DONATE Raffles
Run a raffle online
Sell raffle tickets online and by text, then draw the winners in your portal. A ticket buys a chance to win, so it is a payment, not a gift.
- Tickets sold online and by text
- Free test texts before you publish
- Your lottery licence checked and shown on your page
- Cash sales added to the same draw
- Test draws, then a live draw in one click
- DONATE tells the winners for you
- A free prize draw with your event tickets
Updated
How it works
Raffles lives in your DONATE portal. Supporters buy tickets on your raffle page or by sending a text, and you draw the winners from the portal. A raffle is a lottery, so the portal asks for your lottery licence before you publish.
A raffle in six steps
- Create the raffle: a name and a ticket price.
- Add the draw date, the organiser's details and your lottery licence.
- Add your prizes, best first.
- Send a free test text, then publish and share your code.
- Add any tickets you sell for cash as you go.
- Run a test draw, then the live draw. DONATE tells the winners.
What buyers see
Buyers need no account. They buy on your raffle page or text your code, and get their ticket numbers straight away.
Online
- Buyers choose how many tickets they want, up to 100 at a time. Every ticket costs the same.
- They pay by card, PayPal, Apple Pay in Safari or Google Pay in Chrome.
- They give an email address, agree to the terms and tick "I confirm I am 16 or over". Without that tick they cannot pay.
- Their ticket numbers, the draw number and the expected draw date come by email.
- Until their draw, they can refund their own tickets by logging in at easydonate.org/login with the email they paid with (see Fees and refunds).
By text
- Buyers text your code to the number for your ticket price, for example NOEL to 70970 for a 5 pound ticket. NOEL 3 buys three.
- The ticket price goes on their phone bill, plus their standard network rate. Above 10 pounds, each ticket is charged as 10 pound texts.
- The reply gives each ticket number and a link to your raffle page. Its wording is set by the Gambling Act 2005 and cannot be changed.
- A text after the draw, or once the raffle is sold out, gets a reply saying so, and the sender is not charged.
- The raffle page does not offer text payment, so put the text instructions on your posters.
Your raffle page
The name, your prizes, the draw date and the ticket price, with Buy tickets always in reach.
Buying tickets online
Three tickets for 15 pounds. The buyer gives an email, agrees to the terms and confirms they are 16 or over.
Ticket numbers by email
Each ticket number, its draw, the price and the expected draw date, with the organiser's contact.
Create the raffle
Click New raffle, give it a name and a ticket price, and click Create raffle. It starts unpublished, so nobody can buy a ticket while you set it up.
Your lottery licence
- A raffle with tickets sold in advance is a lottery. Most charities and community groups register a small society lottery with their local council.
- To publish, the portal needs your licence number, the council that issued it and its date of issue. They show on your raffle page and in the statement you agree to when you publish.
- The licence is saved for your whole organisation. When it covers the draw date, the raffle says "Your lottery licence ... covers this raffle" and there is nothing more to fill in.
- No licence yet? The portal finds your council from your organisation's postcode and links to it.
- The portal warns you if the draw date falls before the licence was issued, or more than 365 days after.
Price and limits
- 1, 3, 5 or 10 pounds sell online and by text. 20, 30 and 40 pounds are premium text prices. Any other price sells online only.
- The ticket price cannot change once the raffle has gone live. To sell at another price, create a new raffle.
- DONATE stops selling tickets in a draw at 20,000 pounds, the limit for one draw of a small society lottery.
- Expect more than that? Switch on Multiple draws before you publish. Past 20,000 pounds of sales in a day, tickets go into a further draw. For prizes in each draw, see Add your prizes.
Name and ticket price
A name and a raffle ticket price. Click Create raffle to add the rest.
Choose your ticket price
Each standard price has its own text number. 20, 30 and 40 pounds need Activate premium amounts, a one-off 50 pounds.
Draw date and licence
The expected raffle date, the organiser's name, email and address, and the licence that covers this raffle.
Add your prizes
Open the Prizes tab and add each prize with a name, and a photo and description if you like. You need at least one prize to publish.
Prizes and winners
- There is one winner for each prize. The first winner drawn gets the first prize, so put the best one at the top.
- With Multiple draws on, a further draw gives the prizes not yet won, plus any marked "Repeatable in every draw". Once every prize has been won, the next draw gives the whole list again.
Add and order prizes
Each prize has a photo, a name and an optional description. The arrows set the order.
Go live
Try your raffle while it is unpublished, then switch it on. Publishing opens online sales and starts charging for texts straight away.
Before you publish
- Until the raffle is first published, a text to your code is free, apart from the sender's standard network rate, and gets the reply, with no real ticket. Online sales stay closed.
- Your QR code and short link, easydonate.org followed by your code, are safe to print now. They show "opens soon" until you publish.
- If anything is missing, the switch tells you what to add first.
The publish box
- It shows your price, prizes and draws, and a statement of fact with your licence. Tick "I agree to the text raffle terms".
- Tick three promises for every poster, post and email. Show the full ticket price and how to enter, and for text say "plus standard network rate". Include the legal statement and a DONATE logo.
- Your raffle code can be switched off if any of these are missing from your promotion.
Switching it off
- Switching a published raffle off closes online sales only. Texts to your code are still charged and still issue tickets, so take your posters down first.
- It never goes back to free test texts, whatever the publish box says.
Send a free test text
How people enter shows what they text and the reply. Send a test text is free while the raffle is unpublished.
Check and publish
The Publish raffle box shows the price, prizes and draws, and the statement of fact with your licence.
During the raffle
A live raffle opens on the Raffle tickets tab. The figures along the top show the ticket price, the tickets sold, the money taken so far and the payments still pending.
Cash and phone sales
- Add each one with a name. An email or mobile number is optional.
- With an email or mobile, DONATE tells them if they win. Without, you tell them.
- Cash tickets go into the draw like any other and count towards the 20,000 pound limit. Keep your paper stubs.
Every ticket sold
Each ticket number with the buyer's contact, how it was sold, its draw, the date and its status.
Add cash and phone sales
Click Add raffle tickets, type a name, and click Add raffle ticket for each one.
Draw the winners
Draw from the Draw tab on the date you promised. Practise with test draws first: the live draw cannot be undone.
How the draw works
- A test draw picks winners from the tickets sold and pairs them with your prizes. It saves nothing, tells nobody and can be run as often as you like.
- The live draw picks one paid ticket at random for each prize. Payments still pending are cancelled and are not in the draw.
- Every ticket in the draw is marked Drawn, and a raffle with one draw closes to new tickets.
- With Multiple draws on, the live draw draws the earliest draw not yet drawn, and the raffle stays open.
Telling the winners
- Winners with an email get an email naming their prize. Winners with only a mobile number get a text. Winners with neither are yours to tell.
- The message says the organiser will be in touch, so contact your winners promptly.
- The live draw tells every winner itself. The send button next to a winner sends their message again.
- Straight after the live draw, the circular arrow next to a winner redraws that prize from the same draw. The new winner is not told, and the send button does not work for them yet, so tell the new winner yourself, and the first winner, who already has their message.
Practise with a test draw
Winners from 143 eligible tickets, each with their prize. Nothing is saved and nobody is told.
Run the live draw
Draw winners picks the winners for real, marks the tickets drawn and tells the winners.
Winners are told for you
The prize, the winning ticket and the draw, and who will be in touch to hand it over.
Winning tickets go public
Your raffle page says it has been drawn and shows the winning ticket under each prize.
A free prize draw at your event
Selling event tickets with DONATE? Add a free prize draw to the event, and every ticket includes one free raffle ticket. Nobody pays to enter, so it is not a lottery and needs no licence.
How it differs
- Add it in the event's Setup, under Prize draw. Make a new prize draw there, or pick a raffle set up as "Run this as a free prize draw for an event".
- Every ticket sold or issued gives one free raffle ticket for each person it admits, including tickets sold before you added the draw.
- Nothing is sold. There is no ticket price, no text code, no cash sales and one draw.
- The draw goes live with the event. You add the prizes and draw it from the Draw tab as above. Winners are told by email.
- Never raise event ticket prices for the draw, and never say what the prizes are worth.
- A raffle cannot switch to or from a free prize draw once it has tickets or is linked to an event.
Fees and refunds
There is nothing to pay to set up a raffle. Fees come off each ticket payment, and ticket sales reach you through your usual DONATE payouts.
Fees
- Each ticket payment, online or by text: 4.5 per cent plus 22p for charities and companies raising for charities, 5 per cent plus 22p for other organisations. Card and text processing are included.
- Premium text prices of 20, 30 and 40 pounds cost a one-off 50 pounds per raffle.
- Cash sales you add are already with you, so DONATE pays nothing out and charges no fee. Free prize draw entries carry no fee either.
- Charges on each payout: a usage fee of £3 for each week (Monday to Sunday) in which your organisation receives £10 or more (at most £12 a month), and a transfer charge of £7.50 plus 0.5 per cent of the payout for charities and companies raising for charities, or 1.5 per cent for other organisations (at least £3 either way).
Gift Aid
- Raffle tickets never carry Gift Aid, for any organisation. A ticket buys a chance to win, so it is a payment, not a gift. DONATE takes every ticket payment without it.
Refunds
- Buyers refund their own tickets by logging in at easydonate.org/login with the email they paid with, before their draw and while the payment is not yet in a payout to you. This works for card, Apple Pay and Google Pay. The whole payment goes back, and its tickets leave the draw.
- A ticket that has been drawn, winning or not, is never refunded that way.
- DONATE emails the buyer "Your refund of £10.00 to Oroojo", with your name in place of Oroojo. Your organisation is not emailed.
- Text payments are never refunded. For a PayPal payment not yet in a payout, the buyer asks you, and you email hello@nationalfundingscheme.org and DONATE refunds it.
- Once the payment is in a payout, the buyer sees "This payment has been passed to Oroojo. Ask them about a refund." DONATE cannot refund it then, so you refund them yourself.
- A refund you make yourself does not take the ticket out of the draw. Before the draw, on the Raffle tickets tab, click Remove from draw on that ticket and say why. It sends no money back and cannot be undone.
The rules to keep to
- Do not sell tickets to anyone under 16.
- A small society lottery can sell up to 250,000 pounds of tickets a year across all its lotteries. Keep track of this yourself.
- Small society lotteries send a return to their council within three months of each draw. Your Raffle tickets list helps with the ticket sales part.
- Check your council's and the Gambling Commission's guidance. This guide is not legal advice.
Settings reference
Details
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Raffle name | Shown on your raffle page, in emails and in the publish statement. Up to 64 characters. | Required |
| Raffle description | What buyers read about your raffle and prizes. | Required |
| Your raffle code | The word people text, and your short link. Given automatically; you can request your own. | Automatic |
| Free prize draw | Only with events. Entries come with event tickets and nothing is sold. Locked once it has tickets or is linked to an event. | Off |
| Free raffle | No ticket charge. Locked once tickets are sold. | Off |
| Raffle ticket price | 1, 3, 5 or 10 pounds sell online and by text. 20, 30 and 40 pounds are premium. Any other amount sells online only. Fixed once the raffle has gone live. | The price you gave |
| Multiple draws | Past 20,000 pounds of sales in a day, further tickets go into another draw. Prizes not yet won, and Repeatable ones, go into each further draw. | Off |
| Expected raffle date | The draw date on your page and in every ticket email. | Required to publish |
| Raffle organiser's full name | Shown on your page and named in the winner email. | Your name |
| Organiser's email address | Shown on your page and in ticket emails. | Your email |
| Organiser's postal address | Shown in the lottery information on your page. | Your organisation's address |
| Lottery licence number | Your small society lottery registration. Saved for your whole organisation. | Required to publish |
| Licence issuing council | The council that registered you. Found from your organisation's postcode where it can be. | Required |
| Licence date of issue | Checked against your draw date: a licence is treated as valid for 365 days. | Required |
Prizes (per prize)
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Photo | Shown with the prize on your raffle page. | None |
| Prize name | Shown on your page and in the winner's message. | Empty |
| Prize description | More about the prize. | Optional |
| Repeatable in every draw | Only with Multiple draws on. The prize is given in every draw, not only until it is won. | Off |
| Order | The arrows set the order. The first winner drawn gets the first prize. | The order you add them |
Messages DONATE sends for you
| Message | When | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Reply text | When a text to your code is received. | The sender, with their ticket numbers |
| Ticket confirmation email | When an online payment goes through, or a cash sale with an email is added. | The buyer, with every ticket number |
| Winner email | At the live draw. | Winners with an email address |
| Winner text | At the live draw. | Winners with only a mobile number |
Questions
- How is a raffle different from an auction?
- In a raffle, people buy tickets for a chance to win, and winners are drawn at random from all the tickets sold. In an auction, people bid on a particular lot, and the highest bid wins and pays for it.
- How do I run a raffle online?
- In your DONATE portal, click Raffles, then New raffle. Add a ticket price, prizes, a draw date and your lottery licence details, then publish. Buyers pay online or by text, and you draw the winners in the portal.
- Do I need a licence to run an online raffle?
- Yes. A raffle with tickets sold in advance is a lottery. Most charities register a small society lottery with their local council, and the portal asks for the licence before you can publish. A free prize draw with event tickets needs no licence.
- Can we claim Gift Aid on raffle tickets?
- No. A raffle ticket buys a chance to win, so it is a payment, not a gift. DONATE takes every ticket payment without Gift Aid.
- Can I sell raffle tickets by text message?
- Yes, at 1, 3, 5 or 10 pounds, or 20, 30 or 40 pounds once premium prices are activated. Buyers text your code to the number for that price, and add a number to buy more than one.
- Can I sell tickets at 3 for 10 pounds?
- No. Every ticket in a society lottery must cost the same, so a raffle has one ticket price. Buyers choose how many tickets they want.
- What does it cost to run a raffle with DONATE?
- Nothing to set up. Each ticket payment costs 4.5 per cent plus 22p for charities and companies raising for charities, or 5 per cent plus 22p for other organisations. Premium text prices cost a one-off 50 pounds per raffle. Payouts carry the charges in Fees and refunds.
- Can I try my raffle before it goes live?
- Yes. Until you first publish, texts to your code are free and online sales are closed, and you can run test draws. Your QR code is safe to print, because it shows "opens soon" until you publish.
- How do I add tickets I sold for cash?
- On the Raffle tickets tab, click Add raffle tickets and type the buyer's name. Add an email or mobile number if you have one, so DONATE can tell them if they win.
- How are raffle winners picked and told?
- Click Run live draw on the Draw tab. DONATE picks one paid ticket at random for each prize, in prize order, and emails or texts each winner. Winners with no contact details are yours to tell.
- A winner cannot be reached. Can I draw again?
- Straight after the live draw, the circular arrow next to that winner picks a new ticket for the prize from the same draw. The new winner is not told and cannot be sent their message from the portal yet, so contact them yourself, and the first winner too.
- Is there a limit on how much a raffle can sell?
- Yes. DONATE stops selling tickets in a draw at 20,000 pounds, the limit for one draw of a small society lottery. With Multiple draws on, sales past that in a day go into a further draw.
- Can I change the ticket price later?
- Not once the raffle has gone live. To sell at a different price, create a new raffle.
- If I switch my raffle off, does it go back to free test texts?
- No. Once published, switching off closes online sales only. Texts to your code are still charged and still issue tickets, so take down your posters.
- Can buyers get a refund?
- Never for a text payment. Before their draw, buyers refund card, Apple Pay or Google Pay tickets themselves at easydonate.org/login, unless the money is already in a payout to you. For PayPal, email hello@nationalfundingscheme.org before the payout. Once it is in a payout, refund the buyer yourself and, before the draw, click Remove from draw on their tickets.