well did the fund raiser go?

Halfway decent, but not nearly as well as we had hoped. We're going to have to re-evaluate our methodology on this (it was my idea to do the Internet raffle - I though we'd be able to tap into a huge captive audience of skiers here on these and a couple other web sites. Turned out that didn't really work out so well).

Next year, we'll start the process earlier to make sure we have lift tickets in-hand BEFORE the start of ski season (which hopefully will also increase the number of lift tickets we get - we got a number of responses from the mountains saying we should have contacted them over the summer because they do all their donations in the off-season). We probably won't do the online raffle format again, though I'm not sure what format we'll use.

One fundraiser I saw recently that I really liked the concept of was a "calendar raffle" where the group took one month (in this case it was January), assigned a different raffle item to each day of the month, and then printed 999 raffle cards with that calendar on it, each itemed individually. They used the daily lottery number to pick the winning card each day. It was really cool. We might do that for the lift tickets. Haven't decided yet.

At any rate - was it a success? Yes. It was well worth doing. Was it as major a fundraiser as we had expected? No. But we'll try it again next year.

Thanks to all that participated, and congratulations to all who won!

Jason & Carrie

 

[tcharron]

Halfway decent, but not nearly as well as we had hoped. We're going to have to re-evaluate our methodology on this (it was my idea to do the Internet raffle - I though we'd be able to tap into a huge captive audience of skiers here on these and a couple other web sites. Turned out that didn't really work out so well).

I suspect it will get better over time. Ensure you keep records online for 'past winners', and kep the site up to date and leave it up. Next year, show that it's a reoccuring thing. It's an 'Annual Fundraiser'. It will also, I suspect, help to give some kind of first hand 'this is how it benifits the cause'.

Next year, we'll start the process earlier to make sure we have lift tickets in-hand BEFORE the start of ski season (which hopefully will also increase the number of lift tickets we get - we got a number of responses from the mountains saying we should have contacted them over the summer because they do all their donations in the off-season). We probably won't do the online raffle format again, though I'm not sure what format we'll use.

I'd include an online component. To be honest, you are going down the right track, but a more 'impacting' web site would help. I'd also cleanup the paypal interface, and now that you've had Paypal experience, take credit cards. I'm not sure what the per transaction cost thru paypal is, but integrating it all together, getting a 'safe' seal, will help.

One fundraiser I saw recently that I really liked the concept of was a "calendar raffle" where the group took one month (in this case it was January), assigned a different raffle item to each day of the month, and then printed 999 raffle cards with that calendar on it, each itemed individually. They used the daily lottery number to pick the winning card each day. It was really cool. We might do that for the lift tickets. Haven't decided yet.

Can't say how successful that would be. As an online geeker, I don't feel as involved in a fundraiser such as that. But that's my opinion. Perhaps others will provide more feedback.

At any rate - was it a success? Yes. It was well worth doing. Was it as major a fundraiser as we had expected? No. But we'll try it again next year.

Thanks to all that participated, and congratulations to all who won!

Jason & Carrie

Best of luck. Let me know when you plan on doing it next year, I may be able to provide a little help with the web site and integration with PayPal if I have free time.