Tip Sheet for 50/50 Raffles

 

There are three types of people that purchase 50/50 tickets so keep this in mind when trying to maximize sales.  Some people want to support the charity/team, some people want to play, and some people are only attracted to playing once the jackpot gets interesting/large enough.  The bulk of the people fall into the third category, so we want to get the jackpot large enough to bring these people in.

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Tips for Volunteers

Your organizations volunteers are important.  As they are volunteers, and not necessarily salespeople, it is best to try to get the most outgoing people as possible.  Here are some tips with regards to volunteers:

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• Overstaff.  The more sellers you have the more sales you will get.  Volunteers are also prone to not showing up or cancelling.  If you only have 3 volunteers, and one cancels that’s potentially 33% of your sales.  For sporting events we recommend 1 seller per 700 people.

• Put less outgoing people at the kiosks.  Roaming sellers have to ask for the sale!!!

• Have your volunteers show up early.  The best time to sell is before the show/game starts.

• Kids are not the best sellers.  Using people under the age of 18 is a mistake.

• Having contest for volunteers is fun and increases sales.

 

Tips for Dresscode

• The louder the better.  Home Depot Orange is a good color for Aprons.

• Full length aprons with your logo or charity name is good.  The propensity is to use your charities colors for the aprons.  This may be ok, but they need to very different from team colors.  Team colors just blend into the crowd.

• Having price levels on t-shirts is a great idea.

• Loud/silly hats are fun and become a conversation piece.

• Comfortable shoes, and whether appropriate.

• We’ve used glow in the dark “50/50” for festivals that sell past sunset.

 

Tips for Signage

• You can’t have enough signage or announcements.

• Having dedicated signage for events increases sales.  Regina Pats have a large screen in their arena and have the largest sales in all of WHL.

• Kiosks sell better than roamers.  Kiosks should all show jackpot totals.

• At a typical 15K seat stadium, putting jackpot totals on the TV screens around the concourse just in small print on the bottom right increases sales by 20%.

 

Tips for Pricing

• Know you event/Know your clients.  Price accordingly.  Different parts of the country should be priced differently as should progressive vs single day 50/50 raffles.  Rule of thumb is the bigger the jackpot is going to be, the more you can charge for your tickets.

• We generally recommend in Western Canada for progressive 50/50 raffles starting at $10 and having a $20 ticket and a $50 ticket.  If you offer 1 for $10, 5 or 10 for $20 and 50 for $50 you will find the $20 ticket sells the most.  Having a $50 ticket allows an upsell however when 2 friends come up to buy a $20 ticket each, your volunteer should be able to say “for $10 more, you can get a lot more numbers”.

• Most sporting events should be 1 for $5.00, 5 for $10.00 and 20 or 40 for $20.00.  If you are getting jackpots in the $30,000-$50,000 range then you can afford to boost prices as suggested above.

• We recommend 3 price levels not 4.  It is difficult for people to process in the mind 4 ticket price levels and they default to price level 2.  4 price levels work if you have a lot of kiosks at your sporting event or people are purchasing online where they can see the price levels.

• Absolutely forget about $2.00 tickets as some charities want to go with this strategy to entice more buyers.  It in fact does not.  Less people buy because your jackpot never gets high enough and you miss out on the third category of people mentioned above.

• Having 4 price levels and $2.00 tickets is a double whammy.

• Have a single priced ticket.  Eg 1 for $5 or 1 for $10.  It will be your least purchased ticket.  Many charities want to start at 3 for 5...this works if you want people to purchase the $5.00 ticket....but you don't.  You want them buying the $10,$20 or $50 ticket.

• Not having a $2.00 ticket also reduces coin needed in operations.

 

Rules of Thumb for gauging sales at your event or how well your event did:

For free outdoor events where there are a lot of kids--- 50 cents per person in attendance.

For paid outdoor events---$1.00-$2.00 per person in attendance.

For sporting events----$2.00-$3.00 per person in attendance.

We have teams that consistently get in the $6.00-$7.00 per person in attendance which is excellent.

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