Are all your raffles legal? A solution to Hospice Raffle challenges

To Print or Not to Print If tickets are for one event only and sold within the time-frame of the event, cloak room tickets can be used If tickets are to be sold for longer than the time-frame of the event - ie. selling in advance of the event, Printed Tickets are required Today we look at Printed Raffle Tickets

The Problems: Too many illegal raffles run in aid of our Hospices - many tickets are sold ahead of an event using cloakroom tickets (even though we might not know about some until the money appears on our desk!) Mad rush when we are asked for printed tickets - sudden requests mean a swift turnaround to get them designed, printed and sent out to supporters No tangible promotion or marketable details for Raffles - no in-house details to use in order to promote and encourage supporters to run Raffles for us A lack of understanding by the public, on running raffles and when Gambling Licences are required

A thorough and audit-able process What do we need? A way to inform the public of the rules of running raffles in an easy to understand way To be able to save time once a raffle ticket request comes in, with the fulfilment of books To have the means to encourage and motivate the public to run raffles on our behalf A thorough and audit-able process

Easy to use and specific to each event A Generic Raffle Book Easy to use and specific to each event

The Generic raffle ticket design

The Orange label area is the magic space, where pre-printed labels are attached to make the tickets specific to each raffle event. They show the Event Name, the range or top selection of prizes and the Draw Date. I have set up a label template specific to the label sheet dimensions, on our system, which is completed for each set of raffle books, then saved in case further books are required. I always ask organisers not to attach ALL the labels at once, in case they are not needed, that way they can be returned and used for another Raffle.

Allocating raffle books to event organisers is an important part of the process and helps to make all areas audit-able, so checks can be made on how many tickets sent to each event and sales from them thereafter (see below) There is also an area to show how many books/tickets have been sold, how many returned, and ticket numbers to reflect this. You can edit this however you like, as long as it helps you keep track of the allocated ticket sales and money received.

Promotion and Information for the public With these set designs, processes and availability, we can now promote the Raffle Packs on our website, where supporters can fill in a form to request them and give all details needed to print labels and supply us with event information and their contact details too. We also supply information to assist them with regard to which Raffle ticket type to use and what help we can offer

I do hope this idea has been of help to you If you would like to discuss further please see me later or contact me on alison.bacon-snow@stnh.org.uk