I’ve raised thousands of pounds for charity through my adventures and now I want to help you! To help you with getting donations, I’ve put together this list of raffle prize ideas. These are examples of the types of companies I have contacted in the past looking for raffle prizes. Hopefully, you have already read my guide on how to find and convince companies willing to donate raffle prizes. This is an important place to start so you know how to best approach these companies to give you the best chance of success.

For larger companies, I’ve also included how I made the approach – either by letter, email or online. Note these are all requests made from the UK. I’d really recommend setting up a spreadsheet to keep a track of everyone you contact as you’ll want to send everyone a chase email (there’s a really important reason for this as I explain in my companies willing to donate raffle prizes blog)

Use your contacts to get raffle prizes

The best place to start is with personal connections as the success rate with people you have a connection with is going to be considerably higher. If your brother works in a bookstore, for example, it wouldn’t take much for him to ask the manager if they could donate a couple of books.

Start collecting a list of:

• • all the companies you have worked for or with previously
  • close friends and relatives and who they work for

Top tip: small companies & raffle prizes

Generally the smaller the company the easier it is to get a donation. So an individual running a massage business is more likely to support you than a large spa chain. It’s also really good to try to find new companies that are yet to established a supporting charity.

If they are local – even better!

To find the company I use Google (Google Maps can be great for showing you companies nearby) then just find the ‘contact us’ section on their website for an email address.

Raffle prize ideas: large companies

Although you will likely have better luck with smaller companies, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying the big companies too. Here are some companies I’ve had luck with:

• • Dominos – dropped a letter into my local branch

• • Build-a-Bear – https://www.buildabear.com/donation-request.html

• • The Real Greek – http://www.therealgreek.com/

• • London Eye – [email protected]

• • WHSmith – dropped a letter into my local branch

• • Wagamama’s – http://www.wagamama.com/contact-us

• • Animal – [email protected]

• • Eurostar – [email protected]

• • Next – [email protected]

• • Tesco – dropped a letter into my local branch

• • Vue cinema – dropped a letter into my local branch

• • Wilkinson – dropped a letter into my local branch

• • Dorothy Perkins – send a letter to Arcadia Group Ltd, Colegrave House, 70 Berners Street, London, W1T 3NL

• • Brittany Ferries – send a letter to Customer Services, Brittany Ferries, Millbay, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 3EW

• • Disney – send a letter to Corporate Community Affairs, The Walt Disney Company Ltd., Attn: Donation Requests, 3 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9PE

• • IKEA – send a letter to IKEA Ltd, Customer Relations, Kingston Park, Peterborough, PE2 9ET

• • London Aquarium – send a letter to SEA LIFE London Aquarium, Riverside Building, County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road

• • Thorpe Park – send a letter to Fundraising requests, Thorpe Park, Staines Road, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 8PN London SE1 7PB

• • YoSushi – [email protected]

• • JellyBelly’s – [email protected]
  • TGI Friday’s – https://www.tgifridays.co.uk/contact/

Raffle prize ideas: products

Try looking for companies in your local area that sell the following….

• • Artwork

• • Ceramics & pottery

• • Photography Prints

• • Pet products

• • Wood carving – furniture

• • Jewelry maker

• • Card designer

• • Clothes designer

• • Watchmaker
  • Cake maker
  • Distillery, vineyard or brewery

*Etsy is a great place to look for craft inspiration

*To find inspiration for specific brands to contact, go into the following shops and write down the brand names you see on the shelf.

Supermarket – luxury condiments, pasta and sauces, biscuits and crackers, cereals
Outdoor store – hats, clothing ranges, accessories
Department store – bags, shoes, jewelry, perfumes, watches
Electronics store – headphones, toasters, mixers, speakers, TV’s, straighteners, cameras

Collecting raffle prizes for a fundraising event? Check out my tips for organising a fundraising event.

Top tip: Think outside the box

The more unusual the company you are asking for prizes from, the more likely it will be a success. The chocolate and wine shop are bombarded with daily requests for raffle prizes. But how often do you think the local tattoo artist gets a similar email?

Raffle prize ideas: vouchers, tickets, and experiences

• • Takeaway shops

• • Restaurants and pubs

• • Spots clubs – Football, rugby, hockey

• • Boat tours
  • Spa days

• • Go-karting

• • Workshops – cocktail, pole dancing, chocolate making, create a perfume, jewelry making

• • Flights – hot air balloon, helicopter, glider, small aircraft

• • Indoor Skydiving

• • Magazine subscription

• • Adventurous experiences – rock climbing, ice climbing, white water rafting, kayaking, SUPing

• • ‘in the post’ Box Subscriptions – beers, beauty, baby, gin, vegetables

• • Theatre – Amateur, opera, ballet

• • Concert’s – Jazz club, classical,

• • Cinema

• • Zoo or farm

• • Theme park

• • Flower making
  • Paintball or laser shooting

Raffle prizes donated by celebrities

Celebrities are great for raffle prizes as they often have agents with a pile of signed goods ready to ship out. Again local is best – so anyone that grew up in the area who has now grown a name for themselves. They don’t just need to be huge celebrities – authors, TV presenters and sports stars are a good place to start. Use google to help you find these people.

Celebrities usually have a PR manager whose details will be on the contact page on their website. You might also have success looking for local PR companies or agents rather than for individual celebrities as some agents might represent multiple people.

Top tip: Services rather than products

When people think raffle prizes they usually think of physical items. From my experience though services are usually much easier to get. So things like massages, cleaning services, coaching sessions, etc.

Raffle prize ideas: services

Try looking for companies in your local area that offer the following services….

• • Hairdressers or Barbers

• • Beauty treatments – hair wax, manicure or pedicure, massages (reiki, head massage, holistic, sports masseuse)

• • Tattoo (yep…I once had a tattoo artist give away 5 free tattoos!!)

• • Massage

• • Personal training

• • Gym membership

• • Ice skating lessons

• • Swimming lessons – adult or children

• • Language lessons – private or in at a language school

• • Motorbike lessons

• • Car lessons

• • Coaching – life, speaker, business

• • Palm reading

• • Psychic reading

• • Photography – portraits, children, animals

• • Dog training lessons

• • Pet grooming
  • Sports lessons – football, netball, tennis, rock climbing, kayaking, SUPing, squash, basketball
  • Music lessons
  • Car washing
  • Flower arrangements

Doing a raffle is just one way to fundraise for charity. For other ideas check out: Easy fundraising ideas for small groups

Top tip: Producers rather than suppliers

Generally, it’s better to approach the producer of a product rather than a company who supplies different products.  For example, a specific shoe brand is more likely to donate a product over a shoe shop.

A great way to find these is to go into a shop and write down the specific brands that you see on the shelf.

Extra resources and tips for raffle prizes

Hopefully, this list has given you some helpful ideas for raffle prizes you can hunt down for your event. A book that really changed my life when it came to fundraising is The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer. Such a great book! It taught me to approach people and companies effectively and how to get over my nerves of asking.

For extra fundraising advice, I can recommend reading Fundraising Ideas by Molly Robbinson. There are also some really good tips in A guide to Fun Ways to Fundraise for your community, church or charity.

Don’t forget to get raffle ticket rolls in plenty of time. I buy mine off Amazon – I tend to get this 4 colour pack as I think having different colours makes it more interesting when you call out the numbers.

When selling raffle tickets at your event, make sure you leave plenty of time (and have a spare pair of hands) for breaking down each ticket and folding them. This takes a surprising amount of time!

If you’ve thought of any other ideas for raffle prizes that I haven’t covered, please do share them in the comments box below to help others who are using this as a resource.

Good luck with your prize hunting!

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