Raffle question

[momxx5]

Without going into a long story, I am interested to hear how y'all think:

Need to raise approx $2,500 to purchase wheelchair for middle school student.
Doing a raffle.

#1. Grand Prize: new iPad (donated value over $500) w/cover & $50 iTunes
Second Prize: iTouch 8g* w/$25 iTunes
Third Prize: iPod Nano 16g* w/15 iTunes
* = $400 donated

Selling tickets $1 each, or 6 for $5

Thought process is that the students can be more involved because they will be able to afford a ticket, more prizes = better odds at winning something. A quote of first 500 raffle tickets printing donated, not sure if they will charge to print additional tickets.

OR......

#2. One prize new iPad (donated)

Selling tickets for $5/ticket
$400 donated will go directly to wheelchair fund.

Thought process is that it will only take approx 500 tickets to reach goal, there is agreement to have 500 tickets printed for free.

SO, what do y'all think???

 

[ah1126]

I think it is better to have more prizes. Is it possible to have anything else donated?

 

[rdsx28]

I think I would sell the tickets for 5.00 each or 3 for 10.00. Most people will probably buy the 3. With those prizes you should have no problem. Maybe you could get a different type prize as well local sport tickets, theme park tickets, nice restaurant gift certificate just to mix it up a bit. You may want to reward the homeroom with a prize an ice cream or pizza party who sells the most tickets . Just a thought we have done this and i really gets the kids involved. Good Luck!

 

[momxx5]

We collected the $400 donations towards the purchase of the prizes.

Other donations, as mentioned, are extremely hard to find at this time of year because of teacher appreciation, after prom party looking for endlyess prizees, etc. So, overall not a great time to be solicitating.

The biggest debate is the amount of prized: one grand prize versus 3 prizes in total.

The next debate is over the selling price. I am a firm beleiver that if we are to allow the children to participate then the starting price needs to be $1 per ticket, 6 for $5 OR flat out $5 per ticket.
The larger ticket price, to me , would be exclude many students from participating. Most kids (at least around here ) do not carry $5 on them.

So.....not sure if that clears anything up or just adds to the confusion.

Any more comments???

 

[richmond282]

I would do the 3 prizes and sell the tickets for $5. Kids have that kind of money, trust me. I'm a teacher and kids always have $ in their pockets.

 

[richmond282]

I would have more prizes and charge $5/ ticket for them. Kids have $5 they can spend on a ticket, trust me. I'm a teacher and kids always have $ in their pockets.

 

[momxx5]

As a mom of 5, a substitute teacher who sees kids of all ages, many that do not even have enough money buy lunch or "ice cream Fridays".

Since I cannot picture middle school or high schoolers having $5 at a time, I can see them buy a $1 ticket a few time during the raffle. Then they would feel a part of the fundraising. Anyone wanting to donate more can purchase more tickets.....$10 will get you 12 tickets...etc.

 

[undertheradar]

Not sure what state you are in but you need to be aware of the state laws for raffles. Some states treat it as gambling and a permit may be required. Looks like you will need to raise more money for prizes to hit the full value of the wheelchair.

Must be a lot of fundraising taking place with the band trip to WDW and all. Good Luck!

 

[momxx5]

The Band trip to WDW was excellent. The kids marched in the Electric Parade and spent 3 days of fun at WDW parks. A huge success. That trip was funded by the annual fruit sale.

This new matter of getting a student an appropriate wheelchair to better her middle school experience came up and a small group of band member decided to make sure this happened. The sixth grader attends band., so the new wheelchair will allow for greater movement for the student. She is so happy to hear of the wonderful news.
So even though its some members of the band booster helping a band student, it also is other parents and students helping.
SO...it is not a Band Booster event.

As far as the prizes....we are sticking with the Nano, iTouch and iPad all covered by donations (even with money left over to purchase iTunes cards to go with each.
SO...we will not have to raise any more money......we just need to make sure we make approv $2159 to purchase the wheelphfar his new matter of getting a student an appropriate wheelchair to better her

 

[cornflake]

Agree you need to check into the laws - some states take the raffle thing really seriously.

I don't understand though, why you'd want fewer prizes for the option with the more expensive ticket.

I'd think the more expensive ticket one is the way to go, with the three prizes, though I admit I don't really know many high schoolers don't have $5+ most of the time, so that wouldn't be a concern I don't think.

It's better odds, free tickets and even better odds if you have 3 possible prizes for the 400 tickets. Kids those ages have all done probability in math class, heh.

 

[momof3ds]

Make up flyers for kids to bring home to parents. Then, you'd likely get more sales.

 

[tinkerdoodle]

I agree, more prizes would make kids more willing to buy tickets, and possibly buy them more often. I also think that the lower ticket price would entice them to buy more tickets during the selling period, and also give kids without a lot of spending money an opportunity to be included.

Good luck with your raffle! What a wonderful and caring group of kids you have there to want to do something so incredibly nice for a fellow student. I'm sure everything will work out wonderfully and the young lady will be so happy with her new fancy wheels!

 

[RitaE]

As a mom of 5, a substitute teacher who sees kids of all ages, many that do not even have enough money buy lunch or "ice cream Fridays".

Since I cannot picture middle school or high schoolers having $5 at a time, I can see them buy a $1 ticket a few time during the raffle. Then they would feel a part of the fundraising. Anyone wanting to donate more can purchase more tickets.....$10 will get you 12 tickets...etc.

But at Christmas you posted that all your kid's friends were posting pictures of themselves on Facebook holding the hundred dollars of cash they received as presents and your children were the poor ones who only got crappy presents.

What do I think? Good cause if it is for real. Please DIS posters who don't know the history here do NOT send this woman money for a wheelchair fund. Do.NOT.DO.IT

 

[RitaE]

Here it is, in case this one gets edited to fit the current story. So which is it, in your community all the children are destitute and can't even buy ice cream, or they have all the latest and greatest and get showered with cash for the Christmas presents?

12-25-2011, 10:20 PM #44
momxx5
DIS Veteran

Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,574


Extremely low key Christmas, and the kids knew it would be.

Huge Hit: DD9.....hamster cage, accessories & gift card to Petsmart to get hamster. She knows mommy not fond of "rodents" and was thrilled that Santa actually brought it for her.
Hit: DD13, bike helmet and license plate, rhinestones (she blinged out her helmet), Santa left gift card to get new bike this week! (hoping to get her to hold out till Friday payday.

The boys got underwear & socks, a few t-shirts....so while they were grateful there was not much thrill.
DS17, hit: new Miami dophin hoodie
DS16, hit: new sneakers (old ones had holes in them and he thought he have to wait a few months for new ones)
DS15 BIG MISS: air soft gun......totally wrong one, a cheap one that cannot really be played with. He plays every weekend with a group of 8-10 and between them they always "lend" him a gun, so thinking it would be nice to have his own.....turns out a cheap gun is actually worse than no gun

I do feel bad for DS15 because all his friends are of the "newest, greatest, latest" group. Most got new Ipads or Kindle Fire (already had iTouches), and suprisingly most got cash.....pictures on FaceBook holding anywhere from $300-500 in cash. Didn't expect ANY of that.

The BESTEST part......DS16 made all conference football, AND all Region....all Region annouced on Friday and his picture was in today's newspaper....front of sports section. So proud!!

Looking forward to a better new year!!!
momxx5 is offline Report Post

 

[scrapquitler]

Without going into a long story, I am interested to hear how y'all think:

Need to raise approx $2,500 to purchase wheelchair for middle school student.
Doing a raffle.

#1. Grand Prize: new iPad (donated value over $500) w/cover & $50 iTunes
Second Prize: iTouch 8g* w/$25 iTunes
Third Prize: iPod Nano 16g* w/15 iTunes
* = $400 donated

Selling tickets $1 each, or 6 for $5

Thought process is that the students can be more involved because they will be able to afford a ticket, more prizes = better odds at winning something. A quote of first 500 raffle tickets printing donated, not sure if they will charge to print additional tickets.

OR......

#2. One prize new iPad (donated)

Selling tickets for $5/ticket
$400 donated will go directly to wheelchair fund.

Thought process is that it will only take approx 500 tickets to reach goal, there is agreement to have 500 tickets printed for free.

SO, what do y'all think???

I would do the $1 per ticket of $5 for 6 tickets. I know that I personally will ALWAYS buy a $1 raffle ticket, but I think pretty hard before I buy one for $5.

Add to that the fact that if you sell tickets for multiple days, you can likely get people to buy a $1 multiple times If I saw the ticket table for $1 at the cafeteria EVERY DAY all week, I'd probably buy a ticket multiple times. I'd probably only buy a $5 once. And I'd feel that I was more likely to win with multiple tickets.

But I'm cheap.

And as others have said, be very careful that you are following your local laws.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Surely there is a charity out there that can handle this request. Medicaid and Easter Seals both either provide free wheelchairs or up to 80% off the cost of a motorized one.

Kids aren't going to throw away their money on raffle tickets. Adults might but I would NEVER buy a raffle ticket for a raffle that was organized by someone with such frequent financial drama in their own lives. I couldn't help but wonder if ALL the money really went where it was supposed to go.

Good catch, RitaE. It is getting close to Easter and Honey Baked Ham season, isn't it?

 

[okeydokey]

I don't buy $5 raffle tix and neither do my kids. We do however, buy $1 raffle tix.

Seems like there should be some other way to get a wheelchair for a kid who needs it though.

 

[krcit]

Why don't you try to get a local paper to print a story about the need for the wheelchair complete with a picture of the girl. I know in my town, the girl would have a new wheelchair probably by the end of the day.

 

[akhenaten]

Why don't you try to get a local paper to print a story about the need for the wheelchair complete with a picture of the girl. I know in my town, the girl would have a new wheelchair probably by the end of the day.

same here!

 

[Swan4Me]

Seems like there should be some other way to get a wheelchair for a kid who needs it though.

You would think so