We have a raffle during our Fun Fair as well. We send a letter to area business asking for a donation and in it we tell them we will be contacting them in the next 2 weeks (you could make it whatever time frame works for you) via a phone call. When we call them we find out what their donation is and set up a time convenient for them for us to pick it up. When we go pick up the item we have a receipt already made up to give them (for their records or for a tax deduction). We also make up a big sign that says something like "The following businesses have made a donation to our raffle:" and then we list each business. We post this sign prominently at our Fun Fair. After our Fun Fair we send a thank you note and a certificate of appreciation to each business. This has all worked very well for us and we get a lot of donations every year. Good Luck!
We did the exact thing in September at our Family Fun Night. We sent letters to local businesses asking them for donations. One thing we should have done that we didn't was follow them up with a phone call. I think we would have gotten more donations.
I can send you a copy of the letter if you'd like.
At our Spring Carnival we are interested in doing a raffle of items that are donated from local businesses (movie tickets, gift certificates, etc.) Has anybody done this? How did you contact the business phone call or letters? Do you have a sample letter? How did the event go? Would you do it again? Do anything differently?
