Donations For School Raffle: Tried & Tested Tips for Success

Want to get donations for school raffle?

Soliciting donations for school raffles and fundraising fetes can be challenging. The school raffle prizes have to be unique and attractive to win the interest of the students or parents and make the school raffle fundraiser a grand success. Read my post on best raffle prize ideas for schools to decide what you want to offer as prizes and then return to this article for help on getting donations for your school fundraiser raffle. 

In this article, I will be sharing with you practical, tried, and tested tips to help you make donation requests like a pro. I will be sharing details on 
– when to start soliciting prize donations
– whom to approach for raffle prize donations
– how to solicit donations using donation request letters, social media, and more. 

This article is packed with actionable tips so make sure you read the article till the end to benefit the most from it. 

School raffles donations – A Complete Strategy

In this section, I will be laying down a complete strategy to get your raffle prizes for charity at school fully set up. 

When to ask for donations for school fundraisers and raffles 

Deciding to have a school raffle, brainstorming on raffle prize ideas, and laying down a donation request strategy are all interlinked. One is dependent on the other and having a linear timeline as far as these three areas are concerned is difficult. 

Most of the time, whether you can have a school raffle and what you can offer as raffle prizes depends on the success of your donation requests. 

So as soon as your school, your PTO, or any organization within your school determines that you need to raise funds for your school and hold a charity raffle, you need to start reaching out to people at large with raffle prize donation requests. 

Usually, the process of reaching out to people (details on whom to contact to earn free stuff for charity raffles will follow next in this article) and finding some material success takes at least a couple of months. So the quicker you get to it, the better your chances of winning exciting raffle donations. 

Ideally, a raffle prize donation request should go out within the first couple of days of deciding to have a school raffle. 

But here are a few tips to supplement that

– Avoid reaching out to companies with online donation requests during their busy periods like audit closing time, financial year ends, Black Friday, etc. 

– Avoid contacting local businessmen first thing in the morning. That’s the time of the day when everyone at the company is the busiest and trying to get things checked off their daily task list. The best time to contact local business offices is in the second half of the day – that way you aren’t disturbing them with donation requests for raising money for your school. 

– Avoid last-minute requests. Last-minute requests often come across as rude and an afterthought and many business owners are reluctant to make donations for raffles. 

So when is it ideally a great time to request donations for raffle prizes 

To be honest, the right time for every business depends on the nature of the business.

Companies who donate to charity often have a budget set out at the beginning of the financial year and then again at the start of every quarter. If you reach out to these corporations at the beginning of every business quarter, your chances of scoring raffle prizes and donations would increase. 

With smaller companies, you need to establish a rapport. Very few companies agree to donate to schools right after the first email or letter seeking a raffle prize donation. 

To allow a proper building of rapport, you need to exchange at least 2-3 emails, especially if the raffle prize ticket is high. This means that you should start sending out requests for donations for your school raffle, at least 1-2 months before the scheduled date of your raffle. 

Whom to approach for raffle prize donations for your school

If you have read my post on school raffle fundraising prize ideas, you know that an attractive prize is a non-negotiable for a successful school fundraiser. On the same lines, aim for variety to make sure you attract all types of students to your school raffle.

Some companies that you could approach for raffle donations are

1. Apple – iPhone, iPad or MacBook
2. Nike – Gift cards or sports equipment
3. Amazon – Gift cards or a Kindle
4. Disney – Theme park tickets or merchandise
5. Sony – PlayStation or TV
6. Starbucks – Gift cards or coffee equipment
7. Target – Gift cards or home goods
8. Coca-Cola – Merchandise or a year’s supply of soda
9. LEGO – LEGO sets or merchandise
10. Best Buy – Gift cards or electronics
11. Microsoft – Surface Pro or Xbox
12. Adidas – Gift cards or sports equipment
13. Netflix – Subscription or merchandise
14. Sephora – Gift cards or beauty products
15. Uber – Ride credits or gift cards
16. Walmart – Gift cards or home goods
17. Brooks Brothers – Gift cards or clothing
18. Fitbit – Fitness trackers or smartwatches
19. GoPro – Action cameras or accessories
20. Hershey’s – Chocolate or candy baskets
21. Hilton Hotels – Hotel stays or travel vouchers
22. IKEA – Gift cards or home goods
23. JBL – Speakers or headphones
24. Lululemon – Gift cards or athletic wear
25. Nintendo – Switch or games
26. Patagonia – Gift cards or outdoor gear
27. REI – Gift cards or outdoor gear
28. Under Armour – Gift cards or sports equipment
29. Whole Foods Market – Gift cards or gourmet food baskets
30. Zara – Gift cards or clothing
31. Canon – Cameras or accessories
32. Dunkin’ – Gift cards or coffee equipment
33. Expedia – Travel vouchers or hotel stays
34. Google – Pixel or Nest products.

The above list is not at all comprehensive and the chances of scoring raffle prize donations from large corporations are very slim.

You will find more success if you reach out to local businesses. Building long-lasting community relationships is one of the biggest advantages of fundraising. Make sure you approach the businesses with the mindset of building a relationship and not just extracting donation prizes.

Some local smaller businesses that you could reach out for raffle prizes for school fundraising are

1. Local restaurants – Gift cards or free meals
2. Local coffee shops – Gift cards or coffee equipment
3. Local bakeries – Gift cards or baked goods
4. Local bookstores – Gift cards or books
5. Local spas – Gift cards or spa services
6. Local salons – Gift cards or hair and beauty services
7. Local gyms – Gift cards or gym memberships
8. Local movie theaters – Movie tickets or concessions
9. Local museums – Admission tickets or memberships
10. Local art galleries – Art prints or classes
11. Local florists – Gift cards or flower arrangements
12. Local pet stores – Gift cards or pet supplies
13. Local game stores – Board games or video games
14. Local music stores – Musical instruments or accessories
15. Local sports stores – Sports equipment or apparel
16. Local toy stores – Toys or games
17. Local craft stores – Craft supplies or classes
18. Local hardware stores – Tools or home improvement supplies
19. Local ice cream shops – Gift cards or free ice cream
20. Local candy stores – Gift cards or candy baskets
21. Local bike shops – Bikes or bike accessories
22. Local photography studios – Photography sessions or packages
23. Local escape rooms – Admission tickets or group packages

Reaching out to local businesses also allows you to offer services as raffle prizes instead of just products. You can also craft a beautiful raffle prize basket from the goods and gift cards that you receive from local businesses.

Some tips for more success with local businesses are

• Reach out to the alumni of your school running their own businesses. The emotional connection with the school helps with getting donations.
• Reach out to the owners instead of the employees in case the organization is very small. The owners are the decision-makers and contacting the owners would speed up your process.
• Reach out to manufacturers instead of retailers. If a local shop is a retail shop of a big corporation, they probably only earn small margins from their sales and would not be interested in contributing with donations to your school raffle. On the other hand, manufacturers like bakers, local artisans, ice cream vendors, etc. have a bigger profit margin and are likely to donate to a worthy school fundraising cause.
• Reach out to companies partnered with charities for school supplies. They have an intention of making a positive difference to schools. You could also directly raise a donation campaign through one of the charity portals.

How to solicit donations for school raffles

The first rule for successfully soliciting donations for the school raffles is to reach out to a real person.

So try to find out the person in charge to whom you could send out an email. Sending out an email to the general corporate contact email provided on the company’s website rarely fetches any results.

In order to reach out to a real person, use social media.

On Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin

• put out a post stating that you’re looking for raffle prize donations for your school with a clear call to action of putting you in touch with someone who could be interested in donating.
• Join local area groups to network with local business owners. Put out posts (subject to the group’s guidelines) about your school fundraising raffle and your interest in seeking donations.
• Message large companies from whom you want high-ticket raffle donation prizes and ask them about who the right person to contact for this would be and request the person’s email address.

Here’s a quick draft for DMing that you could use

Next, send emails to the contact details that you get. Here’s a quick email draft that you can use

After you send out the emails, follow up. The magic lies in the follow-ups.

So make sure you write a follow-up email after about 4-5 days from your first raffle donation request email.

Here’s a quick draft for a follow-up email

Local artists, bakers, ice cream vendors, restaurants, etc often prefer a personal visit instead of an email. In such situations, once you find the right person to contact, please speak over the phone and fix an appointment to meet in person.

At the meeting, be punctual and polite. Do not expect an instant ‘yes’ to your school fundraising donation request. Be willing to follow up over phone calls and emails.

Additional Tips for successfully getting donations for school raffles

• Assign specific roles to the committee members handling the donations. Avoid overlap to prevent confusion.
• Keep the data of companies to contact neat and up-to-date to avoid multiple people sending requests to the same company.
• Mark your follow-up dates on a calendar to ensure timely follow-ups.
• Avoid reaching out to companies that other schools in your area have already collaborated with.
• Thank all the organizations who donate to the fundraiser raffle of your school and mention all the donors at the school raffle as a mark of gratitude.

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