Evan Johnson, GCB Communications Specialist
(some information has been changed for privacy)
Sarah is my wife’s coach. She also runs a nonprofit gym—a place where the walls have sayings like, “The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won’t work if you won’t.” Her organization is probably a lot like other Minnesota nonprofits: they’re doing great work for their community, and money is always tight.
She knows I work at the Gambling Control Board, so when one of the gym’s annual tournaments was coming up, Sarah asked about fundraising options using charitable gambling. I walked her through the basics, and after thinking it over, she decided to go with a Start Simple raffle. It was easy to run, completely legal, and a great way to see if charitable gambling was a good fit for her organization.
I asked if I could follow along as she and her volunteers went through the process. Here's some of what we learned.
Planning the Raffle
Sarah's gym is a 501(c)(3) and was only doing one gambling event this calendar year, so under the "Start Simple" guidelines, the limit on their prize package was $5,000.00. She decided to run two separate raffles at the same time: one for a PlayStation console, and one for a 50/50 cash prize. The PlayStation was valued at $450, so they capped the cash raffle prize at $4,500 to stay within the limit.
Her first step was checking in with City Hall to get the local approvals they needed. Important note: This process took longer than expected—Sarah just barely made the cutoff. Make sure you start this process early—maybe even several months—to avoid problems.
Gathering Supplies
Getting the necessary supplies was straightforward. They already had a few things from the Start Simple checklist on hand, and the rest were inexpensive and available online. They created and printed the required signs using a regular computer and printer.
Remember that (by law) this had to be an all-cash event (no credit cards), so one of the supplies they needed to have on hand was good starting cash bank with plenty of small bills for making change. And because cash was involved, they made sure to think through security. Sarah coordinated with the tournament security team to ensure the raffle was part of their monitoring responsibilities.
Event Day
Setup on tournament day went smoothly—though like most acivities, it took a little longer than expected to get everything posted and “ready for business.” Thankfully, they had extra volunteers to help with setup, in addition to the two who were assigned to actually run the raffle. One of the things that slowed the setup was attendees eagerly asking if they could by tickets yet—a good problem to have!
The ticket sales process went well, but it was busier than anticipated. A few practices that helped them succeed:
Making the Most of Your Raffle
And make friends with the event's emcee. You'll want them to know what's going on and help promote the raffle throughout the evening, especially as you're getting closer to the actual drawing. The timing of the drawing also mattered—Sarah didn’t wait until the very end of the night to do the drawing, when lots of folks might have been heading for the doors. Instead, she held the drawing about two-thirds of the way through the event. That way, everybody was still there, so the winners could actually jump up and shout, “That’s my number!”
And speaking of exciting conclusions, make sure that you've got a system in place to confirm what ticket number was actually the winner and for what prize. It's another process you'll want to think through ahead of time, but it's easy to forget.
Once the prizes were handed out, all that was left was collecting the records Sarah needed to keep. The checklist from the Start Simple brochure made this easy, and everything fit neatly into a gallon-sized freezer bag! Simple, clean, done!
Was It Worth It?
For a few hours of work, Sarah raised just about $700.00 for her gym. Not bad! Plus, having done it once, she already has ideas for next time. And she’s curious about what a gambling permit ("exempt permit") might allow (short answer: more options!).
She started simple, did it right, and was successful. You can do it, too!