How to host a Successful 50/50 Fundraising Raffle

If you’ve been involved in planning a stag and doe or a charity event for your work organization, you will be familiar with the 50/50 draw. Perhaps the simplest of all fundraisers, the 50/50 raffle is easy to run and you don’t require very many volunteers to run it. Many fundraisers operate solely on offering a 50/50 raffle at every event. For instance, my campground does a 50/50 raffle to raise money for the kids’ playground every year. They make excellent money to make improvements to the playground equipment, and someone goes home a lot happier and with a heavier wallet.

Running a 50/50 raffle itself is incredibly simple. Plus, it’s a great way to provide events to team members or employees that are self funded, but that those who don’t want to participate don’t feel pressured to donate to.

To run a 50/50 raffle:

Purchase a roll of raffle tickets from a local party supply shop or dollar store. Make sure these are the style of tickets that have two sections that can be torn off. Both sides will share a unique serial number.
Go from door-to-door or desk-to-desk and sell as many tickets to each person as they want, for a donated fee of your discretion. 50/50 tickets typically don’t go for more than $10 because you want folks to have the change on hand and buy multiple tickets if they can.
When a ticket is purchased, rip off one end and give it to the donor. Then place the other half in a bucket or box.
When it comes time to draw a winner, simply draw a ticket from the bucket and announce the winner.
The prize of the 50/50 draw is half of the amount collected from ticket sales.

Things you’ll need, and need to decide for your 50/50 draw:

Raffle tickets

You can simply buy them at a dollar store or party supply store, or you can make them by purchasing a blank strip of rolled paper and apply serial numbers to each ticket. Either way, 50/50 raffle tickets are inexpensive and you can cover the cost of them in the ticket sales.

Price of tickets

Typically the fundraising team will decide on a flat rate for one ticket, and a deal for 3. For instance, charge $1 for one raffle ticket or three tickets for $2. Many fundraising planners will even change $5 an arm’s length of tickets. Just beware, and use a seller with short arms. Although the normal pricing of 50/50 tickets is fifty cents for one and three for a dollar, you can decide on any pricing structure you like.

Sell the raffle tickets and collect the donations

Go around desk-to-desk or door-to-door to sell the raffle tickets. It helps if you are in a familiar community who is aware of your cause (say a workplace or neighborhood). As you approach a potential donor, introduce yourself and state your case. It helps if you have a flyer that explains your cause. Once a sale is made, rip the ticket in half giving one half to the purchaser, and placing the other half in a hat, box or bucket. Also, when you make your sale, make sure you tell each customer how much they can possibly win when they buy more tickets. Also, remember not to overlook anyone. Just because Suzy doesn’t usually play on the baseball team or John doesn’t typically come out to work social functions, doesn't mean they won't buy a ticket to support it.

Counting the donations

Add up the entire amount you have collected and divide it in half. One half goes to the winner and the other half goes to your cause.

Draw the ticket

Anyone can draw the winning ticket, but it helps to have someone from the fundraising committee or an impartial person (who didn’t purchase a ticket) to pull the winner. If your cause is helping a children’s hospital or business, have the owner or a patient pull the winning ticket.

Present the money to the winner

Make sure you alert everyone who purchased a ticket who the winner was. For example, announce it via loud speaker or post it in a public place so that everyone can see the name of the person and the amount they have won.