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Techniques for Conducting a Raffle

The simplest technique for conducting a raffle is the single draw. A group of tickets are placed in a contained space, a bowl, a hat, a box or a bag, and one ticket with the winning number or name is drawn from the bunch. There are no real drawbacks to this method, other than it is a bit bland and boring. You can use other methods to spice up your raffle drawings. Check with your state, county or city offices to be sure you have the proper licenses to conduct a raffle. If you are on a school campus, military base or other organization grounds, you may have to have approval and follow guidelines for conducting raffles.

Calendar Raffles
- If you hold more than one raffle a year, group them together to form a "calendar raffle" that you advertise together. This gives players more to look forward to and keeps them coming back for more. You can structure the raffle so that one ticket is good for the entire series or sell tickets for each game individually, giving players the option to buy all their tickets at once. You can run a calendar raffle daily, several times a week, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually. The options for setting up a calendar raffle are nearly endless. The only stipulation is that the game rules must be clearly printed on a raffle ticket, or application, so the participants know the type of chance they are buying.
Pick 3/Pick4
- A spin-off of a popular lottery game, a daily pick 3 or pick 4, you can create a raffle where players must pick a predetermined series of numbers and then you draw numbered slips from a container and list them in the order of draw. The player with a matching ticket wins. The drawback to this method is more than one person may win the prize and it is only effective if you can deliver more than one.
Duck Race Play
- Use a stream of running water to create a race raffle. Number toy rubber ducks with indelible markers to match the sold tickets. Release the ducks at one time into the stream, and the first one to cross a predetermined finish line is the winner. This works best with a relatively small number of players.
Cow Plop
- If you have access to live animals (any alive animal can be used, not just cattle), create a life-size grid with a corresponding number system to match drawing tickets. Traditionally, the square that a cow "plop" falls on is the winning number. Create your own method of choosing the winner: the first square a cat sits in; the first square a dog digs; or, of course, the tried and true, first square an animal relieves itself in wins. The drawback to this method is that it can take some time for the animal to perform a specific function. If you choose the "cow plop" method of drawing, make sure you comply with animal welfare regulations and no animals are hurt while you conduct your raffle.

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