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A well-run raffle with the right grand prize can raise incredible amounts of money for your school, church, or charity. Most groups underestimate how much money a raffle can raise.

You can easily raise ten thousand with a simple raffle, tens of thousands with a desirable prize such as a new car, and hundreds of thousands of dollars with a truly deluxe prize such as a new home.

Cash prizes

From the late-1700s to the early 1900s, many public buildings and university expansions were funded by raffles. The raffle prize was always cash and the raffles always sold out all their chances.

Cash prizes allow people to dream of what they’d do with the cash if they won. Cash awards work best when ticket prices are fairly low and the grand prize is a significant multiple of ticket cost.

For instance, when you have a $10 ticket price, a $10,000 cash prize is a huge draw. Having lots of additional chances to win smaller cash prizes is another great ticket sales incentive.

The most popular cash raffles combine low-priced tickets with a significant cash prize and several tiers of smaller cash prizes. Total cash awards should always be less than 50% of total ticket revenue.

Luxury prizes

Physical prizes that match the ticket buyers “wants” also do well. Vacation getaways, restaurant gift certificates, spa treatments, and other items with a luxury feel also work well as prizes.

And don’t forget prizes aimed at men such as sporting event tickets, sports memorabilia, golf-related gifts, and anything that goes fast or makes lots of noise are also good draws for ticket buyers.

You can combine luxury prizes with cash prizes or you can do raffle where all prizes consist of luxury items. Because some people will not want the luxury prize, you should always promote your raffle as offering an alternate cash value prize for any item offered.

Another option instead of offering a $10,000 first prize plus five $1,000 cash prizes, would be to switch the secondary cash prizes for things like a big screen TV, vacation packages, stereo system, Omaha steaks, etc. This type of combo raffle has widespread appeal.

Dream prizes

And the lure of “dream” prizes such as a new car or even a new house can’t be underestimated. It is a powerful emotional draw that really creates an urge to buy a ticket on the spot, and that emotional trigger is what you want in a big prize.

With dream prizes, more tickets will need to be sold with ticket prices correspondingly higher. A new car raffle might have tickets priced anywhere from $20 to $100, depending on how many tickets were being sold and the value of the vehicle.

A good rule of thumb is to keep ticket prices low enough to have widespread appeal without having to sell so many tickets that your volunteers run out of energy and prospects.

Prize costs

Obviously, you would love to have a dream prize such as a house or a car donated to your group, but that’s neither realistic or necessary. Obtaining a good discount is all you need to focus on since any discount directly translates into extra profits.

As with a cash raffle, keep your prize costs under 50% of total ticket sales. The larger the grand prize, the smaller the percentage can be.

For example, a car being raffled can have it’s MSRP pegged at 40% of total ticket revenue. With a good discount, your profit could end up at 67% of total revenue. A house being raffled can be positioned with it’s appraised value at 33% of total ticket sales.

How much can you raise?

Raffle profits vary wildly across the different prize categories. You can easily raise $10,000 with a cash raffle or one offering luxury prizes. When cash raffles are tied to well-publicized events like a golf ball drop, profits can easily exceed $25,000.

Car raffles will raise that much and more, depending on the desirability of the car being raffled, the ticket pricing and the overall ticket sales volume.

Raffling a new home can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ve even seen a group make several million dollars by raffling a luxury beach home. They sold 32,000 tickets at $150 each, grossing $4.8 million for a house appraised at $1.8 million. Now that’s a raffle!

Summary

There is no single best raffle prize. Your choice of prize or prizes will vary depending on your financial goal, the size of your potential market, and how many volunteers you have to sell tickets.

Bigger prizes mean more tickets must be sold to turn a profit, but they also mean substantially higher profits. Design your raffle prize offerings to match your community’s tastes and always offer alternate cash awards in lieu of any physical prize.

Kimberly Reynolds writes for national publications about non-profit fundraisers, fundraising raffle prizes, and church fundraiser events. Find more school fundraiser tips on her website, FundraiserHelp.com

A leading natural skin care company provided the cosmetics for a New York fashion show in January. This is good news for several reasons.

First, it is good to know that a manufacturer dedicated to using only naturally occurring ingredients earns enough money to sponsor a big show. In years past, these small companies were struggling. Now, their products account for about 10% of those sold every year and that number is growing.

Second, by sponsoring the show, the manufacturer drew some needed attention to the benefits of naturally occurring ingredients over synthetic ones. More and more research indicates that synthetics are not good for our health or the environment.

Many synthetic ingredients are not biodegradable. According to scientists, they build up in the environment and in our bodies creating a burden on our vital organs as they try to remove them.

The show may also help to make people aware of how beautiful a natural-look can be. With cosmetics that are primarily composed of minerals and naturally occurring pigments, the models look lovely, but not overdone.

Another natural skin care company recently made news in New Zealand when a celebrity tried their new anti-aging whitening day cream and published the before and after photos. One thing that sometimes accompanies the aging process is a duller, darker looking complexion. After only five weeks, the celebrity’s skin was significantly lighter and younger looking.

The active ingredient in the whitening cream is derived from the roots of a plant commonly referred to as Nut Grass. Nut grass roots have been used historically to treat bruising and swelling. Scientific testing proved that the extract inhibited melanin production safely. Melanin is the pigment responsible for the skin’s color. When it clumps, we see freckles or age spots.

So, a natural skin care company can offer everything that the big companies offer. They often have better prices, because they don’t do an enormous amount of advertising. Of course, effective naturally occurring ingredients do cost more than cheap fillers and petroleum waste products. But, they are worth every penny.

It is important to be cautious. The term “natural” is not legally defined by the cosmetic industry. It can sometimes be misleading.

You can read the label of ingredients to be sure that the natural skin care company is providing what it advertises, but you might have to learn a little bit about cosmetic nomenclature in order to understand it.

Click here to find out more about a natural skin care company that recently made news in New Zealand when a celebrity tried their new anti-aging whitening day cream and published the before and after photos. Or visit my web site now at http://healthy-skin-care.info and discover proven cutting edge skin care products that protect your skin and slow down the aging process.

One of the highlights of every baby shower is the baby shower games. Baby shower games are a great way for everyone to relax, have fun, and be silly. Even if you only play for a few minutes, baby shower games are an ideal way of making memories for everyone, especially the mom-to-be who will one day share those happy memories with her beloved child.

Deciding which baby games to play will likely be a fun challenge. If you’re creative, you might want to create some of your own baby shower games. Or, you might want to choose some of the most popular baby shower games, such as:

How Big Is Mommy’s Belly? All you need to guess the mommy-to-be’s belly size is some yarn and scissors. Have each guest cut a piece of yarn to the size she believes the mom’s belly is: The guest with the yarn that fits around the mommy-to-be’s belly wins.

Safety pin jar. You’ve probably seen the retail stores play this game: A jar is filled with jelly beans, and every customer who wants to participate guesses how many jelly beans are in the jar. The one with the closest guess wins. The same goes for this popular baby shower game, except you fill a jar with safety pins.

Name that baby. Name that baby is a fun game every guest can enjoy. When you send out invitations, make sure you tell every guest to bring a baby picture. Take each picture and post it on a sheet of poster board in collage form. Then give each guest a piece of paper and see who can match the most women to their baby pictures. The guest who guesses the most correctly wins.

Mum’s the word. It’s a baby shower, so you, the mom-to-be, and the guests are all going to be talking about baby, right? Well, not if they want to win a prize. Give every guest a “necklace” of either safety pins or beads. Every time a guest says the word “baby,” she must take a safety pin or a bead off of her necklace. At the end of the party, the woman who has the most pins or beads wins.

Just how many baby items are there? Give each guest a piece of paper and have everyone write down as many baby items as they can think of – bottle, pacifier, booties, bib, blanket, etc. The woman who has the most items on her list wins.

Of course, you can’t play baby shower games without giving prizes. The good news is you can offer the winners of your baby shower games fun and memorable prizes that are extremely affordable. One of the best places to find baby shower game prizes is at online retailers, like Discount Baby Shower Favors, one of the industry’s leading sellers of baby shower favors and gifts.

When buying baby shower game prizes, consider your guests: What type of prizes would they like? If most of your guests are lighthearted people who enjoy the whimsical, you might want to opt for a fun baby shower game prize like a Pink Polka Purse Manicure Set, a Martini Glass Gel Candle , or a Leather Stiletto Keychain Favor.

Or, if you know the mom-to-be and the guests are a sentimental bunch, you’ll likely want to choose a sentimental prize that can easily become a treasured keepsake. The ideal sentimental baby shower game prize might be the Choice Crystal Baby Shoe Favor with Gift Box , the Heart Shaped Tea Infuser , the Calla Lily Gel Candle , or the Glass Sailboat Tealight Holders (Set of 4).

Copyright: Jennifer Mills:

baby Shower Game Prizes:

Looking for a little extra something to make the Baby Shower you are planning special for the Mom to be? The perfect solution are door prizes! Door prizes get the guests engaged and excited and help out the Mom To Be at the same time.

When you send out your shower invitations include the following:

Let’s Help Out! Fabulous Door Prizes will be raffled off at the shower, the cost of a raffle ticket, one box of baby wipes or diapers. Each box you bring will get you a ticket, no limit to the number of boxes you can bring.

Guests get the chance to win a prize and the Mom To Be has a fantastic supply of wipes and diapers for those first couple of crazy months!

Affordable door prize ideas include:

* Two bottles of wine, a wine opener and wine charms. Two really great bottles of wine that are inexpensive are Menage a Trois and 7 Deadly Zins. You can get a nice but cheap wine opener and charms at Bed Bath and Beyond for about $5 each. Total cost around $30
* Either two nice 5×7 frames or one 11×14 – watch for a sale at Michaels, they regularly mark their frames for 40% off, you can get a really nice 11×14 for $12-$15
* Spa and Beauty Kits – Bed Bath and Beyond has great spa kits that are as low as $20, use your 20% off coupon and it’s even cheaper!
* A chip and dip set, serving bowl or platter. Again, Bed Bath and Beyond has nice items as low as $20.
* If the shower is in October, November or December, stop by CVS and put together a gift wrapping package filled with gift wrap, tape and bows.
* Another CVS gem, you can find a travel alarm clock that also holds digital photos for $20!!

For FREE Baby Shower themed raffle tickets, free baby shower games and more ideas visit rosepetalfavors.com.

Starting last year, there has been a new trend emerging on the internet and this trend has a lot of things to do with the “win free prize” motto. Thus, there are a lot of websites out there that have sprung off lately and stating that if you will engage into their games, you will get to win free prizes. Some of the websites out there will not only give you the chance to win free things, but they will also offer you some incentives that will consist of money or different objects.

If you are someone who is not employed and you have some spare time that you could put to use, then you should definitely check these websites out and win a free prize through email submit that consists of cash, electronics, gift cards and more.

Also, you should know that some of the websites will also give you the chance to win free prizes in cash if you will just spread the word about them. This means that if you will refer them to your friends and families, you will have the chance to either earn some good money or win a free prize. How’s that for a nice incentive?

On top of that, you are not the only one who will be visiting these websites to win cash and most of them will also feature different chat possibilities. This means that when you will be engaged into the games in the attempt to win a free prize through email submit, you will also have the possibility of talking to your competitors. Some taunts here and there will surely be present, but that is just the fun in all of this. At the end of the day, you will have a big smile on your face and the “win free prize” competition you have delved in, will surely mark you as the winner.

Also, some websites out there will offer you cash if you will spend some time on their websites. This is something that will guarantee you will get to win a free prize through email submit.

Remember, if you want to win something free, you will only have to look for these websites and study each of them. They will all have different rules and they will also feature different things for winners, so it is really up to you which one will you decide to log on to

Usually the bingo prize is cash ranging from fifty to a million dollars depending upon the various facets of the game which may vary from a small hall to a high stake game at a casino. The prize may sometimes be other things excluding cash like some vehicles or a trip.

The bingo jackpot size is based on the number of participants or indirectly the amount of money coming in keeping in mind the rules of the place where bingo is being played. Various states have different limits for the total prize amount.

A progressive jackpot is dynamic as the prize amount keeps on increasing till somebody wins it. To win the progressive bingo jackpot, the player must have an extra ordinary win in mere 49 balls. As the amount keeps on increasing in a progressive bingo jackpot sometimes an upper cap is put on the jackpot amount which cannot be increased further.

The big prizes at stake have lured people from all around the globe to play this lucrative game, the most exciting being the high-stake bingo prizes. At times the amount is so high that the hall owners take insurance policies.

The super bingo jackpots on the other hand are available only at certain sessions. These are also known as step games where the players are given different amounts depending on how fast they get a black-out. To win such kind of games one has to develop a special pattern from the very beginning.

Luck favors the unknown. Hence sometimes it takes certain players a very long time to win the super bingo jackpot while someone winning it in his first attempt.

Once a player hit a super bingo jackpot there are various procedures that take place. Like if the winning amount is more than a prescribed amount than it would be paid to the winner in annual installments but before that a whole predefined procedure is followed so that it can be made sure that there was no fraudulent practice involved in the winning. It’s made sure that the balls are not tampered with and the video is also sent for review so that there is no other unfair means involved.

Adding to all the ways bingo halls offer huge bingo jackpots is the Satellite Bingo. Satellite bingo brings together various bingo halls at the same time which exponentially increases the bingo jackpot.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could enter a sweepstakes and not have to wait an eternity to find out if you have won? Well actually you can by entering Instant Win Sweepstakes.

What are they?

An instant win game is a free online sweepstakes or giveaway that will reveal to you whether or not you have won a prize immediately after you enter.

How does it work?

These contests are just like any other online sweepstakes except that a random time has already been determined for when to award each prize (this is usually determined before the promotion begins). If you are the first person to enter after this time you will receive a message instantly informing you that you have won a prize!

Why should I play instant wins?

Instant Win Games can be a great motivational aid for a weary sweeper, this is not simply an entry form you fill out and forget, this is exciting. They offer the promise that you could be a winner right here and right now. In order to keep the excitement level high instant wins typically offer hundreds, even thousands of smaller prizes. In addition these are probably the only random sweepstakes in which you can increase your chances of winning.

So how can I improve my odds?

It is impossible to know what time has already been chosen to award the prize. As this is a randomly computer generated time, it could be at any time of the day or night. However you can increase your chances of winning by playing during quiet entry times, such as late at night. During the day there will usually be many people online playing these games, which means there will likely be thousands of entrants every hour. In order to win you would need enter within a second or so of the winning time. However late at night it could stretch out to several minutes or more between entries, thus increasing your odds of winning.

Where can I find them?

Instant win sweeps are increasingly popular and you may see them advertised on many websites or you can search for a dedicated contests & sweepstakes listing website.