3 Mistakes That Make Raffle Fundraisers Flop

Raffles are one of the most popular ways for nonprofits to raise money — 47% of donors say they’ve supported a cause by buying a raffle or sweepstakes ticket. They’re approachable, fun, and they convert casual supporters into donors who might not respond to a straight ask.

And yet most raffle fundraisers leave money on the table. They don’t fail catastrophically. They just quietly underperform — a few hundred dollars where a few thousand were possible.

After years of helping nonprofits run raffle fundraisers on RallyUp, we see the same three mistakes again and again. Here they are — and how to fix each one before your next campaign.

Mistake 1: Treating raffle law as an afterthought

Raffle rules in the U.S. are governed state-by-state, and the variation is enormous. Some states require a permit before you sell a single ticket. Others cap prize values, limit how many raffles you can run per year, or restrict online ticket sales entirely. California, for example, requires registration with the Attorney General and mandates that 90% of gross receipts go to charitable purposes. Massachusetts requires a separate permit from the city or town where the raffle is held.

Skipping this step is the most expensive mistake you can make. A raffle that violates state law isn’t just a compliance headache — it can mean refunding ticket sales, paying fines, or losing your charitable status.

How to fix it

• Confirm your organization’s eligibility to run a raffle in every state where tickets will be sold.
• Check whether you need a permit, license, or registration — and whether you can sell tickets online.
• Build the legal timeline into your campaign plan. Some permits take 60+ days to issue.
• Disclose raffle rules, ticket pricing, odds of winning, and how funds will be used clearly on your campaign page.

Mistake 2: Mispricing tickets and underwhelming the prize

The second mistake is mechanical: ticket prices and prize structure that don’t match the audience. Price too low and you cap your revenue. Price too high and casual supporters walk away. Pick a prize no one is excited about and even great pricing won’t save you.

Skip the “percentage of prize value” rules of thumb you’ll see online — they break the moment your prize is worth more than a few hundred dollars. Instead, price backwards from your fundraising goal. The formula every experienced raffle operator uses is the same: (fundraising goal + costs) ÷ the realistic number of tickets you can sell = your single-ticket price. A nonprofit aiming to raise $5,000, with $500 in costs and a network that can realistically move 700 tickets, lands at about $8 per ticket — round to $10 and offer a 3-for-$25 bundle. That’s how you set a price; not by guessing at a percentage. (CharityAuctions, Raffles For Less, Eventgroove)

The prize matters just as much. A single small prize rarely creates enough excitement to drive sharing. Two formats consistently outperform:

• Multi-prize raffles — a grand prize plus secondary prizes give more donors a reason to enter.
• 50/50 raffles — the prize pool grows with ticket sales, which creates its own momentum. (Note: 50/50 raffles aren’t legal in every state. See Mistake 1.)

How to fix it

• Price backwards from your goal, then test against your audience. Calculate (goal + costs) ÷ tickets you can realistically sell. Round to a clean price point ($5, $10, $25, $50). For school or community raffles, keep single tickets at $1–$10. For gala or premium-prize raffles, $25–$100 is standard. For prizes over $10,000, $100–$250 is normal.
• Always offer a bundle — bundles consistently outsell single tickets by 30–50%. Use psychological pricing where the best bundle looks like an obvious deal (e.g., 1 for $10, 3 for $25, 10 for $75). Highlight the per-ticket savings so donors can see the math instantly. (CharityAuctions)
• Choose a prize your donor base actually wants, not what’s easiest to source. A weekend getaway, a high-demand electronics bundle, or a curated experience usually beats a gift basket.
• Consider a 50/50 or Enhanced 50/50 format where the prize scales with ticket sales — the growing jackpot becomes part of the promotion.

Mistake 3: Setting it and forgetting it

This is the quiet killer. The campaign goes live, an email goes out on day one, and then… nothing. No follow-up. No supporter sharing. No urgency push as the drawing approaches. Ticket sales trail off, and the final number looks nothing like the goal.

A raffle is not a single ask — it’s a four-to-six-week conversation. The nonprofits that raise the most treat promotion as the campaign, not as something they do once.

How to fix it

• Turn supporters into sellers. Peer-to-peer raffle promotion lets your most engaged supporters sell entries on your behalf, with their own shareable link and a real-time leaderboard. A small group of motivated promoters can outperform every email you send.
• Reward sharing. Built-in incentives like Sharing Rewards award donors bonus entries when they share your raffle on social media or refer a new supporter.
• Send more than one email. A launch email, a midpoint update, a “48 hours left” reminder, and a final-day push — that’s the floor, not the ceiling.
• Make it mobile. Most ticket purchases happen on a phone. Use text-to-give and short URLs to remove friction.

If writing four or five promotional emails sounds like the part you’d procrastinate on, that’s exactly where the AI Fundraising Content Generator inside RallyUp helps. One click drafts prize descriptions, raffle copy, and donor emails — in the tone and length you choose — so the campaign that’s been sitting in your drafts can launch this week instead of next quarter.

Run a raffle that actually raises money

Avoiding these three mistakes — compliance shortcuts, weak pricing and prizes, and a single-shot promotion — is the difference between a raffle that quietly underperforms and one that hits its goal.

Explore RallyUp’s raffle fundraising features or talk with our team to see how nonprofits like yours are running raffles that outperform last year’s.