Text Raffles for Schools and PTA’s

Text Raffles by Schools and PTAs

We have seen a bumper number of text raffles being run by schools and PTA’s during the 2020 festive fundraising season. With schools seeking new ways to fundraise in a cashless, digital way our text raffle service has become a novel replacement for the traditional Christmas hamper and other prizes raffled at the school Christmas Fair. Swapping the ticket strips for text messages means no running costs and allows participants to buy multiple tickets. Grandparents and friends can also buy tickets from the comfort of their armchairs. Raffle tickets are available at £3, £5, £10, £20 and £30. More funds raised without cash being involved is a winner for everyone.

How DONATE™ was used:

With a choice of ticket prices and raffle keywords, schools this year elected to save time selling and folding tickets by promoting their chosen keywords, along with the number to text, to their communities. The school PTA committees promoted their text-raffles using their email lists, social media and newsletters with a few setting-up stalls and incorporating it into virtual streamed events. Prizes donated by local businesses were raffled alongside some more unique offerings such as cakes and other prizes. Quick to get up and running, some schools ran multiple raffles at once. Those with a £5 entry raised the most with the same number of participants. The lucky winners are contacted through their mobile once the raffle is drawn. Whether named Raffles, Draws or Tombolas, schools and PTA’s hosted their small lotteries license terms on the DONATE website in order to comply with the lottery legislation.

Read FundEd Spring 2021 Magazine for more on how Text Raffles have help PTAs raise funds.

https://funded.org.uk/magazine/currentissue/funded-magazine—current-issue1/

“Our first ever text raffle as part of our first ever online Christmas market. We had a short time in which to run the raffle and were pleased that we were able go live so quickly. This was a new process to us but the support offered was fantastic and any queries we had were quickly dealt with. After promoting our Raffle to our community we are thrilled that we managed to raise £585 using the DONATE™ text raffle service”.

Jennifer Juttner | Chair, Friends of Rodings Primary

“the whole process has been brilliant. We have raised a phenomenal amount – double what we raised last year using the paper raffle, and last year was a bumper year compared to previous. So thank you for your help we will hope to do this again next year rather than go back to the paper set up”.

Maz Preen | Fundraising Chair, Eversholt Academy Trust

"A text-raffle seemed an obvious fundraising method for us to use during lockdown. Although DONATE charges a 4.5% admin fee, we found this was well worth paying, for all the printing, envelope stuffing and ticket folding it saved! We needed a licence from our local authority, just as we would have if we’d run a physical raffle with paper tickets. The raffle was publicised on our website and social media in the weeks running up to the draw date. Reports provided by DONATE™ showed us how sales were going day by day, so we were able to post reminders to our supporters if we felt interest was waning. The automated draw took place at a pre-determined time and date, then all we had to do was notify winners and distribute prizes. In total, we made £870 profit, which was a great boost to our lockdown fundraising". - Lauren Crawford| Parents Association secretary, Grand Avenue Primary