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Run A Raffle

IMPORTANT

IMPORTANT For raffles being created during Fall 2022 or after, please see  ∞ Raffles for more details. Please consider the information below for raffles created before Fall 2022.

To Run A Raffle using Auctria will require at least one item, a Raffle Ticket, although you can have multiple "raffle tickets" as needed. You can also use Raffle Prize Items although this is optional as it has no impact on the actual raffle itself.

WARNING

Auctria only provides the means to sell "lots" that represent the "raffle tickets". When you Run A Raffle using Auctria you may need to have a method of assigning raffle ticket numbers to bidders, if needed, as well as a means for Picking Winners (see below).

In Auctria, "raffle tickets" are generally created as For Sale Items. In particular, the Admission Tickets Included field on these For Sale items should be left blank.

INFORMATION

In Auctria, the terms for "Tickets" and "Ticket Items" may be a bit confusing. Tickets are used for event admissions or restricted access for bidding (for example, where the option Only ticket holders are allowed to bid is enabled -- see Who Can Bid for more details).

Video: Website Editor Add Raffle Tickets Page

Auctria Video 2020-01-11

Raffle Tickets

You will need to create at least one item set up as a Raffle Ticket using the following criteria:

  • Item type set to For Sale Items
  • Value set to the price of the ticket
  • Admission Tickets Included is left blank (or set to 0).

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  • If you need to collect Sales Tax you can set an appropriate Sales Tax category.
  • You can manually set the Item#, for example, you might use RAFFLE to make it easier to remember or be identified by your guests.

If you need to manually record sales of your "raffle tickets" you would use the Record Purchases function from under the Bidding/Sales dashboard.

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An example view of the Record Purchase approach for selling "raffle tickets".

Selling Raffle Tickets

Although For Sale Items (like "raffle tickets") can be displayed in any Item Catalog element they are generally best offered on a purchase style page such as the page used when selling Tickets items.

Although the above is our recommendation, there are a few options to sell Raffle Tickets:

  1. The Raffle Ticket can be sold on a Tickets page. See Item Catalog configured to use the Items marked 'Show in default web purchase element' condition. For more details on adding Raffle Tickets this way see Configure Items Displayed (recommended).

  2. A separate Raffle Tickets page can be created to only display the "Raffle Ticket" items. This is most easily accomplished by using the pre-built section Raffle Tickets. This does require you use the RAFFLE tag on your "raffle ticket" items.

You can put a button on the home page and/or have a menu item linking to this page (see Configure Menu Entries for more details) where you will be using an Item Catalog element. In most cases, it will easiest to use Tags on the Raffle Ticket items and then set the appropriate "condition" (Items matching tags) for this approach.

  1. If you choose to configure your "raffle tickets" as a Buy It Now Only Items, bidders could "buy" the item although it would actually be treated as a wining bid on the item and the amount would be put "on account" like any won item. In this case, bidders would not need to pay for the "raffle tickets" immediately and their accounts would be shown as having a balance.

WARNING

WARNING This is not how Raffle Tickets are usually "sold". Most events keep "raffle tickets"" as For Sale Items and have them paid for immediately.

NOTE

NOTE You would set up Raffle Tickets as Buy It Now Only Items if you want them to appear in the "Mobile App" (a bidding tool only). This is the only way to "sell" items in the app.

Also, since these "Raffle Tickets" would appear as won items, having "ticket" in the item title may also be a good idea for reference purposes.

IMPORTANT

IMPORTANT There is a potential downside using the "Buy It Now" approach. Bidders will need to register first before buying "Raffle Tickets" (including confirming their email address) instead of being able to buy the tickets in the single transaction used with For Sale Items.

Selling Multiple Ticket Bundles

If you are Selling Multiple Ticket Bundles, for example a single ticket for $5 or 5 tickets for $20, you would have two For Sale Items: one for the single "raffle ticket" with a value of $5; and, a Basket And Packages item, to use for the "5 tickets for $20" item.

Once you have the two items created, you would use the Combine For Sale Items function to add the single tickets to the "Basket/Package" and still be able to track all of the tickets sold either as singles or bundles. Total raffle tickets sold would be the amount noted under the single ticket item.

Export Individual Sales

As a special case, For Sale Items have an additional Activity related option under Exporting & Printing (in the sidebar) that allows you to Export Individual Sales for the specific item as an XLS formatted file.

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Clicking the button will immediately start the process and download the file in your browser.

INFORMATION

Using the Export Individual Sales on a Raffle Ticket item will provide you with a list of buyers of that item. This list might be further reviewed and could potentially be used in a raffle "drawing" external to Auctria.

Picking Winners

WARNING

WARNING Always check first with your local authorities to ensure you are following any and all applicable rules and regulations before you decide to Run A Raffle especially how these requirements apply to Picking Winners.

Recommended Reading

These suggestions are no substitute for your own due diligence.

There are a number of ways and approaches can use for Picking Winners of a raffle. Your best options will be those fitting within local requirements and meeting the expectations of your participants... and which will be the most fun!

The following ideas are not an exhaustive list but only some ideas to consider.

  • Paper Tickets One of the simplest methods is to use matched pre-numbered tickets and pick the winning ticket(s) out of a "hat", for example, how you might handle a  ∞ 50-50 Raffle.
  • Random Number Generator Using the Export Individual Sales report above with the Random Number Generator (often seen as the RAND() function) feature set found in most spreadsheet applications.
  • Online Random Number Generator Using the Export Individual Sales report above with an Online Random Number Generator and a spreadsheet application view of the exported sales data (by default you will see a row number beside each row that you might use as your reference).
  • Online Random Picker Using the Export Individual Sales report above with an Online Random Picker to choose from the list you enter/import into the service.

DANGER

NOTE: Auctria will not make recommendations on what approaches to consider.

Raffle Prize Items

Tracking the Raffle Prize Items within Auctria is optional since awarding a "raffle prize" will not affect how much the winning bidder owes or the total income raised by the event.

INFORMATION

It is optional to create Raffle Prize items as well as record their respective winning bidder although if this is done the Raffle Prize items will appear on Bidder Statements for reference.

To create "raffle prize" items you would set the Item Types as a Raffle Item and optionally set a value for the item. The Raffle Item type is not used for "raffle tickets".

You can record the prizes a bidder has won using the Bid tab of the Record Bid page leaving the bid amount blank. You will just need to enter the Bidder# and Raffle Prize Item#.

IMPORTANT

IMPORTANT There are no dollar amounts used when recording a raffle prize. Simply leave this value blank when recording the bid; or, optionally, you can use the value of zero (0) which is treated the same as a blank entry.

Hidden: December 2022