DONATE Raffles
Run a raffle online
Sell raffle tickets online and by text, draw the winners in your portal, and let DONATE tell them. A ticket buys a chance to win, so it is a payment, not a gift.
- Tickets sold online and by text from one code
- Your lottery licence asked for and shown on your page
- Buyers confirm they are 16 or over
- Cash sales added to the same draw
- Test draws, then a live draw in one click, or drawn automatically
- DONATE tells the winners for you
- A button for your own website
What is a DONATE raffle?
A raffle page and a text code for your organisation. Supporters buy tickets online or by text, you draw the winners in your DONATE portal, and DONATE tells them they have won. It costs nothing to set up: each ticket payment carries a fee of 4.5 per cent plus 22p for charities.
What supporters see
- Online: your raffle page at easydonate.org followed by your code. They choose up to 100 tickets, pay by card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and tick "I confirm I am 16 or over". Without that tick they cannot pay.
- By text: they text your code to the number for your ticket price, for example NOEL to 70970 for a £5 ticket, or NOEL 3 for three. The price goes on their phone bill, plus their standard network rate.
- Every buyer gets their ticket numbers straight away, by email or in the reply text. They need no account.
Your raffle page
Your prizes, the draw date and the ticket price, with Buy tickets always in reach.
Buying tickets online
Three tickets for £15. 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.
Why run one with DONATE?
Because one raffle sells online and by text, shows your licence, draws the winners at random, tells them for you, and pays the ticket money with the rest of your DONATE income.
What DONATE does for you
- One code sells online and by text. Your page, short link and QR code are ready as soon as you create the raffle.
- The portal finds your council from your postcode, shows your licence on your raffle page and in the publish statement, and warns you if the draw date is before its date of issue or more than a year after. Each year we email you 30 days and 7 days before that year is up, so you can renew.
- Online buyers must confirm they are 16 or over before they can pay.
- Tickets you sell for cash go into the same draw as the ones sold online and by text.
- The draw is random and done for you, on the day or automatically at a time you choose. Winners get an email or a text naming their prize.
- Ticket sales are paid to you in your usual DONATE payouts. There is no set-up fee and no monthly charge for the raffle.
- A button for your own website opens your raffle page in a new tab.
What do I need before I start?
A small society lottery registration from your local council, with its number and date of issue. Then your prizes, a draw date and the name, email and address of the person running the raffle.
Your lottery registration
- A raffle with tickets sold in advance is a lottery under the Gambling Act 2005. Most charities and community groups register a small society lottery with their local council. Councils charge £40 to register and £20 each year after that.
- Every paid raffle on DONATE needs one, even one run at your event. The exemption for raffles at an event covers only tickets sold and drawn there, and DONATE sells them online and by text in advance.
- The portal calls this your lottery licence. It asks for the number, the council that issued it and its date of issue. You add them once for your organisation, and every raffle uses them.
- No registration yet? The portal finds your council from your organisation's postcode and links to it.
The rest
- At least one prize. You need one to publish, and one winner is drawn for each.
- A draw date, shown on your page and in every ticket email.
- The organiser: the person running the raffle, with their email and postal address. They are named on your page and in the winner's message.
- Buyers must be 16 or over. Online buyers confirm it; for text and cash sales, it is up to you.
How do I set one up?
Click New raffle, give it a name and a ticket price, and click Create raffle. Then fill in Setup: how tickets are sold, the draw date, the organiser, your licence and your prizes. Nothing is on sale until you publish.
Ticket price
- £1, £3, £5 or £10 sell online and by text. £20, £30 and £40 are premium text prices: a one-off £50 activates all three for that raffle.
- Selling online only? Any price from £1 to £500 works. Every ticket in a raffle costs the same, so there are no bundles like 3 for £10.
- The ticket price is fixed once the raffle has gone live. To sell at another price, create a new raffle.
Draw date and draws
- Draw automatically is off unless you switch it on. On the raffle date at the Draw time (8pm unless you change it), sales close, the winners are drawn and sent their message, and we email you.
- DONATE stops selling tickets in a draw at £20,000, the limit for one draw of a small society lottery.
- Expect more? Switch on Multiple draws before you publish. The raffle can then draw once a day, and tickets bought after a draw, or past £20,000 in one draw, go into the next one. Each draw needs prizes.
Prizes
- Each prize has a name, and can have a picture and a description. The arrows set the order. The first winner drawn gets the first prize, so put the best one at the top.
- With Multiple draws on, each draw gives the prizes not yet won, plus any marked Repeatable in every draw.
Name and ticket price
A name and a raffle ticket price. Create raffle opens Setup for the rest.
Choose how tickets sell
Paid raffle tickets, then how people buy them, by text, online or both ways.
Pick your ticket price
Each price has its own text number. £20, £30 and £40 need Activate premium amounts, a one-off £50.
Set the draw date
The raffle date, Draw automatically with its Draw time, and Multiple draws.
Organiser and licence
The organiser's name, email and address, and the licence that covers this raffle.
Add and order prizes
A name for each prize, with an optional picture and description. The arrows set the order.
How do I sell tickets?
Switch the raffle on, then share your link, QR code and text code. Online and text sales open the moment you publish, and you add any tickets you sell for cash on the Raffle tickets tab.
Before you publish
- Until the raffle is first published, a text to your code gets the reply with no real ticket, and the sender is not charged for one. Online sales stay closed.
- Your QR code and short link 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 naming your organisation, your organiser and your licence, ending "Entrants must be 16 or over." Tick "I agree to the text raffle terms".
- Then tick three promises for every poster, post and email. Show the full ticket price and how to enter, saying "plus standard network rate" for texts, and include the legal statement and a DONATE logo. Your code can be switched off if any of these are missing.
- 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. Free test texts end for good at first publish.
Cash and phone sales
- On the Raffle tickets tab, click Add raffle tickets and add each one with a name. An email or mobile 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 limit. Keep your paper stubs.
Check and publish
The price, prizes and draws, and the statement of fact naming your organisation and your licence.
Share your link and code
Your page's short link, a QR code to download, and the text code with its price.
Add it to your website
A button that opens your raffle page in a new tab. Copy the code into your own website.
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.
How do I run the draw?
On the Draw tab, click Run live draw and then Draw winners on the date you promised. DONATE picks one paid ticket at random for each prize and tells the winners. Practise with Test draw 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, in prize order. Payments still pending are not in it. Every ticket is marked drawn, and a raffle with one draw closes to new tickets.
- Switched on Draw automatically? The draw happens by itself at your Draw time on the raffle date, and we email you when it is done. On a raffle with one draw, drawing by hand first cancels it.
- With Multiple draws on, the raffle draws at most once a day and stays open. Run live draw draws every draw not yet drawn. With Draw automatically on as well, it draws at your Draw time every day until the raffle date.
Practise with a test draw
Winners from the 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.
What happens after the draw?
Each winner gets an email, or a text if DONATE only has their mobile, naming their prize. Your raffle page shows the winning tickets, you get in touch to hand over the prizes, and the ticket money reaches you in your usual DONATE payouts.
Telling the winners
- The message says the organiser will be in touch, so contact your winners promptly. Winners with no email or mobile, such as some cash sales, are yours to tell.
- The send button next to a winner on the Draw tab sends their message again.
When a winner cannot be reached
- The circular arrow next to a winner redraws that prize. It asks you to confirm, then picks a new ticket at random from the same draw.
- It never picks a ticket that has already won a prize, and never runs another draw.
- Nobody is told. Click the send button next to the new winner when you are ready to send their message, and tell the first winner yourself.
The money
- Card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and text sales are paid to you in your usual DONATE payouts, less the fees in What does it cost. Cash sales are already with you.
- 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.
Your winners in the portal
Last year's Christmas Fair Raffle. Each prize's winning ticket, with the send button and the circular arrow to redraw.
Redraw one prize
A new ticket from the same draw. Nobody is told until you send the new winner their message.
Winners are told for you
A winner of last year's Christmas Fair Raffle. The prize, the winning ticket and the draw, and who will be in touch.
Winning tickets go public
Last year's Christmas Fair Raffle, drawn. The page shows the winning ticket under each prize.
What does it cost?
Nothing to set up. Each ticket payment, online or by text, costs 4.5 per cent plus 22p for charities, and DONATE takes it off before paying you. Premium text prices cost a one-off £50.
Fees
- Charities, and companies raising for charities: 4.5 per cent plus 22p. Other organisations: 5 per cent plus 22p. The 22p is once per payment, however many tickets it buys. Card and text processing are included.
- Premium text prices of £20, £30 and £40 cost a one-off £50 per raffle.
- A small VAT amount on the fee is also deducted. Every payment in your portal shows its fee and the net amount to you.
- Cash sales you add are already with you, so DONATE pays nothing out and charges no fee.
- 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).
- Your council's registration fee is paid to the council, not to DONATE.
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.
Refunds
- Before their draw, buyers can refund their own card, Apple Pay or Google Pay tickets by logging in at easydonate.org/login with the email they paid with, while the payment is not yet in a payout to you. The tickets leave the draw.
- Text payments are never refunded. For PayPal, or once a payment is in a payout, refund the buyer yourself.
- A refund you make yourself does not take the ticket out of the draw. Before the draw, click Remove from draw on that ticket and say why. It sends no money back and cannot be undone.
Settings reference
Setup
| 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 |
| Raffle tickets | Paid raffle tickets, Free raffle tickets, or Free with each event ticket. Locked once raffle tickets are sold. | Paid raffle tickets |
| How people buy them | By text only, online only, or both ways. | Both ways |
| Raffle ticket price | £1, £3, £5 or £10 sell online and by text. £20, £30 and £40 are premium. Online only takes any price from £1 to £500. Fixed once live. | The price you gave |
| Raffle date | The draw date on your page and in every ticket email. | Required to publish |
| Draw automatically | Closes sales, draws the winners and sends their messages at the Draw time on the raffle date, then emails you. | Off (20:00 when on) |
| Multiple draws | The raffle can draw once a day. Tickets bought after a draw, or past £20,000 in one draw, go into the next. | Off |
| Organiser | Full name, email and postal address. Shown on your page; the name is in the winner's message. | Required to publish |
| Lottery licence | Number, issuing council and date of issue. Saved for your whole organisation; treated as valid for 365 days. | Required to publish |
| Prizes | Name, picture, description and order. Repeatable in every draw shows with Multiple draws on. | At least one to publish |
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 it and pays for it.
- Do I need a licence to run a raffle online?
- Yes. Register a small society lottery with your local council, and add its number in the portal before you publish. Only a free prize draw with event tickets needs none.
- 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.
- Can I sell tickets at 3 for £10?
- No. Every ticket in a society lottery must cost the same. Buyers choose how many tickets they want.
- Can I add a free prize draw to my event?
- Yes, if you sell event tickets with DONATE. Add a prize draw in the event's Setup, and every ticket gives one free raffle ticket for each person it admits. Nothing is sold, so it needs no licence.
- How much can one society sell in a year?
- Up to £250,000 of tickets across all its small society lotteries. DONATE does not count this for you, so keep track of it yourself.