Fun Raffle Ideas

Everyone loves a good raffle, especially when the prizes at stake are highly desirable. The better your raffle, the more people you will have purchasing tickets—sometimes even multiple tickets—for a chance to win. Try these unique and creative ideas the next time you do a raffle.

If you are doing a raffle during a school-sponsored function, such as a fair, set up a dunk tank. Inside the tank, place the school's most desirable to be dunked. This could be anyone from the principal to a well-loved teacher who hates getting wet. Keep them on display all afternoon while you sell raffle tickets to see who gets to "dunk" this person in a pool of water. Place all of the purchased tickets in a fish bowl, and at the time of the drawing, allow the person who is to be dunked draw the winning ticket, thus sealing their fate. You can have the winner toss soft balls at a target attached to a trigger to release the platform he or she is sitting on or you can allow the winner to run up and push the target with his or her hands—your choice. In any case, it will surely draw a crowd and will be a popular and enjoyable raffle for all.

Instead of the plain and ordinary raffle style tear-off tickets, get creative and use lollipops. Use a large lollipop "tree" that allows you to stick the ends of each lollipop inside so the bottom is not visible. Then color the ends of each lollipop stem. Use red, blue, green, yellow and black. Anyone wishing to purchase a "ticket" gets to pull a lollipop from the tree. Decide ahead of time which colors equal a prize and which do not. Have one color, such as yellow, set aside as the grand prize. You may want to do more than one of these if you don't think you will sell out of lollipops. This way, there is a higher chance someone will pull a yellow stem. Once they do, just pull out the others from the tree that were yellow. At the end of the raffle, award prizes, with the person drawing the lone yellow-colored stem with the grand prize. Everyone will love the game because it is both interactive and rewards their purchase with a sweet treat, if nothing else.

We all love winning, especially when all we have to do is purchase a ticket for a a few dollars. Offer up multiple prizes spread out on a long table. You could have baked goods, small electronic items like MP3 players or mini cameras or gift cards and certificates to various restaurants and stores around your town. Every hour or half hour, announce a winning ticket. Allow the winner to step up to the table and select a prize. When there are only two prizes remaining, call out two tickets, and have both winners come to the table. Then it is up to the pair to decide who gets which prize.