we raffled, silent auction and live auction our class baskets. our raffle was for .25 an geared towards kids baskets. we silent auctioned our mid size baskets and live auctioned our big ones. along with big donated items for our merchants. good luck. debby

Hi! Re: Raffle basket vs. auction dilemma....I am the new PTO President for a small elementary school in Connecticut (about 330 students) and we had a successful teacup (chinese) raffle which raised $2,700. Here are some details: We asked for a $2 donation from each student toward each classroom's theme basket. Alternatively, a list of theme basket descriptions was provided to the parents and asked them to donate a new, unused item in lieu of sending in money. Once money was collected and items donated, ROOM PARENTS were assigned the task of shopping for the items (although some major companies were contacted and items were also donated that way), assembling the baskets and wrapping them up nicely. We had about 16 baskets and they were GORGEOUS!!! We sold tickets 1 for $.50 or 15 for $5 or 30 for $10! I can't tell you how great it was! All the parents raved about the baskets and most were eager to drop about $20 each. We will most likely do this every year now since we know it's such a success! We decided on a raffle over the auction because we thought it would bring in more money...you need to know the demographics of your student body. Good luck!

pwalther: Here's a site that tells about how to run raffles in California

caag.state.ca.us/charities/faq.htm#raffle1

Now, whether there's any legal distinction in a simple prize drawing at a school event and a "raffle" is a question I can't answer.

We stay away from the true raffles where you are pre-selling tickets, leaving the person with a stub, drawing the prize later, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just what we do are the simple, place-a-ticket-the-jar type thing where everything happens that night in front of the whole group.

As I say, legally I don't know if there's a difference. As a matter of practicality, those who govern this really don't seem to want to know about the simple little drawings we are having.

Naturally - the first time there's ever a problem or a question of fairness, that would all change!

Good luck!

Are any of you in California? We were told that we couldn't do the raffle unless we offered tickets for free which defeats the purpose of making money. We have had complaints because parents miss this part of our carnival (we haven't done raffle or auction for 2 years). I was thinking of doing the theme baskets by silent auction but can't decide for sure.

Help!!

We have a live auction with an auctioneer. This year it was the music teacher he was great! We Auction items like gift certificates we get from local businesses and gift basket donated by the classrooms. Each grade has a theme ie family, garden, handyman, beach etc. we put together baskets from all the items collected. This year we had about 40 baskets and over 100 donations of gift certificates and other items donated. We made $3000.00. By far our best yet. A live auction has really worked for us.

We pick 3 or 4 of the more popular silent auction items (either donated items or baskets) and set those up as raffles. We charge $1 per ticket. Each one makes $50-$100. The rest of the theme baskets and dontated items are part of the silent auction.

We also have one children-only raffle for fifty cents. It's always "lunch with the principal" and makes about $50. The principal decides how many winners, usually 4-6.

We make our own drawing tickets and only sell them that night. (We don't want to get into a formal raffle with pre-sales and lots of rules.) The tickets can be bought with cash or with 2 admittance tickets (50 cents each). Each person just fills out the tickets and drops them in the jar marked for the item they want.

These are a very popular part of our event.