Luxury hamper raffle raises funds - whilst delighting a lucky winner!

Hear from Wendy and Damian...

In the run up to taking part in the epic walking challenge that is ‘Journey to the Edge of the World’ we decided to hold a luxury hamper raffle as part of our fundraising. It was a team effort with Damian securing the hamper (and delivering it to the winner), obtaining luxury goods and taking the photos. Wendy obtained further goods and advertised the hamper raffle.

We felt very lucky to be supported by Walk the Walk Founder and CEO, Nina Barough, as we completed our Camino Journey to the Edge of the World. We were absolutely delighted that Nina agreed to draw the winning raffle ticket - we did the official draw on the last night of the challenge.

Top tips for luxury hamper raffle organisation

Make it official

• Step one is to contact a Walk the Walk representative to obtain an official letter from the charity about your fundraising raffle. This letter will be dated and include your name(s) as part of the content. This letter can then be used if you want to ask for donations as an official endorsement.
• Have a set number of tickets available (i.e. not limitless) which will encourage more people to purchase a ticket or two (i.e. winning doesn’t involve impossible odds). We had 50 tickets available (sold 28 of them) and produced a numbers grid so we could record the preferred numbers of everyone buying a ticket against their names. Be really clear when marketing your raffle when the raffle ends and set a deadline.
• You need to decide who is going to draw your raffle, when and where (and tell people this from the outset for transparency) recording the moment officially with witnesses present.

Seek donations of goods

• Give yourself a good run up to going live with your hamper raffle. You will then have plenty of time to approach local/national businesses for donations as well as buying items that you are funding yourself. This can also include vouchers – for example for money off a meal at a national restaurant chain.
• We found our hamper on Facebook Marketplace and were able to negotiate a £5 discount from the seller as it was for charity. We went for quite a large hamper in the end so that it was able to take all the goods comfortably. We then purchased some packing straw from Amazon to put into the hamper to surround the goods.
• You could add some information about the charity within the hamper itself.

Price your hamper appropriately to reflect its value

• We charged £25 per ticket which we felt was reasonable given the value of some of the individual items; for example most of the wine bottles were worth in excess of £25. If you can, provide a total estimated value for your raffle hamper in your text.
• One consideration we overlooked was to have a runner up prize (or two) so this is something you could think about. When you do the draw the first ticket must be the main hamper prize – then follow up with runners up.
• With good photography, people can see the value of the hamper overall and be tempted to purchase a ticket (or two). We set up our photography shots with a backdrop and good, natural lighting. We also took a variety of photos from one of the hampers in its entirety - to some individual shots of some of the types of goods on offer.

Consider different themes

• Our luxury hamper had a mixture of goods but you could consider some specific themes and seasonal variants.
• Themes could be general – for example, a Christmas or Easter themed hamper – or be more specific - for example sweet treats or cheese and wine.

Promoting your hamper

• Use a range of promotional methods from social media to email and word of mouth. See above but having some really good photography will help you to promote your raffle.
• You could also create posters for suitable locations – for example where you work (always seek permission before displaying posters) and create smaller A4/5 leaflets for close neighbours, friends and family with all the key information.
• If you are holding another fundraising event then you can also display the hamper at the event and encourage those attending to buy some tickets. Perhaps you can delegate the responsibility for selling tickets to friends and family members – preparing a rota to share this duty during your event?

We ended up contributing £700 to our fundraising target from raffle ticket sales alone and delighted one very happy winner!

We’re also very pleased to report that we both completed Camino Journey to the Edge of the World and would thoroughly recommend it – it’s tough but many wonderful memories were made.

If you have a fundraising event or activity planned, take a look at our extra bits and pieces to help you... if we can help in any way, please do get in touch!

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