Put Your Raffle Online
04 December 2009
If you’re thinking about conducting a fundraising raffle for your non-profit, you may want to consider online alternatives. They can save you time and move your organization into the internet age.
An important thing to consider before you begin is the legalities of online raffling in your jurisdiction. For instance, Canada has rather strict regulations on gaming, and in the US, the rules are different from state to state. If you decide to set up an online raffle on your own, seek legal advice or look into such laws before doing so. Stepbystepfundraising.com has some information about this fundraising method on their Q&A page.
Raffle.it is a site you’ll want to visit to get an idea of how online raffling can work for you. When you run your fundraiser at Raffle.it, your organization will get its own page displaying your logo and message, with an optional widget (a mini-application that works like a shortcut or link) that you can put on your own website to connect with your raffle page.
Raffle.it manages the raffle for you and even provides the prizes. Though there is no membership fee, Raffle.it retains 20% of the proceeds to cover the cost of administering the raffle. 80% for your organization is not a bad take when you consider all the time it would take you to run the raffle yourself!
You can direct your supporters to the Raffle.it page, and anyone can buy a raffle ticket at the home Raffle.it site and then choose your charity from among the available raffles. They’re even on Twitter at @raffleit.
