Raffle Basket Ideas

Posted by Jordan Morris on 17 February 2022

Raffle baskets are a big favorite in almost any fundraising event. There’s nothing better than winning a bunch of little prizes where there’s a guarantee of satisfaction. It doesn’t matter who your audience is, a raffle basket is sure to please someone. It’s why we suggest always providing one. 

It can really entice people to buy more tickets for your event. That being said, it’s not as if you can head to a store and buy a raffle basket all ready to go. This is why we’ve created this list of ideas so that you can build your own and get the ticket sales you dream of.

Start by grabbing your basket size

It may come as a shock, but so many people prioritize themselves with what to put in the basket, they forget the basket itself. You don’t want to do a last-minute search for a box and have to wrap it in wrapping paper just because you forgot to get a basket.

Getting your basket first can also be a great way to decide how much money you’re going to spend on your basket. If you’re only looking to spend a minimal amount, getting a smaller basket may help to restrict your spending when you reach the shops. Alternatively, you might want a huge basket because you’re building a basket for kids that will need a big stuffed teddy bear. Get your basket, then get shopping. 

You want your basket full of prizes to help you sell raffle tickets (loads of them). You can have multiple baskets too, one maybe as a wine basket, one with gift certificates, one with the grand prizes, one with raffle items, tickets to the theater for movie night, tickets for sports at a game night or more! 

Before you buy, consider who will be buying tickets

Your event may be a good cause for charity with a wide range of people. In which case, it’s probably a good idea to get generic food and drink items. If your raffle event is for a school, could you buy supplies for the kids? Could the raffle basket become a raffle school bag with enough supplies to last an entire semester?

Think of it like this, if your audience isn’t interested in the raffle basket on offer, why will they buy tickets? Could you already be doing your event a disservice by getting the wrong items for a raffle basket? Once you’ve decided who is buying the tickets, you can look at building the perfect basket. Here are our favorite ideas.

Raffle basket ideas for families

So you want to know about gift basket ideas for families? New mum events and young family events are growing in popularity to help get families out of the home. There’s a strict no shame policy on the crying baby, everyone can have fun and relax and there are plenty of chaperones to look after children. So what type of raffle basket is a great idea here? Well… there’s two.

One for the child: perhaps wet wipes, a new toy, a gadget to help parents out, food and clothes. The other raffle basket idea is for the parents. Massage oils, candles, a foot spa, face mask, could you even put in a gift card for a spa day? 

Think about what the child may need or want, but focus on helping the family out in whatever suitable way possible. If your raffle is in a poorer community you may decide on the basket for the child, but if the parents are financially stable and have everything they need – why not pamper them?

Raffle basket ideas for students and young professionals

Let’s take a look at auction basket ideas for students. If you’re running an event for students of any kind or young professionals, one of the best things to do is consider that they may not have a lot of money. Letting go of their hard-earned cash for the sake of a raffle may be difficult, so make sure this raffle basket is incredibly useful and worthwhile to them.

If they’re college students, consider that they may need money for books. Could you add a gift card to the raffle basket? If they’re high school students, perhaps include a ticket to prom or a discount to a popular dress store in town. Depending on how much budget is involved in your raffle, you might even look at offering gadgets such as laptops, headphones, tablets, drawing pads or art supplies. Again… this demonstrates why it’s important to decide who your audience is.

Raffle basket ideas for retired people

If your audience is retired they have something a lot of people don’t have – time. Time to enjoy life, time to meet friends and family and time to explore. We recommend that if you’re building a raffle basket for the retired, that you focus on experiences. There aren’t any items that older people will need that they don’t already have or have the funds for. So make this basket all about luxuries.

That doesn’t mean that your basket needs to include a cruise or a day out on an 18-hole golf course. Luxuries can be small, like chocolate treats, candles and bubble baths. It means that no matter what budget you have, there is no reason to not create something luxurious.

Creating a raffle basket for outdoors people

Outdoors people are typically those who have no interest in luxuries. They don’t need items because everything they desire is in nature. They’re typically hard to buy for and hard to entice. Money is not something they necessarily focus on so giving them value in a raffle basket can seem difficult. Here’s how you get those ticket sales.

Create something functional. New hiking boots, walking sticks, discounts to map apps, compasses, cold weather gear and perhaps even a GPS device. If they love the outdoors, don’t offer them a spa day or a bottle of wine, offer them something you know they will use. That way, they’ll look at your raffle basket as an opportunity to explore the outdoors more.

Create a raffle basket for the unknown

Some raffle events will happen where you don’t have any idea who will turn up. It happens. Sometimes it’s not always possible to define your audience. You can’t get to know them because tickets are sold to the general public and your event is designed for anyone and everyone to attend. It means that targeting a raffle basket with suitable gifts is a mighty challenge – but don’t worry – we’ve covered this too.

Get yourself the biggest mixture of items going and try to keep them all as inexpensive as possible. Look at buying some chocolates, a candle, a book, a gadget, a beauty cream, a gift card for an entire shopping center instead of just one store, a weekend stay in a chain of hotels. This means people can choose to go where suits them, buy things that they enjoy but also get the chance to win the little things too.

How to decide which items are best for your audience

You might be reading this, defining your audience and then thinking ‘great, now what do I actually buy? We say, let your budget decide this and create a basket accordingly. You’ll want a good mixture of items. Have something big value in the basket, something medium and three low-value items. This means there’s something that makes people think there’s good value in buying more than one ticket but it doesn’t put them off because the value is so high that winning the basket seems like a ‘lottery’ with the volume of tickets sold. Remember, people need to feel like the basket is good value for money, but they also need to feel like they’re in with a chance of winning.

Load your raffle baskets online

Once you’ve chosen the perfect mix of raffle baskets for your audience and campaign, load them onto your mobile fundraising platform to maximize ticket sales. By doing so you’ll be able to share across multiple donor groups and, hopefully, create a network effect that means your donors will share, and so on, driving up ticket sales and funds raised.

By using Givergy Unlimited, you’ll be able to do this throughout the year whenever a raffle basket fundraising campaign presents itself! To find out more on this, just get in touch with our team of fundraising experts.

Jordan Morris

Givergy

Jordan joined Givergy after studying Politics with International Relations at the University of York. He has over two years experience within the charity sector working as a face-to-face fundraiser and as a constituency campaigner. After experiencing the sector from within and knowing first-hand the impact digital solutions can make to fundraising strategies, Jordan is now dedicated to innovating the way charities fundraise to ensure they maximise returns from every fundraising campaign.