Thread: Raffle Drawing at Party?

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I was thinking of doing one raffle drawing towards the end of my Halloween party this year. When people arrive, I'd give them the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets for $1. The item I would be raffling off would be a big gift basket full of candy, two movie tickets (so they can see whatever Halloween-y movie is currently in theaters at that time), a couple $5 scary movies from walmart, and maybe a couple other items.

Here's the question... do you think people would participate? Would they actually pay money for raffle tickets? Have any of you ever done this at your party? Would it be okay if money from the raffles went towards expenses? Or is that selfish?

Any insight would be super appreciated!! Thanks!!

In my opinion it seems a little crappy to host a party and charge money for something like that. I hope I don't sound like a jerk at all I do like the idea of the raffle ticket however.

I like the idea of Raffling off something, but I have to agree with Kallie. It sounds a little selfish. Maybe if you advertise in your invitation you are having a raffle and proceeds go towards a charity or the local community people would be more willing to participate. I have a donations box (made from a coffin) in my doorway with a sign that says all Proceeds go towards the youth association in the community. This goes over well, as neighbors always come in to peek at the decorations. I have also advertised in the local community paper for a "free" spook house walk through with donations excepted and this seems to work well. This year, my house is up for sale and we are constantly having potential buyers and real estate agents coming in. I plan on leaving the donations box up in hopes for more donations to go back to the kids. These are just some ideas but having the money go back to the host is probably not the best idea. Good Luck.

If you're going to do a raffle, it needs to be for a charitable cause. People are not going to be interested in buying a ticket if it's JUST to pay for expenses and give you some extra cash for Christmas. They may, however, think that donating to a charity is a GREAT idea. You can recoup the losses on the basket, and donate the rest.

To pull it off, you need a LOT of people at your party. You can probably expect only 1/3 of your guests to buy tickets. You also need to clearly put in your invitation that there IS a raffle, what it's for, and the price of the tickets.

If you're worried about the cost of your party, because yeah, it can get expensive, then you'd be better off going a different direction. Ask people to bring their favorite dish, so you're not spending a ton of money on food. Plan inexpensive parlor games instead of something more costly. Get a partner or two to help! Good luck!

In my last big party we did an elephant raffle, where everyone brought one or two wrapped items, got a ticket when they came in, and we drew random winners to pick an item at the end of the night. It was a ton of fun and all the gifts were so funny. We never charged anything, but we did encourage people to bring themed foods.

Definitely no to any kind of cash raffle unless it's for charity, and even then it still feels like being mugged by your coworkers to buy gift wrap from whatever after school activity their kids are in (really I'd rather just give them five bucks than have to order more junk). Personally I'd say throw this idea out completely.

We would never charge people for raffle tickets at a party we hosted.

We have given some nice prizes for the costume contest, and always have a themed gift bag for everyone when they leave.

A raffle is a fun idea, but give the people tickets, do not charge them. I'd spread the drawings out to maybe every half hour, leading up to the big prize.

Thanks for the great input. It was a really stupid idea . . . I'll just toss it. We'll just stick with the good stuff we have planned!

At my witch's bash, i am doing a raffle at the end of the party. However, no money involved. I've bought a couple of prizes. Everyone gets a raffle ticket just for showing up. Then, the winners of the costume contest and games get extra raffle tickets to put in the drawing. I think it'll end up cheaper this way instead of buying prizes for the contest contest and game prizes. I'm hoping it'll also get people into the games (not that they need it!) with the hopes of earning more tickets.

I've done this at lots of parties but I usually don't charge for it. I don't think I would want to purchase a ticket to win a prize at a party I was invited to. ??