Part 1: How to Choose a Charity

This first part of our successful raffle guide begins with deciding why you’re raising money.

Before you can start selling tickets for your fundraising raffle, you need to decide where the money you raise will go. That means choosing which charity or cause so you can tell all your supporters how their donations can help.

How to Choose a Charity to Donate to

The first place most people begin is choosing to fundraise for something they feel passionate about.

Your passion could come from a number of places. Perhaps the charity has helped your family or friends. Maybe you work or volunteer for the school, club or charity already. Or the charity or cause could have personally affected you at some point in your life.

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 even get first-hand experience of how your money has helped their daily operations.

Researching Your Chosen Charity

Once you’ve chosen who or what you’re raising money for, the next stage is to do your research.

You must know all you can about your chosen charity and cause so you can inform your supporters or new potential supporters where their money will go. Doing your research will also help you to stay motivated in achieving your fundraising goals.

What Does the Charity do?

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?

Do Your Goals Align with Theirs?

The best way to fundraise money for a charity or good cause is to pick one whose passions and goals align with your own.

This doesn’t just help you attract more attention. It also lets you leverage engaged supporters who are already driven to support you and your fundraising efforts. As a result, selling raffle tickets for charity will be easier, and you can draw in more players once your raffle is in place.

How do They use Donations?

Take a look at how their 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 the money you raise would help.

How Much of a Difference Can You Make?

Every pound raised for a good cause puts them a little closer to their goal. But your charity raffle ticket money will benefit some charities a lot more than others.

If you’re running a small-scale fundraising raffle, you might prefer to support a smaller local cause. But if you expect big crowds and large donations, the money you raise can be extremely useful even for popular charities.

Also, look into how your potential charity has used money in the past. If they often receive donations but haven’t used them wisely, consider supporting another similar charity instead.

Do They Have a Good Reputation?

Charities are expected to put donations to good use. But some have a reputation for using money poorly, or even getting involved in scandalous activity. This negative attention could be reflected back on you if you support them, even if you didn’t know.

Before you choose a charity for your fundraising raffle, investigate them online to see if there are any controversies. If there are, you might be better off avoiding them.

What Are Their Legal Details?

Be sure to know your chosen charity’s legal information. This bit isn’t as exciting, but some details are necessary for your charity 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. So check out their local head office address and contact details if you need to get hold of them for licensing information.

Will Others Buy In?

Choosing which charity to support is often a group decision. That means you might need to convince others that your suggestion is a good idea.

Where possible, it’s best to involve your whole group or team in the decision-making process. This will increase their personal investment in running a successful raffle and prevent disagreements that could cause delays.

What’s The Next Step?

Understanding your charity or cause will help you to understand how the money you raised will help. 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 great fundraising ideas. Click here to go to Part Two