Last Man Standing Raffle

Last Man Standing Raffle

We all know that raffles are a tried and true fundraiser but sometimes it’s nice to ‘spice it up’ and make things a little more interesting.  One option is a Last Man Standing Raffle, also known as a Reverse Raffle.

They operate in a similar way to your standard raffle with the point of difference being that you draw all the losing tickets first and are left with one winning ticket. Rather than selling unlimited tickets, ticket sales are capped – increasing your punters chances of winning. They are a great option if you have a big prize up for grabs. Even if you don’t have a big prize, the offer of a cash prize is very appealing and you can sell tickets at a much higher cost than a standard raffle (I’m talking $10, $20 or even $50 a ticket!). The bigger the prize or the amount of cash, the more competition you’ll create for selling tickets. Let me give you an example:

I sell 60 tickets at $20 each for the chance to win $400 cash.  That means I make $800 profit for selling just 60 tickets!

OR

I sell 40 tickets at $50 each for the chance to win $750 cash.  In this case, I make a $1250 profit.

Easy money really, and who doesn’t love some cold hard cash as a prize?  You can run multiple raffles at the same time but it’s probably a good idea to make sure that your tickets are colour coded for each raffle to avoid confusion.  Computer software is available for running reverse raffles and combined with a big screen will allow everyone to keep track of the randomly drawn numbers. Of course, you don’t have to have big prizes and you can reduce the cost of the tickets or even have more than one winner.

Because you’re not selling tickets over an extended period, this type of raffle works well when you have a captive audience a large group of people gathered – fetes, sports days, awards nights, trivia nights or dinners – drawing the losing tickets throughout the event in a short space of time.  You might also consider running standard raffles for smaller prizes at the same time and drawing winners for those in between announcing ‘losing’ tickets.

As with any raffle, it’s extremely important that you are aware of your states raffle rules and regulations. You can find them listed here but please contact your states regulatory body for further information and to be sure that you’re not breaking any legal regulations. For example, in Queensland, if more than one prize is being offered in a category 1 raffle, the major prize must be drawn first and the other prizes then drawn in descending order of number and value. However, prizes may be drawn in an alternate order provided that the alternate order is clearly advertised at the time tickets in the art union are sold. If a minor prize is drawn before the major prize the ticket held by the winner of the minor prize must be returned to the pool and be eligible to win the major prize.

Below are another couple of games where the last person standing will be the winner!

Happy Fundraising!
Mandy Weidmann
aka the Fundraising Whisperer

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Corners Game

The ‘Corners’ game is where there is a suit of cards represented in each corner, so one corner will be Hearts, one Clubs etc. During a break in the evening, players can pay an entry fee (say $5/10) and then head to a corner of their choice. The MC will then draw a card at random from a deck of cards – if your suit is picked, you pay nothing – all other players must sit down UNLESS they pay a further $2/5/10 to stay in the game! The stakes can rise throughout the game. The last player standing is the winner!

Heads or Tails

This is a classic and staple at trivia nights and fundraising. You can collect an entry fee, or just play it to wake everyone up!

Get everyone to stand up. They choose ‘heads’ (hands on their head) or ‘tails’ (hands on their butt). The MC tosses a coin. The winning side gets to stay standing while the rest sit down. Everyone then plays again, until there is only one person left standing.

 

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You might also be interested in:

• Raffle Ticket Sales
• Australian Raffle Rules
• Ideas for Silent Auction or Raffle Prize Hampers