Paper vs. Online Raffles: Which Will Help You Raise More?
Raffles are an amazing way for non-profit organizations to raise money. In 2025, you won’t need to sell paper tickets, and hosting an online raffle can help you reach a larger audience and simplify the entire process, from organizing your raffle to contacting winners. While many charities, non-profit organizations, and religious groups may still choose to hold paper raffles for smaller fundraisers, it’s definitely worth considering the benefits of moving your raffle online.
At Raffle Rocket, we’ve helped everyone from small non-profits to huge, internationally-renowned charities meet their fundraising goals by hosting online raffles that are fun, easy, and drive engagement.
Let’s take a look at the benefits of both paper and online raffles.
The Tradition of Paper Raffles
The Benefits of Paper Raffles
The main benefit of traditional paper raffles is that people intrinsically understand what they are and how they work. You buy paper tickets with numbers on them and wait for the winning tickets to be drawn. They’re simple and straightforward, and that definitely carries some appeal.
The Drawbacks of Paper Raffles
But compared to online raffles, traditional paper raffles also limit participation. Only people attending an event can physically purchase tickets, and those tickets can also be lost or misplaced, resulting in winners being unable to collect their prizes.
Paper raffles also require a considerable amount of labour. Tickets need to be acquired so that they can be sold, and you’ll need volunteers and staff to actually sell those tickets to anyone who wants to participate. It can be a lot of work, especially when compared to the simplicity of online raffles.
The Simplicity & Reach of Online Raffles
Using an online raffle platform like Raffle Rocket provides a few major advantages. It’s easier for everyone involved, and being able to track sales not only provides organizers with up-to-the-minute updates on how their digital raffle draw is going, but it can also drive excitement among the people who have bought tickets.
Here are a few of the benefits of hosting a raffle online:
- Wider reach: When you host an online raffle with Raffle Rocket, you have the option to make it private or public, which can drive participation well beyond the people attending your event.
- Less labour: Once you’ve acquired the proper licenses and have set up your online raffle with Raffle Rocket, there’s significantly less work involved in hosting a digital raffle draw. Anyone who participates simply needs to visit your online raffle and purchase tickets. They’ll receive their tickets by e-mail.
- Real-time tracking: This can be especially fun when you’re hosting a 50/50 raffle, as anyone considering buying a ticket can see how much has already been sold and get excited about the size of the prize.
- Secure payments: Raffle Rocket collects payments from purchasers through a third-party processor, Stripe. All payments are completely secure.
- Ease of promotion: It’s important to make sure as many people as possible know about your online raffle, and you can do this through email, social media, or flyers and direct mail. You can also equip your team with unique selling links to track tickets sales by each volunteer. Raffle Rocket has the tools to help.
Types of Online Raffles
One of the great things about hosting online raffles is that you have several options for the type of raffle you can offer. This means you can select the online raffle that best suits your fundraiser.
50/50 Raffles
50/50 raffles are incredibly popular and easy to understand. A 50/50 raffle offers the opportunity to win 50% of the total funds that are raised. The more tickets your organization sells for its online raffle, the bigger the prize the winner will take home.
Cash Raffle
With a cash raffle, your organization sets aside a lump sum that will be awarded to the winner before the online raffle begins. That cash prize can be as big or as small as you want it to be, but it also means that for online raffles where lots of tickets are sold, your organization doesn’t need to just give back 50% of the money it raises to the winner.
Non-Cash Raffle
Whether it’s a boat cruise, a car, or even a gift basket, a non-cash raffle offers up a big prize to the winner. Everyone buys tickets with the hope of seeing their number called, and with Raffle Rocket, you can raffle up to five prizes. Early-bird prizes are supported, too, and you can even combine cash and non-cash prizes in your online raffle to really get the excitement going.
Go Digital for Your Next Fundraiser with Raffle Rocket
Hosting an online raffle is a surefire way to reach your organization’s fundraising goals. Between the ease of organizing and promoting an online raffle and the excitement that providing real-time tracking offers, hosting an online raffle is a great way to increase the money you bring in and drive engagement for your charity, non-profit, or religious organization.
Raffle Rocket’s platform makes hosting online raffles feel effortless, so contact us at [email protected] or visit us online today to get started.
FAQs
Who can host an online raffle?
The rules and regulations for hosting online raffles vary from state to state and province to province, so you need to make sure you check with your local gaming authority to ensure you know all the relevant details. Raffle Rocket helps charities, non-profits, and religious organizations host online raffles that amplify their fundraising powers.
What type of online raffle should my organization host?
If you have community partners willing to donate high-value prizes, hosting a non-cash raffle can be highly lucrative. 50/50 raffles are extremely popular because they have low startup costs and offer little risk. Cash raffles allow your organization to keep all the money it raises, minus the prize, so you’re not giving up half of the money you raise by selling digital raffle tickets. Don’t forget about the possibility of combining cash and non-cash raffles, too.
Start setting up your own online raffle fundraiser!
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