Online raffles and 50/50s are a fun and exciting way to raise more funds for your organization. Thought that was it? Guess again… Online raffles can also help you expand your donor base and build new long-lasting relationships. Through unique features such as the donation upsell you’re able to gain donors not just for your raffle but for future fundraising events!

Running an online raffle or 50/50 can seem intimidating but with an excited and knowledgeable support team, helpful resources and an easy-to-use platform, it’ll be a breeze. Follow the steps below to raise 15% more on your next online raffle or 50/50.

1. Check Raffle Regulations in Your Area 

The key to a successful raffle is making sure you’re eligible and have picked the right raffle license type for your organization. Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered! Our online raffle regulation quiz (or as we like to call it, “what raffle license type are you?”) will tell you the best raffle license for your organization in 2 minutes! Don’t believe it will be that fast? Start the timer!

2. Choose a Software Provider

The right tools can take your fundraiser to the next level; software should not be overlooked when planning your online raffle or 50/50. The right software can save your team time, increase your ticket sales, help you raise additional funds, and transform your marketing efforts. Sounds too good to be true? Well, meet Trellis and let’s see if we can change your mind

At Trellis, we are a team of fundraising experts who have helped hundreds of organizations surpass their fundraising goals with raffle, 50/50, event and auction software. Between Trellis and our network of expert partners, we’ve got you covered for all things raffles, marketing, and fundraising strategy. If you want any help or additional resources, reach out and book a free consultation to get your questions answered. We’d love to hear from you!

3. Consider Adding Other Features

Curious why Trellis raffles consistently raise more? We’ll let you in on our fundraising secret! We encourage organizations to add more! For example, donation upsells, auctions, event tickets, and e-commerce sales. In fact, organizations that have 3 or more fundraising elements raise more than organizations that don’t! Give your donors more ways to give and watch that thermometer grow! 

And hey if you don’t have the capacity to find auction items or more prizes, start with a donation upsell at checkout and get ready to raise 15% more and find new donors for your organization! (Trust me your board will love it when you tell them this pro tip.)

A successful fundraising event that brings in funds for your cause – the ultimate goal. But how do you measure whether your event is a success? How do you tell which channels are working so you can double down and increase your results? 

Event data tracking is a crucial part of your fundraising event’s success. It is important to track and learn which of your marketing efforts are working so you can drill down on what’s really working for your organization. And, when you blow your fundraising goals out of the park, and your Board asks how, you can have a clear answer as to why you saw such great success. Now, there are lots of ways you can approach this, but we’re sharing our two favourite ways – custom checkout questions and affiliate marketing links. 

 

Custom Checkout Questions

Custom checkout questions give you the chance to ask specific questions as your donors are buying their tickets, allowing you to collect data you wouldn’t usually have – a huge win! 

Set up a custom question at checkout so that when a guest buys a ticket you can ask them how they heard about your event. Our research shows organizations that make this question required with a few drop-down options for donors to pick from get the best results. 

Here is an example of a question and drop-down options for you to steal! 

How did you hear about our event?

• A friend or family member

• Social media

• An event partner’s social media

• An email newsletter

Trellis Top Tip:  Don’t be afraid to make changes as you go! If right at the beginning you notice everybody is coming from social media, use that insight to steer how you keep promoting your event. 

 

Affiliate Marketing Links

Affiliate marketing links allow you to create specific links for different promotion channels such as social media, websites, event partners, board members, or your email signature. You simply choose a name for your link to create it, start using it for the channel it was designed for, and can easily track the results to see how it is performing. It’s that easy!

After the event, you can see which channels drove the most engagement for your ticket sales. And, if this is new to you, don’t worry getting started is simple. We’ve got you covered!

Trellis Top Tip: Our favourite affiliate marketing link idea is to make inviting people a game. Create custom affiliate links for your organization’s supporters, and set a goal of how many invites you want them to send out. Then each week, give an update on how many emails were sent, and how many people have bought event tickets as a result. When the event ends announce the winner of who brought in the most guests! 

Next Steps

Data collection may seem new to you and as a result a little intimidating. If that’s the case, we’re here to help! Download our guide here to find more actionable steps as well as other tips on marketing your next fundraiser. 

We know not all ticketing, event, or auction platforms are built the same and we’d love to show you the data tracking features we have built into Trellis. Join a demo here. On the call, we’ll also share some more Trellis Top Tips to help you grow your fundraising!

Following the Trellis journey, we know your first fundraiser is going to be a success. We’ll even guarantee it! Follow our process and if you’re not able to raise more with your first fundraiser, we’ll give you your money back, no questions asked!

Steps to Success!

We’ve got your back here at Trellis, complete all of the following steps and we’ll guarantee your first fundraiser will be a success!

Meet the Expert:

Hi, I’m Dave Wille, founder and co-owner of AMS Chicago, a fundraising consulting company based in the greater Chicago area (with studios in St. Louis, Kansas City and Scottsdale).  Our focus for over 15 years has been on helping non-profits and other charitable organizations enhance their fundraising efforts, and results, through free fundraising consulting and select consignment items and experiences.  

We currently support over 300 local charities with their fundraising events by providing unique signed and unsigned sports and entertainment memorabilia, local (Chicagoland) experiences, and expert destination getaways—all on a consignment basis.  There is no upfront cost, the charity only pays the consignment price for items they sell, and any unsold items are returned at no cost.  Our AMS consultants work side by side with each charity to help them strategically select the items most appropriate for their anticipated audience, type of event and time of year.  We believe ‘less is more’ and find that historically organizations will raise 2 to 4+ times the consignment price in their fundraising events.  All AMS consultants have been on the fundraising side of events, and we work hard to ensure there is both ‘fun’ and ‘fundraising’ in all events we support.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is the best way to source items?

By far the best source of items for your charity event will be straight donations.  These cost the organization nothing, and all dollars raised go straight to helping support your cause.  If you are lucky to have a support base who can continually provide donations, and donations that are valued by those attending your charity events, auctions and raffles, you are in great shape.  However, for many charities they find that gathering donations is very time consuming, tedious, difficult, and they continue to receive the same donations year after year.  Those are times to selectively include some consignment items in your next fundraising event.

When should I consider using consignment items?

When you see you have gaps in the donations – that’s the time to consider including some consignment items.  Consignment items can fill in those gaps and provide some needed ‘excitement’ to your auction or raffle by providing items you normally would not have donated.  And any consignment item or experience should both raise money itself, and provide that energy so that guests ‘bid up’ other donated items as well!  Consignment items can also be used to provide a ‘choice of’ items – consider a raffle where the winner gets his/her choice of a signed sports item from 3 different local teams.  You can secure the 3 items on consignment, increase your bidding as most people love ‘choices’, and then only pay for the one consignment item which is selected (the other two items are returned at no cost).

What do I look for when selecting a consignment partner to work with?

Just that, a partner.  Consider a fundraising consultant (or consignment house) that wants to help YOU raise the most dollars for your cause, not move the most items off their walls.  There needs to be a trust factor in terms of the quality of the items, so get some references and/or make sure you visit and talk to the consultants/owners directly.  Do all signed items have a certificate of authenticity?  Do they have a range of price points available to meet your various needs and gaps?  Do they allow you to select as many or as few items as you feel you need, or do they have a minimum required?  Do they have a set consignment price for each item, or are there some hidden fees or do they also ask for a percentage of dollars raised?

AMS Chicago is a preferred partner to 300+ charities over the years.  We retain our relationship with those charities because we provide high quality items and experiences, unmatched client service, set consignment prices about half of the retail value (so charities have the upside revenue potential), no minimum or maximums, and we are there to help you select items and work with you directly throughout your fundraising process.

How important is the authenticity of signed items?

Having a hologram and/or certificate of authenticity for any signed item, from a renowned source, will definitely increase the value of the item and thus your fundraising dollars.  All signed items from AMS Chicago come with a certificate of authenticity from the athlete/celebrity, his or her agent, or one of the 3-4 highly respected third-party authenticators.  We also work with organizations who have signed items donated to get those third-party authenticated prior to their charity event, when possible.  We do find that having the authenticity with any signed item, donated or on consignment, can yield results up to double that of an unauthenticated item.

How many auction items should I have in my event to maximize the fundraising dollars?

The general rule-of-thumb is one item for every 4-5 guests – but that can vary based on the event and other fundraising activities you have going on.  It’s better to have fewer items and generate more competitive bidding and thus more dollars raised, than having too many items.  But it is also important to have a wide enough range of items and price points to meet the needs and interests of your anticipated guests and attendees.  This is even more important with virtual events and online auctions as the breadth of donors and sponsors and bidders increases immensely.  For these events we tend to see a few more items and experiences included, but key here are items that will look ‘great’ via an online photo since bidders won’t necessarily see and feel each item.

What items sell the best?  What items should we look to include in our next auction?

The key is to include items geared towards your invited guests and supporters.  Local experiences always do well, as do select ‘getaway’ trips.  And yes, personal pet portraits, particularly being shut in due to COVID, are popular.  If you have a celebrity in your ranks, create a local experience with him/her.  If you are a school or religious organization, preferred parking is one of those experiences that cost little (or nothing) and can raise interest and dollars.  Sports items always seem to do well, and entertainment items are now creating more energy and excitement.  And providing guests with a ‘choice of’ items (via consignment) have also done well!

What strategy is best for pricing items? Should I provide the ‘value’ and list a ‘buy it now’ price?

An effective and creative pricing strategy, just like creative packaging, can increase interest and thus bidding and thus fundraising dollars.  AMS Chicago works with many charities on their pricing strategy at no cost to the organization.  For some auction items which will have a broad appeal we might see a lower opening bid (relative to the value of that item) as we know there will be lots and lots of bids.  For items with a more limited appeal, the opening bid might be higher so that dollars are raised if there are only 2-3 bids on that item.  Generally adding a ‘value’ for each item is helpful as it can encourage people to bid higher.  But some of those items likely are ‘priceless’ and should be listed as such (aka, a celebrity experience, a one-of-a-kind item, etc.).  And yes, we do like to see a ‘buy it now’ for those attendees who might just like to put down a bid, win the item and then experience the rest of the event.  But generally, no more than one-fourth to one-third of those items are ‘buy-it-now’.

What should I look for in technology and auction software to help support my next fundraiser?

Again, look for a partner – someone with expert software who is also there to help you maximize that software for your specific event.  Are you doing an in-person event or virtual?  A live auction, silent auction, raffle, or all of these?  If online, are you communicating via text or email or both?  Will they be there for your next event, and the one after that? Many technologies have these capabilities, but ease of use and having online or personal support is critical, particularly with your first event/set-up.  And more and more we are finding that charities want and need to use these technologies to better communicate their ‘cause’, which is generally the most important thing a charity can do to increase their fundraising!  The Trellis technology is expertly geared for this communication, and several AMS/Trellis clients have benefitted from this technology in their recent events – raising more dollars than in past fundraisers.

We can all realize that there are benefits to both in-person and virtual events. At in-person events, we can more easily engage, connect, and network with donors and attendees. Virtual events can expand donor reach, reduce the cost to attend, and your team’s budget and human power requirements. 

How are you going to provide more ways for your donors to give? How are you going to provide ways for your donors to give virtually and in-person? 

To answer these questions you’ll need to know what your donors are comfortable with and what they are expecting in 2021 and going forward. 

Don’t worry, my team and I collected data from donors and compiled the results into a report which you can download here. We’re here to give you a sneak peek of what your donors are requesting!

Fundraising Elements

We asked donors to give us the juicy details on exactly how they plan on supporting your organizations. The results we got are below:

Hello! I’m Jerry Goldstone, Benefit Auctioneer and fundraising consultant for non-profits through my company Benefit Emcee. During my 20 years as a benefit auctioneer, professional speaker and public speaking trainer, I’ve learned how to craft and present a message to fundraiser attendees that will maximize their donations. I’ve helped hundreds of nonprofits not just exceed their fundraising goals but have a great time doing it!

Many organizations struggle with how to present their Fund-A-Need (aka Paddle Raise or Special Appeal) for the best results. No need to worry. Knowing what donors respond to is key and that’s what I’m here to tell you today. 

I will introduce you to the three questions your gala guests need answered before they will donate to your Fund-A-Need. When you’re able to answer these questions—and convey that information to your guests—you can confidently present a solid, compelling appeal to help you exceed your fundraising goals.

Let’s get right to those questions!

Question 1: What is it for?

Seems obvious, right? Yet often, it isn’t. 

Donors want to have a clear idea of how their potential donation will be used. In fact, in Donor Centered Fundraising, fundraising expert and author Penelope Burk presents research that indicates three out of five donors say that knowing exactly what the organization intends to do with the money they raise strongly motivates them to give. She goes on to say that more specific and focused fundraising appeals raise more money, improve rates of renewal, and inspire higher average gifts. 

How do you know your event marketing was successful? Which marketing channels worked and which didn’t? Answers to these questions are critical to your organization’s growth and improvement. And more importantly, critical to your event success. Events can fail simply because the promotion and engagement leading up to the event didn’t cut it. 

The first step to avoiding this mistake can be learned from superstar marketer, Leann Yutuc from Inventa. Leann is a big advocate for the importance of goal setting and data tracking to measure the success of your event marketing. Leann’s SMART goal setting tips and data tracking hacks are summarized below. 

Watch the full webinar recording for more tactics on traditional, email, on-premise and social media marketing. 

Step 1: Finding Your Event Marketing “Why”

Before you can start marketing your event, you must figure out your “why.” This is the overall goal of your event. It’s what you want to accomplish, whether it’s revenue, increased engagement or something unique to you. This key piece of information will steer your marketing campaign and help you set your goals with a clear focus.

Step 2: Setting SMART Goals to Measure Your Event Marketing Success

So, you’ve got your event planned, you’ve figured out your “why,” what’s next? Before getting started on your event marketing, Leann recommends setting SMART goals to give you a clear direction and way to measure your success. Let’s dive into it!

S – Specific

If your marketing strategy is going to be successful you need to ensure it is directed at your target audience, so identify WHO you are targeting and where you are targetting early.  An important question to ask is, what platforms are your audience on? For example, if your audience is an older demographic you may want to focus on Facebook and email, while if it is a younger audience, maybe Instagram or Twitter is where you spend your time. The first step to a strong marketing campaign is knowing WHO you are marketing towards. This audience must be specific. If you are too broad you may not be targeting your supporters or some of your efforts might be going to waste. 

M – Measurable

For a goal to be valuable you need to be able to measure it. That way you can improve and build off of the learnings. Leann had an excellent point that goals need to be measurable throughout the marketing process, not just at the end. This way you can adjust and improve your strategy as you get closer to your event. 

Example: If you’re wondering what exactly should be measured, some great examples for social media are likes, comments and reshares. For email marketing, you’re looking more at open rates and clicks. 

A – Attainable

Unrealistic goals can feel just as unmotivating as not having any goals. It is important to ensure the goals you set are attainable based on your constraints. An example of constraints could be your budget or time commitment. If you are unsure what an attainable goal looks like for you, it’s a good start to set a goal for a short period of time. That way you can determine a strategy to meet the goal and at the end of the period assess how close you got and make a new goal accordingly. 

Example: If you’re trying to increase social media followers your short-term goal could be ten new followers on Instagram in one week. You could plan to do your usual posts plus one story and depending on how successful that is, create new goals appropriately. 

R – Relevant

Earlier, you landed on the “why” of your event, stick with that and keep the objectives and goals of your event in mind. Your marketing tactics should be in unison to ensure a solid and clear message. 

“You want to ensure that all of your marketing and all of your tactics are always in harmony with your event design.” – Leann Yutuc, Inventa

Example: If you are setting goals for an upcoming event, goals relevant to your number of clicks may be much more relevant than goals of new followers on social media. These goals may well relate, and it is possible to have both goals but ensure your top goal is relevant and brings you closer to your “why.”

T – Timely

It’s better to do one or two strategies well than too many strategies poorly. There is no need to attempt every marketing strategy; it is more important to go where your supporters are. If a strategy isn’t going to get you closer to your end goal, rethink whether it is worth your time. Timely goals must have an end date, otherwise, they are impossible to assess. 

How to Track & Measure Your Event Marketing Success

Measuring the success of your campaign may seem like a problem for later but it is important to start thinking about how you will acquire data when you are planning your strategy. As Leann says: data is key. We need to gather it, analyze it and understand it to be successful in a marketing campaign. 

“Always, always track along the way” – Leann Yutuc, Inventa

There are numerous ways to gather data to measure the goals of your marketing campaign. Depending on your budget and time commitment, collecting data may look like spreadsheets, social media tracking tools, email tracking tools or website analytics. 

Example: If your goal is difficult to track, an effective yet simple idea is to add one question to your checkout experience asking: “How did you hear about this event?” This gives you important feedback on where you should focus your marketing efforts. 

P.S. Yes, you can add custom checkout questions on Trellis!

The topic of measuring success ties right into those SMART goals we talked about earlier. Having goals allows you to measure and evaluate your tactics. As Leann mentioned in her webinar, the biggest question we can ask at the end of a campaign is, “Did our marketing tactics help us achieve our event goal?” Asking this question, allows us to dial down on what worked and what didn’t; with that information, you can adjust and improve your marketing tactics for your next fundraising event! 

To ensure you have all the marketing tools possible to help your next event succeed, watch Leann’s full webinar here for a deeper dive into SMART goals, event marketing, and measuring success.

Expert Guest Author: Hi, I’m Sara Hoshooley, founder of Charity Shift, a fundraising consulting company based in Vancouver, Canada. I’m on a mission to help charities and nonprofits raise more money for their causes and one of the best ways to do that is through virtual fundraising events. In fact, organizations who have moved their in person fundraising events to virtual overwhelmingly saw a reduction in expenses and an increase in revenue raised and number of guests attending! I want to share with you some tips to help your virtual fundraiser raise as much money as possible by engaging and exciting your donors and guests. 

Like an in-person event, virtual fundraisers require lots of planning, however in a virtual space this looks slightly different. Your guests are being asked to engage in your event in a different format – virtually! This poses greater risk that your guests won’t come prepared to bid, donate, or engage with your event because of the added technology barrier. 

Your donor’s experience is THE MOST important element to consider when planning your next virtual event. To make sure your guests of all ages and tech abilities are ready to engage in your event, I’ve made a list of The 4 Pillars of Virtual Event Engagement.

Come prepared in all four areas, and your virtual event is sure to engage all of your guests and donors. 

Program Design

How will you make every minute count? Research shows, people start to lose focus after about 30 minutes and with virtual events, guests really start to drop off at around the 60 minute mark. Ideally, all of your most important content, including your Fund-A-Need or fundraising ask should happen within the first 30 minutes.

Consider, what kind of content guests will not be able to look away from? How can people feel engaged in every moment and part of the story? Whether it’s pre-recorded content or live content, your event should take your guests on a journey that ultimately leads them to feeling connected to your cause and excited to donate.

Tech Accessibility

Next, you’ll want to consider accessibility. Engaging all of your donors and guests means making sure that their needs and abilities are taken into consideration at every level of planning. Sending out an email or FAQ document prior to your event that outlines how to use the system will ensure your guests have a great experience. For example, you may want to send out instructions of how to connect a laptop to a TV for a better viewing experience, or instructions on the basic functions of Zoom such as how to mute, raise your hand, pin the speaker view, or how to use the chat function. Having a staff person or volunteer who is readily accessible by chat or phone to answer any IT questions that come up can also be a huge help. The staff or volunteer can have a pre-written list of common answers to questions ready to go to provide quick support to guests. 

Using broadcasting options that include closed captioning or live translation services will provide an additional layer of accessibility for your guests. Unlike in person events, your guests may be joining from around the world and have various language and accessibility requirements that you need to be prepared for. 

Production Value 

Now that we’re in the second year of COVID impacted virtual meetings and events, your guests have a certain level of expectation of your production value. Regardless of your budget, your event should feel professional including the cameras being used, your lighting and your sound. The sound quality for your event is absolutely the most important piece. Any visual issues can easily be corrected but if your guest can’t clearly hear your message, you’ve lost them. Investing in professional production support and event planning is an important investment for a flawless event.

This includes things like the speakers and the content you decide to share. Pre-recorded speakers and additional content do not need to be professionally produced (in fact, videos shot at home on an iPhone are sometimes even MORE impactful!) but should at least be clear, well edited, easy to understand, and well-lit.

Make sure to have at least one tech rehearsal to review your recorded content, test all of your technical aspects, and ensure your volunteer staff and all behind-the-scenes elements are running smoothly. You’ll also want to make sure that your slides and any visuals appear correctly and exactly the way that you want them to look.

Tech Expectations

Anticipating any tech issues that may come up in advance and prepare your guests by setting expectations for the tech involved in your virtual event. Something that works very well is to have a countdown clock along with some visuals before the event starts on the broadcast stream. That way as people are joining in, getting set up at home, and settling in for an exciting event, they know exactly how many minutes they have until the event starts. This is also a great time to get your guests to say hello to each other in the chat function and to get excited about the event coming up. It provides ample time for those who are having tech issues to get them resolved before the official program starts.

One of the ways to get people engaged with your event and feeling comfortable within the system is to do somewhat of a practice run. This might include asking everyone to put in the chat where they’re joining from, doing a poll or asking people to raise their hands in the chat, or to wave their hand when they hear the emcee say hello. 

You can also do a practice run with your donation process. For example, you can let people know “in a few minutes we will be asking you to consider making a donation, here is how you can do that” and then show instructions on screen. You can also have instructions running across the bottom of your screen throughout the event, with a reminder on how to contact tech support if needed.

If you’re doing a live auction, you can do a practice run, perhaps with a $10 gift card or something small to get everyone familiar with how to bid. This can be a fun and silly way to get people engaged who may be unfamiliar with the tools.

As for your Fund-A-Need or donation portion of your event, you should have multiple options for ways people can donate. Make sure the instructions are clear on how to do so. This might include a button on screen or second device that requires a link or QR code. Consider your audience and what might be most familiar to them. Regardless of how donors make their gift, make sure your emcee is recognizing them and showing excitement as the donations grow and grow. 

 

Want even more fundraising tips and a template to help you prepare for your Virtual Fundraiser?