Companies that will donate raffle prizes

rachwood89

Hi
I am planning a charity skydive for Crohns and Colitis UK in memory of my boyfriend who passed away suddenly aged just 25. 19 of his closest family and friends are all planning on taking part in the skydive which means we have an awful lot of money to raise.
In order to raise the money we are hoping to hold some charity nights and do raffles and things but I just want to know if anyone has had any success in getting any companies to donate any prizes and what companies are best to approach.
Thanks
Rachel

Savvy_Sue

Generally I'd say use your personal contacts: you've got 19 people all with their own colleagues / networks / friends, so see what they can blag! Also check whether any of them work for companies who will match fund any sponsorship they raise themselves.

mccsavage

i done a fundraiser last month n 95% of my raffle prizes came from asking friends n family on facebook and getting them to share my status....hairdressers, nail technicians, tattooists, reiki, photographers, massages etc plus i asked some of the local businesses that have been familar with me for a long while and got gym memberships, sweet trees etc.

if you can get a letter from the company you are doing it for, wilkinsons will take a copy and let you know within the week, and tescos are good too. i hear coop are generous but i havent tried that yet xx

lambourne

I did some fund raising a few years ago for a small local organisation, I found most of the big stores e.g. M & S, Boots etc donated something e.g. gift vouchers, football clubs, especially local ones, usually give something - we had match tickets from Spurs and signed pennant from Arsenal, these always go down well in an auction or raffle. Local small shops e.g. hairdressers might give free haircut vouchers.

paddyrg

rachwood89 wrote: »

Hi
I am planning a charity skydive for Crohns and Colitis UK in memory of my boyfriend who passed away suddenly aged just 25. 19 of his closest family and friends are all planning on taking part in the skydive which means we have an awful lot of money to raise.
In order to raise the money we are hoping to hold some charity nights and do raffles and things but I just want to know if anyone has had any success in getting any companies to donate any prizes and what companies are best to approach.
Thanks
Rachel

If you want the charity to benefit most, why not can the skydive and just give the raffle prizes to charity? A massive proportion of those charity events is taken up with costs and the profits of the organising companies, the charity receives a sliver of the total cost. Effectively, having a raffle to pay for a skydive is asking companies to support your experience.

27col

So, if I buy a raffle ticket, the money is used for you to go sky diving. I don't think so.
If I give money to a good cause, then that is what it should be used for. Not to cover the expenses of the organisers.
If you have to raise a lot of money for the sky dive then scrap the sky dive and give the money raised to the charity.

nicdan

Try McDonalds, I worked there for years and we always helped funraisers out with meal vouchers. We just required you putting your request in writing, also we used to give out a large drink urn and free still fanta and cups so people could sell the drinks at their fundraiser

sillyvixen

if you have any local tourist attractions, it may be worth contacting them - a few years ago i wrote to our local steam railway and they donated a family pass for a year for a charity raffle. the lady who won it was chuffed to bits as her daughter and family had just moved back to the area and it was something she could do with her young grandchildren.

rachwood89

Thanks for your replies and advice, i will try some of those companoies. paddyrg and 27col I am fully aware not all the money they ask for goes to the charity, so much covers the jump cost and the rest goes to the charity, we are all paying for the jump cost ourselves therefore any money raised after is going to the charity so people are not buying tickets to fund our experience they are buying them to support the charity in memory of my boyfriend. We chose a skydive as we wanted to do something special to remember him by and if people won't be generous and support us jumping out a plane then I don't know what they will for.

calleerose

Hey,

I know this is an oldish thread but I am in the middle of organising a raffle myself for a volunteer program i am taking part in. I've sent out lots emails/letters to businesses asking for donations from businesses and even some celebrities (reality tv stars will ahve an email for their agents somewhere on twitter page). so far i've only got 2 responses, Charlotte from Geordie shore and Harper Collins publishers. Tony&Guy do a raffle of some sort to give away goodie bags, you just send an email and hope for the best.

I'm thinking if i get just one or two big companies to doante something then smaller ones will follow suit.

Seanymph

I've never found big companies any good at all - except for Virgin who send through promotional things like hats.

The best results I've always had are for entry tickets - and then raffling them off.

Cinema's, 10 pin bowling, zoos, sealife - try out your local tourist guides and write to every single attraction.

I got over 30 sets of family tickets back from 40 letters - swimming pools, farm attractions - anything privately owned.

Good luck.

Another good thing is an 'auction of promises'. We raised over £7,000 at our school from that.

Or you can hold a printed ticket raffle with cash as a prize and take that from the takings. That works well if you have a large group to issue the tickets to.