A Tombola Is A "Must Have"
At Your Summer Fete

A tombola is a must have for any school, church or youth group fundraising event and is an integral component of most fete and fundraising fairs.

The basic idea is very simple. Supporters of your organisation donate prizes in advance. These then have a number assigned to them and are put on display. During your fundraiser people buy tickets which if they match the number on an item win that prize.

They are popular because:

• They are easy to organise and run
• Don't require too much room (ideal where space is limited).
• Rely only on a small ask from supporters
  ........... "Can you supply a small prize for our tombola?"
• Can bring in a tidy sum with absolute minimum outlay

Donated prizes tend to be fancy foodstuffs, boxes of chocolates, toiletries, unwanted gifts etc. They could however be anything appropriate to your event and of any value.

A quick way of numbering the prizes is to have 2 books of raffle tickets. The tickets from one are folded and put into the draw container. Tickets from the other book are used to number the prizes.

It is usual that not every ticket will win a prize therefore a proportion of these tickets are discarded. A good way of doing this is to only afix tickets ending in five or zero to the prizes (throw away the others from this book). Your advertising posters can then say-

"Any Number That Ends In A 5 Or 0
Wins a Prize!

You can change the ratio of winners to losers to suit your circumstances and the number of prizes you have. You could also offer a small consolation prize such as sweets or chocolates to unlucky punters.

The price charged for tickets again depends on your event and the prizes. A common trick is to offer anyone buying more than one ticket a better deal such as buy 4 tickets get 1 free.

The tickets can be drawn from a hat, bucket or something similar. You might be able to choose something that fitted the theme of your event.
Example - Pull the tickets from a witch's cauldron at the Halloween Fundraiser.

Some organisations however have specially made little wooden tombola boxes which spin at the turn of a handle before people open a little door and pick out a ticket. Another common idea is to roll the raffle tickets and insert them into the end of a plastic drinking straw, just far enough so the end of the ticket is poking out. The straws are then stood up in a sand box and people pick a straw.

Tombolas are really easy and can bring in a nice bit of money.
Make sure you have one at your fundraising event.
It could just be.......................... the winning ticket!

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