Guiding Vision

Yesterday I did a teleseminar with Chris Brisson of RaffleSecrets.com. We’d asked website visitors to submit their questions ahead of time and got a lot of great questions. It was really an interesting conversation with Chris and I both adding our own lessons for success from our experiences. Now the recording is available for those who didn’t get to listen in to the call.

One of the reasons that I like raffles is that if all of the prizes are donated then nearly all of the profit goes toward the cause. Of course a lot of people want to get the “big prize” i.e. cars, houses, etc. but often those can be difficult to really make money on because the prize is usually not donated. Organizations can get into some liability issues that they hadn’t anticipated. Chris and I discussed some ways to plan ahead of time to be prepared for such issues.

There are certainly some causes and situations where a raffle would not be appropriate. Of course they would not be possible in states or municipalities where they are illegal or highly restricted. But other than legal reasons, there’s other situations as well. I recently helped plan a traditional house party where at the end of the presentation guests were asked to donate or pledge. The idea of doing a raffle on the same night was brought up, but I quickly advised that it would not be congruent with the concept of the party that we were doing.

Just like any special event, raffles can be successful when they are a good match for the organization and planned well.