Part One - What / Who are you raising money for?

What / Who are you raising money for?

Part one of our successful raffle guide begins with deciding why you’re raising the money. Before you can start selling tickets for your raffle, you need to decide where the money you raise will go. You first need to choose which charity or cause you’re going to donate your ticket sale money to, so that you can inform all your supporters where their donations will go.

The first place most people begin is choosing to fundraise for something they feel passionate about. Their passion could come from a number of places including: the charity has helped their family or friends, they work or volunteer for the school, club or charity or the charity or cause has personally effected them at some point in their lives. Regardless of your connection with the cause, your passion will help you to stay determined to raise as much money as possible. You could also choose your charity based on the organisations that are local to your town. By choosing an independent, local charity, you could get first hand experience of how your money has helped their daily operations.

Once you have chosen who or what you’re raising money for, the next stage is to do your research. It’s really important that you know all you can about the charity and cause so that you can inform your supporters or new potential supporters about where their money will go. Doing your research will also help you to stay motivated in achieving your fundraising goals.

Begin by looking at the charity or cause and pinpointing exactly who, what, where and how they help those related to the charity. Are they an independent group raising money for the local area, are they part of a national charity group raising money for their given area or are they a global organisation that will help throughout various countries?

Secondly, take a look at how there existing supporters help them and where the money they have previously raised has gone. This will give you an indication of how the money you raise will help. If you’re working on a local level you may even be able to talk to someone and ask them how would the money you raise help.

Thirdly, be sure to know their legal information. This bit isn’t as exciting but some details are necessary for your raffle tickets and you may be asked by your supporters for extra information. You need to know if they have a charity number and how to send in your donations. Check out their local head office address and contact details if you need to get hold of them for licensing information.

Understanding your charity or cause will help you to understand how the money you raised will help the cause. This can also help you to promote and persuade people to buy your raffle tickets to ensure you maximise your ticket sales.

The next stage of running a raffle is to decide whether your raffle is going to be a part of a bigger fundraising event. This requires some creative thinking and brainstorming of ideas. Click here to go to Part Two