“How To” Series: Raffles

We are starting a “How To” series on our blog to cover some of the finer details of fundraising events. For the first in this series, let’s talk about raffles. There are certainly a lot of ways to use raffles to increase giving, add an element of fun and create some suspense. There are many different types of raffles you could choose from for your event. This blog will cover the top 3 raffles we recommend.

*Keep in mind that in Oregon you have a limit of $10,000 a year that can be raised through raffles and gaming without a lottery license.

Wild Card Raffle

This is a quick and easy way to possibly raise $10,000 for one of your live auction packages. The idea is that you’re going to sell 100 raffle tickets for $100 each and the winner gets to choose any package from the live auction!

Here’s how it works:

·      Have volunteers walk around (in pairs) during the silent auction and sell tickets

·      Left over tickets can be sold from the stage by your auctioneer right before the live auction

·      Bid numbers should be recorded so they can be entered properly for sales purposes

·      One winner is pulled from a basket or hat

·      The winner chooses from the live auction packages and that package should be skipped during the live auction

Rapid Raffle

This raffle capitalizes on the impulses of your guests. There is a little more preparation before your event for this raffle but it can be a quick, fun way to raise money. The raffle will be guided by your auctioneer and can happen anytime during your event. Make sure you sequence it properly since this raffle gives a lot of momentum to your event. It also makes your donors visible since they will be the ones physically putting their raffle tickets in the baskets.

Here’s how it works:

·      Attach several raffle tickets to each guest’s bid card in advance with corresponding bid numbers printed or written on them

·      When the auctioneer starts the raffle, bidders drop their raffle tickets into baskets as volunteers run around the room collecting them

·      Decide in advance how much each raffle ticket will sell for (usually around $25 per ticket) and print that on the ticket

·      The winner will then be drawn from all the collected tickets

·      Make sure you keep the raffle tickets to log in the sales from this raffle

The prize for this raffle can be something subjective that might not work in your silent auction such as a diamond necklace. Guests might be willing to pay $25 for a raffle ticket to have a chance at winning this item, but they might not be willing to bid on it in a silent auction.

Heads or Tails Raffle

This raffle is a fun way to increase audience participation and create energy in the room to head into your live auction. Have your auctioneer announce and run the raffle. Make arrangements with them prior to auction night so they can time it appropriately. If a guest decides at the last minute to participate, have your auctioneer sell chances from the stage by having the guests raise their paddles.

Here’s how it works:

·      Instead of a ticket stub, guests buying raffle should get some fun, inexpensive favor—like a light stick, beads, etc. (tie the favor to your event theme if appropriate)

·      Have volunteers walk among the tables with extra raffle favors while the auctioneer is announcing the raffle to encourage last minute participation

·      Once the raffle has begun, your auctioneer will ask all Heads and Tails participants to stand up and put their hands on their head - or their tail

·      The auctioneer will then flip a coin and announce whether the coin came up heads or tails

·      Those with their hands on the “winning end” stay standing—the others sit down

·      The auctioneer will continue asking participants to decide what end to select and flip the coin to eliminate players

·      Once the number of players gets down to a handful, the auctioneer can ask the finalists to come to the stage for the last few coin tosses

·      The last player standing who’s selected the right “end” for the coin toss wins

·      Make sure all bid numbers of participants are logged and written down for your data entry sales (including multiple sales per bid number)

When choosing a raffle for your event, keep in mind the types of guests you will have and the kind of energy and momentum you’d like to create in the room. Raffles are a fun way to raise funds for your organization and can be a great addition to your program during your event.

We're Hiring an Event Coordinator

Position:          Event Coordinator

Status:             Part-Time (90-day probationary period)

                        Scheduling will be in advance and will be as needed

                        May include evenings and weekends

Job Purpose:    Provide event planning, logistics management, venue and vendor negotiations, and onsite stage and event management.

Skills Needed:  Good customer service skills

                        Event planning / event logistics experience

                        Greater Giving knowledge

                        Basic knowledge of AV and catering

                        Organizational skills

                        Quick responsiveness

                        Patience

                        Professionalism

                        Ability to prioritize

                        Microsoft Suite knowledge

                        Ability to lift 30 lbs.

Job Duties:     

·       Job responsibilities before an event are to:

o   Work closely with project managers to execute event needs

o   Identify and contract venues, food and beverage, and vendors

o   Manage guest seating

o   Manage production schedule

o   Identify volunteer needs onsite

o   Manage room layout

o   Manage any permit or insurance needs

·       Job responsibilities will be assigned onsite during an event but could fall in any of the following categories:

o   Registration management (guest check-in and check- out)

o   Event set up, load in, and prep

o   Volunteer training and support

o   Stage management

o   Beverage and catering management

·       Other duties as assigned for event production and onsite management

To Apply:

·       Submit cover letter, resume, and two references to Kristin Steele via email: kristin@samanthaswaim.com by February 4, 2014. No phone calls, please.

Thank You

Celebrating 2013 from Samantha Swaim Fundraising LLC on Vimeo.

Use Donor Acquisition Events Effectively

Community Action introduced their organization to a room full of new potential donors at their annual People You Should Know Breakfast.

By: Samantha Swaim

Effective use of a donor acquisition event in your development plan can lead to effective introductions to a new donor pool and a great way to spread the word about your organization. The primary purpose of this type of event is introduction. The structure is relatively simple. The event is free, the program for the event should be rich with stories and the ask should be structured as a low-level way to get new people involved.

The fundraising goals will be tailored differently than a major donor fundraising event, as it isn’t catering to your cultivated pool of donors. Instead, your development team ends up with a list of new contacts that they can then begin to cultivate by bringing them into the work of the organization and stewarding them as donors. It’s like bringing in a new crop to the first rung of the donor ladder and then helping them climb by spending time with them to get them more invested in your organization and feel compelled to give more significantly.

Community Action’s annual People You Should Know Breakfast is a great example of this type of event in action. This year 300 people came to the Oregon Zoo to hear about the work of Community Action. The cultivation of attendees started with table hosts who were targeted by Community Action because of their connection to the organization. These hosts were asked to come to the event and commit to filling a table with guests to introduce to the organization.

Table hosts filled tables with guests they wanted to introduce to the organization.

The program of the breakfast was a series of videos that showcased the stories of staff and clients of the organization, the cumulative effect of which was to paint a rich and heart-driven picture of the important work that the organization does to lead the way to eliminate conditions of poverty and create opportunities for people and communities to thrive in Washington County. It was a tight, scripted program with a focus on a dynamic introduction of the organization to new potential supporters.

The ask was one compelling story of change that Community Action had helped facilitate and instead of envelopes being pre-placed at the table settings, the envelopes were actively passed to the table hosts after the ask, and the table hosts passed them to their guests and engaged them to give. A challenge gift by a major donor helped incentivize the giving and the result was increased fundraising and acquisition of a new donor base.

How to Create an Effective Fundraising Environment

By: Samantha Swaim

More isn’t always more. Sometimes less can actually be more.

This is often true at fundraising events. Seems counterintuitive, right? The more people in the room the better, right?

It’s not the number of people in the room that will help you hit your targets, it’s who you have in the room that will help you create a great fundraising environment in which to achieve your goals. Everyone attending your event is actually costing you money. The food they’re eating, the chair they’re sitting in, the drinks they’re enjoying in some cases—those things are hard costs to your budget. The offset of that comes when the person in that seat gives back to you beyond what it cost for you to have them there.

If you have an intended focus for your fundraising program and then put too many uninvested people in that room, it can actually be distracting. Especially if those seats are filled with comp tickets. Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between someone who has paid to be at an event and them donating. If people have paid to be there, they are more likely to give you money. If they’re not invested, it becomes easy to chat with the person next to them at their table. Or even worse, they get up and start moving around the room during your special appeal.

And when one goes, it gives permission for everyone else to follow.

Make-A-Wish of Oregon switched things up this year and held an intimate dinner, live auction and special appeal with a curated crowd of 250 before their larger and lower-ticket price Wish Ball started upstairs with silent auction, raffles, photo booth and fun for everyone.

The process of shrinking their crowd for this intimate dinner allowed them to hone in on bringing their biggest donors together and moving those who were lower level supporters up to the Wish Ball. By making this split they were able to create a more exclusive room that catered to the interests of their major donors.

It also allowed the organization to reach directly across to those major donors and create a tight, focused program for them without worrying about the distraction of a big, unruly room that they had to keep bringing to attention. It gave invested donors an environment of peers who were as committed to the organization as they were. The pay off for the change in format was that then everyone could head up to the party and socialize, dance and celebrate the amazing fundraising that was already done.

Take a look at who comes to your event, identify your major donors and then craft your event with that crowd in mind. By catering to your donor base, you will increase the investment in your major donors and increase the fundraising.

Getting to the Heart of an Organization

By: Samantha Swaim

We encourage organizations to start the program of their event with a video that we call the ‘who we are’ piece. It’s a great way to dim the lights and bring the attention of the room together. It’s also an easy way to tell the story of your organization in a condensed and engaging format so that everyone in the room is on the same page.

Often organizations come back to us and tell us about their budget constraints and the idea that there isn’t resource enough for a second video if they are already using video for their special appeal. But if you have photos and a computer, you can make a video that tells the story of your organization.

We made a video for PlayWrite@10, an anniversary gala for an arts non-profit in Portland. All we used were some photos that they already had on their website, some simple text and a great song that set the emotional trajectory we were looking for.

We started with the words first. What is good for a grant, may not be the best thing for storytelling. We looked at why this organization does what it does. We looked at what was the beating heart at its core. That process was about stripping away all of the jargon and program language and cutting to what the organization does on the simplest level: it listens to stories of young writers and facilitates them telling those stories on stage.

With a very simple script in place, we matched photos of their writers to the text. We made the story about the young writers involved. Showed them thinking, writing, playing, smiling and taking a bow for their work. We told a simple story in words and images that in just over two minutes told why PlayWrite does the very important work it does. Showed the faces of the lives it impacts every day.

The video worked really well at the event. It also worked really well for staff, encouraging them to simplify how they talk about their organization and to focus on the program’s emotional impact. It put the young writers front and center.

And the video can have a long life after the event. Staff and board members can play it on a tablet when meeting with donors to quickly engage them. It can become a multi-media piece to add to appeal emails and post-event electronic recaps to attendees. It can become your elevator speech. When you turn on the screen, people pay attention.

Take it as a challenge. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and see if you can get to the beating heart of your organization in 150 words. Let go of what you usually say, let go of what the website says, let go of language you’ve inherited. Pretend your audience is someone that has never heard of you. What would you tell them?

Real Stories About Real People Make a Difference

By Samantha Swaim

Your special appeal is the largest fundraising opportunity during your event.

Not the silent auction. Not the raffle. Not the wine wall.

The special appeal.

And because it is such a large opportunity, it is important to spend significant time and energy on it to yield that return. Your special appeal should not be about facts and figures or programs. Those are important things, but as soon as they are introduced, studies show that giving decreases by as much as 50%.

Your special appeal story should be about real people. A story that makes an emotional connection between your guests and the issue your organization is addressing. It should show how their trajectory was or will be significantly impacted by the work of your organization.

Basic Rights Oregon held its biggest gala yet with this year’s Ignite event. Their special appeal broke all records for their organization. This was as a result of time and strategy.

They created an amazing video to take the audience on a journey. It is the story of one couple. One journey. It is the very human story of love, and how after 42 years, Ed and Warren want to be married in Oregon.

The video of Ed and Warren that Basic Rights Oregon used in their appeal was a very carefully crafted piece focused on making the case for support.

It doesn’t delve into marriage protections.

It doesn’t talk about law.

There are no statistics in it.

There are voices. There are pictures. It simply tells the story of Ed and Warren and the incredible life they’ve crafted together out of love. And it makes a simple request for support so that Basic Rights Oregon can make that happen for them.

And the audience responded in a huge way. When we humanize what we do and make it about people giving to people, the response and giving will follow. Take the stories you have and simplify them, distil them down to what makes them human. The special appeal is that place to have emotional impact on your audience, the place to put your heart on your sleeve. And if you’ve done it well, your audience will give theirs back to you.