Kelowna BC – August 11 2022: Trellis Social Enterprise Inc. (trellis.org) has just been approved as a verified Electronic Raffle Provider in Ontario. As an already approved raffle platform, in most other provinces across Canada, they are excited to continue supporting more organizations as they modernize fundraising through online tools. Beyond supporting electronic raffles and 50/50s, Trellis supports charities and non-profits with event ticketing, auctions, eCommerce, live-streaming, and a seamless check-in experience, creating an all-in-one fundraising platform, unlike any other software. 

As a company, Trellis has experienced a rapid expansion throughout the last few years, experiencing 200x growth in usage over the 2 years of COVID-19 due to the massive shift in technology adoption for charitable fundraising that was already on the rise pre-pandemic. 

However, what makes Trellis most excited is the innovative approach to fundraising through Donation Augmenting that truly sets them apart. “Fundraising is harder than ever before, and organizations require new solutions to raise the funds they need,” notes Justin Goodhew, CEO and Founder of Trellis. “My team and I have developed Donation Augmented Fundraising, allowing organizations to strategically ask for additional donations throughout their checkout experience. So far, organizations hosting raffles are raising an additional 20% more than they have in the past, and the impact for their non-profits is incredible,” adds Goodhew. “And the best part, on top of the additional revenue, we can also identify new donors, unlike raffles without donations, where it is hard to tell if a raffle purchaser wants to donate further.”

Having worked with organizations like David Suzuki Foundation, War Child, Georgian Bay General Hospital Foundation, and Women’s College Hospital Foundation in the past, they are excited for another record-breaking fundraising season ahead. Jen from Georgian Bay General Hospital Foundation goes on to say, “[Trellis] is amazing, you get that feeling right from the get go that [they] are willing to work with whatever we’ve got and help us to do the best that we can do.” And, with even more ways to fundraise now available to their organizations, the Trellis team looks forward to continuing to simplify fundraising and empowering more global collective impact. Connect with the team at Trellis here.

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.)

It goes without saying, marketing and selling tickets is a critical step for your online raffle’s success. Regardless of if you’re a one-person show or a team of online raffle marketing experts, the biggest struggle is determining where you should be putting your time, effort, and marketing spend in order to meet your raffle’s goals. It doesn’t matter how big your marketing team is if you don’t know which marketing channels are leading to the most dollars raised. 

The Online Raffle Marketing Dream

Nobody wants to throw a party that no one comes to. And similarly, nobody wants to launch a raffle that doesn’t sell any tickets. So, what if you could see how your raffle was performing, and how your marketing was going at any given moment? Sounds like a dream come true right?

So, about that dream we had, what if I told you organizations are now, tracking how they are doing, seeing which marketing channels are leading to the most dollars raised, and spending less time, effort, and money?

They’re using the Trellis affiliate marketing and traffic analytics tools to make this dream come true, and PS you should be too! 

How to Utilize Smarter Marketing Tools for Online Raffles

Using affiliate links you are now able to see how much money is coming in from every marketing channel you’re using. And it takes no additional time, simply generate a unique link and label it with the marketing channel you intend to use it for. Sounds intimidating? Don’t worry, all of this is made simple on the Trellis platform. 

You can even set up a unique link for every social media account, your email newsletter, and even create links to give to your board members so they can see who is referring the most donors. With this new information, at any time during your campaign, you are able to see which channel is bringing in the most funds and prioritize that channel over the others. 

Organizations that are using affiliate links have boosted their marketing success through the roof! Attend a demo to join them in their success!

To make this dream a reality, register for a demo to learn how affiliate marketing will boost your success!

Online Raffle Marketing – Idea Alert!

P.S. An idea you might want to steal… use affiliate links and make inviting people a game. No, we really mean it! With your organization supporters, give each one a custom affiliate link 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 from each person, and who the current winner is for inviting the most people. When the fundraiser ends award a prize to the winner!

For years, charities have been running stand-alone raffles, and they were fine. But at Trellis, we don’t settle for fine, and thankfully neither do the organizations we work with. In fact, the raffles and 50/50s we’re supporting are raising 15% more these days, and turns out you can too!

At Trellis we build fundraising software for events, auctions, and raffles. Our all-in-one solution allows organizations to add multiple fundraising drivers to their raffle and the particular element that’s helping organizations raise 15% more is… the donation upsell.

Before Trellis, organizations ran stand-alone raffles and were limited by the software they were using to add additional ways for their supporters to give. Or they were using tools that could support different fundraising elements but the software was not an approved online raffle provider leaving organizations scrambling to execute the raffle portion according to provincial rules and regulations.

That was, until Trellis came along, and made it all possible in one place.

Trellis’ unique ability to run a complete raffle and offer additional fundraising drivers is why most organizations make the switch! Learn more about our other fundraising elements on Trellis here. 

With Trellis, organizations are now able to run their raffles or 50/50’s and, with the click of a button, add donation upsells to their fundraiser. It takes no time at all and leads to an average of 15% more funds raised for the organization. Now, who doesn’t want that! Worried about tax receipting all your new donors? We’ve got you covered, at Trellis we also automate your donation tax receipts too!

PS. The best part is, donation upsells don’t just apply to raffles, and upsells don’t just apply to donations! The organizations using Trellis are adding everything from auctions, tickets and live-streaming to their raffles or keeping things simple with just donations. And, we’re seeing the same success in raising more with everything from golf tournaments to galas and standalone fundraisers to annual campaigns! You can learn more about our other fundraising features on a demo here.

Building a List of New Donors with No Effort

Not only do new donations improve your fundraising goals, but it gives you a unique opportunity to build your donor base with no extra work! Other organizations using Trellis simply added the donation upsell at checkout, so when donors went to pay for their ticket purchase they were asked to make a donation too. 

With the addition of donations to their page, organizations are now able to collect additional funds and also track the names and emails of people who gave a donation for the first time. 

At checkout, raffle ticket purchasers were asked whether they wanted to add a donation to their purchase, over 14% of them added a donation. If your organization had one thousand raffle ticket purchasers, you’d be gaining over 140 new donors!