Need a great raffle item for your Benefit Auction?

/

Many Charity Events include a raffle as part of their fundraising efforts. It's an easy way to pick up some money from those who may not otherwise be bidding on items in your live or silent auctions during the evening. The issue is always, "What should be the prize for the raffle?"

Each raffle is different and needs to be tailored to your crowd. If you feel you can sell tickets to a raffle at $100 each, this item may not work, as the prize may fall short of expectations for a $100 buy-in. But if you are looking for a great prize for a $25 raffle, look no further than the latest offering from Apple. The iPad.

While there is seldom any gaurentee that an item will draw our intended interest, this one has a fair amount of heat behind it right now.

Getting Apple to donate it could be tough, but maybe "you know a guy". For the rest of us, I recommend finding a supporter who will underwrite the iPad's cost. Prices start at $499. Tell him, for $1000, we can call it the "Big Bob's Ice Cream Hut iPad Raffle".

If your crowd is not very tech savvy or is not likely to not have an extra $25 with them you may want to go another direction, but with millions of pre-orders of this item, available April 3, 2010, There's a fairly good chance you'll have a few players for your raffle.

The Math: Sell 100 chances to win iPad @ $25 each = $2500 + $1000 Big Bob's Sponsorship is $3500, minus $500 cost of iPad, leaves $3000 profit for your organization.