Fund raising raffle now been draw - quick query ??

sonicshelly

Hi

I organised a big raffle and it has now been drawn. I have all the unclaimed prizes as not all people who bought a ticket attended the draw.
Whose responsibility is it to get the prize to the winner - am I supposed to deliver them or should the winner arrange collection ??
How long do you give the winner to collect the prize, can't have all these prizes sitting in my hallway forever ???

Thanks for any advice - one prize is a case of stella and the winner lives in Derby which would have to be posted ( cost a lot ) as its quite a distance away ?

MrsBartolozzi

I've not been in the position of organising a raffle myself, but have bought many tickets, so hopefully I can help a bit.
Did the ticket holders not write their names/phone numbers on the back to be contacted if they win? If so contact them and get them to arrange pick up.
You don't say who the raffle is for/ where it was drawn, but maybe you could post up a list of winners in the school/village hall/scout hall/ charity shop etc and ask people to pick up their prizes within x time or ... well I don't know, maybe you could re draw from the rest of the tickets. I've seen this done before for those ticket holders who left no contact details and were not at the draw event.
Since you have the contact details for the winner in Derby can't you let them know they've won and let them arrange pick up of the prize. It may well be the case (since they live far away) that they bought the tickets to support the cause without really expecting to win anything so never thought about picking up a prize.

As for delivering the prizes, if the people live very close to you then yes, you could deliver them (I've had this happen to me), but I wouldn't go out of my way to do this - it's about charity after all. Is there some way you can publicise the winner's list and let them come forward, maybe giving a period of time to collect before doing something charity related with the unclaimed prizes.

Sorry, I have rambled a bit as I realise I bought raffle tickets for a draw on Saturday and have no idea if I won:rotfl:!

sonicshelly

Thank you - I am in the middle of drawing up a list of the prize winners which I will post on the fundraiser cause's website. They have all left phone numbers, so am ringing people at the mo, just wasn't sure what they would expect - either me to deliver or they would collect.
The draw was for Cherish Chelsea Appeal and it was drawn at Elvis Tribute Nite we had organised.
Thanks for the advice

kazzah

this is a problem our charity has encountered many times and for this reason we only ever have items that cannot be posted, for offer in an "on the day draw" - for example the person has to be there to collect their prize from the raffle table -
IF they are not there we always have a few vouchers for places like McDonalds/Pizza hut/Tescos etc that we have had donated and if the person is NOT there to collect their prize then we send them one of the easily postable vouchers as their prize!!

We run a major National raffle every 2 years and we always offer a cash prize for this reason - I beleive it is the organisers responsibility to get prizes to winners - so we make it as easy as we can for ourselves to post things cheaply and with a mimimum of bother.

You might find that your winner simply says keep the prize and re- raffle it- which is always lovely and generous of them - people are often VERY accommodating in these cisrcumstances

sonicshelly

I am getting really stuck. I have rang winners, left messages on their answer machines, saying they have won a raffle prize for tickets they bought to support Cherish Chelsea Appeal and what the prize is, if they could ring me back to I can arrange a time to deliver. People aren't ringing me back!!!
I also spoke to someone who was going to come nearly 2wks ago or arrange for the person who lives nearer to me and who sold him the tickets to get in touch and arrange something else. Not heard from them.
I am 8 months pregnant, my hallway is overloaded with prizes and I am getting a bit fed up now, I can't keep chasing these people but how long do I leave it? I don't want people moaning at me weeks later, I can't find any rules anywhere !
Anyone been in this position, please help. Thanks

sonicshelly

I have now come across a ticket where the mobile number has been written down wrong, 1 digit missing.
Also another ticket has written c/o Mr ........ then it just has the street name and town, no house number.
I presume as there is nothing I can do regarding this, I am ok to put the items back into another raffle?
Anyone help please?