iPod shuffle raffle
An iPod shuffle night is in essence a reverse raffle to help your club raise funds. This event will generate revenue for the club, and is a lot of fun! Each song on the play list is raffled to entrants, with all songs allocated. The last song played on the dance floor determines the winner. With all participants up and dancing and counting off the songs it becomes a festive event with heaps of suspense and interest.
Songs can be sold and drawn out of a hat upon purchase or alternatively raffle tickets can be sold, then drawn and allocated to each song.
Some clubs have raised $1,500 – $2,500 with bar and food takings. Many clubs will offer a door prize for those wishing to come along for a drink and dance to encourage a greater audience and in turn, more food and drink revenue.
Why an iPod Shuffle Event?
An iPod Shuffle event is a fun night with the suspense building as the number of participants still in the draw decreases. It also creates an awesome social event as there is music to dance to and can even make its way onto the annual calendar.
This fundraiser also gives your club the opportunity to include other activities on the night to raise additional money. For example combining it with a cocktail night or dinner.
When should I hold this fundraiser?
An iPod Shuffle even can create such a great social buzz that this should be considered in the calendar. When does your team want to run a social event? For example at the start of the season for members to meet or at the end of the season for members to celebrate?
It can be held indoors or out and at anytime or the year. If holding this fundraiser outdoors, your club will need to take into account the weather.
Key Activities
These are the tasks you will need to consider assign to volunteers at our club:
Before the day
- Decide the date of the iPod Shuffle event and whether it will be in conjunction with a social or another fundraising event.
- Source prizes.
- Advertise the night and if it is in conjunction with another event make sure it is on all advertising.
- Sell raffle tickets or songs.
- Organise your venue and any other activities, food or drink you will be having on the night.
- Communicate well with participants in the lead up.
On The Day
- Set up the venue.
- Play the music and announce the songs one by one across the event.
- Run event.
- Present the winners with their prizes.
After the day
- Publicly thank everyone involved
- Announce the amount of money raised and the winner
Who can help?
It is important to engage your members to help in the running of your fundraiser.
For a Reverse Draw you could approach them to help:
- Promote and sell the songs/tickets
- Secure prizes
- Help logistically on the night
You could also approach current club Sponsors for prizes.
Recruiting your people
It is important to create a culture of volunteering at your club to help not only with fundraising but also across the day to day running of your club. For more on how to create this at your club, click here.
Using technology to making it easier
You may like to consider using technology to reduce the workload on your volunteers and increase your fundraising dollars. For an event like this, you may like to sell tickets using a platform like TryBooking.
TryBooking lets you sell tickets, take payments and donations for events online.
This takes care of a great deal of the work that is usually left to volunteers and automates the ticket selling process.
You can set up and customise your own event page and a unique URL in minutes. This lets you easily share the event online and engage members and supporters. Your club may also like to use social media, email newsletters and your club website to promote the event.
Financial Considerations
Revenue opportunities for this event are mainly from the raffle of the songs which could be as high as $2000 (50 songs x $40 each). Songs can be sold off at $30-$50 per song and drawn out of a hat upon purchase. Alternatively raffle tickets can be sold, then drawn and allocated to each song as you go.
Clubs that have food and alcohol serving capabilities can also look to raise revenue from sales.
Clubs will need to carefully consider alcohol and food stock and potential sales to make sure they do not over cater or worse, under-cater.
Expenses and upfront investment for this event are minimal if your club is able to source prizes from sponsors rather than pay for them. Otherwise clubs need to think about prize costs as the major expense.
Other costs include promotion, ticketing, licensing, and insurance.
Ensure you create a budget for the event and identify how much cash you will need before the day. For an iPod Shuffle event there will generally only be minor purchases before ticket sales begin, including prizes (if not already donated).
Promotion
Promotion of this type of event should be done utilising existing club resources and social media ensuring costs are kept to a minimum, if not zero. Club resources include social media tools, club newsletters, the club website and noticeboards. The more members that are attracted to the event and participate, the better the atmosphere and financial return to the club.
Clubs often make the mistake of settling for a slab or a bottle of booze for the raffle prize because it is easy, low cost and guaranteed to sell some tickets. However, with a bit of planning, clubs can secure a better category of prize and attract a much wider audience to their night.
Clubs should consider approaching local businesses like car dealers, restaurants, fitness centres and so on for a prize donation. Offer the business free signage at the club in return for a prize donation. Most businesses are happy to contribute to their local club as long as they receive something in return.
The better the prize, the easier to promote your raffle and the better the chance of ticket sales.
Communication considerations
The winner of an iPod Shuffle event doesn’t necessarily have to be there on the day. This opens up options for selling tickets via social media and to a wider audience than just your members and supporters. This way people anywhere in the world can buy a raffle ticket which allows for funds to be raised from sources external to the club.
Use social media to sell tickets and live stream the event on the night to include them!
Social, Moral and Ethical Considerations
Supply of Alcohol
It is important to consider whether your club will allow the sale of alcohol at club events. Events can be alcohol free or limits or restrictions set in advance. Clubs need to consider how they will manage the risks of binge drinking as well as the Responsible Service of Alcohol.
What can go wrong? (Risk Management)
Financial Risks
There are obvious financial risks if enough tickets aren’t sold and the prizes and setup costs more than is made.
Participant Safety
The health and wellbeing of those who attend your event should be a focus at all times. It is important that your club takes time to consider all possible risks and how to minimise these.
Licenses and Permits
Gambling licences will be required depending on your state and also the value of your raffle prizes.
One thing to be careful of when conducting an iPod shuffle event is to check with your state or territory laws. For a similar event, a reverse draw, in most states and territories you have to draw the winner out first, not last, as is the way in a reverse draw. This is because philosophically every ticket must have the opportunity to win the major prize while in a reverse draw it is only the last two tickets who actually have the opportunity to win.
For the reverse raffle, to get around this if you have 5 prizes for the last 5 tickets in the draw then you actually draw these out first. That is you draw the winner out first (but don’t announce it, put it in an envelope and display it for everybody to see) then do this for each of the other prize winners.
Once you have drawn and enveloped all the winners you can commence the reverse draw, eliminating each unsuccessful ticket at a time. When you get to the last 5 tickets simply open each envelope and announce the winner. You will still have the excitement leading up to the opening and announcement of the last ticket only it was drawn first but announced last.
If necessary songs can be ordered in the same way. By drawing out the winners first and having them play last on the play list. The participants will still not know which song is next!
Also be sure to check with your council for any additional licences and permits that may be needed such and serving food and alcohol.
Additional information
Technology Considerations and Setup
A good set of speakers and a microphone will be needed and clubs should try and dress up their clubrooms to ensure the right atmosphere for dancing.
Clubs could also look to hire lighting for the event if this is within budget.
Clubs should also use a whiteboard or flipchart to ensure everyone knows which song has been purchased and the name of the purchaser.
Clubs should also employ a volunteer with public speaking experience to MC the event to ensure a smooth flow on the night.
Additional Revenue Opportunities
An iPod Shuffle event can take a lot of time to get to a winner so clubs may choose to maximise revenue raising during the process. The trick is to maintain a captive audience. Clubs can choose to hold the iPod Shuffle event in conjunction with another fundraiser like a sausage sizzle, allowing two opportunities for raising money while attracting and keeping punters with the smell of delicious sizzling sausages. Or, clubs could choose to make a night out of the iPod Shuffle event fundraiser and mix it with other attractions like trivia and drinks to keep patrons entertained and contributing revenue to the club through food and drink purchases.
This links to other pages that have fundraising ideas that can run simultaneously, should the club like to.
Suppliers/Links
Any specific suppliers or links for this particular fundraiser. Could be used for 3rd party advertising in the future.
Disclaimer
This procedure should be treated as a guide only. Your club should seek advice specific to the needs of your club and event. Seek further details from authorities and service providers; especially in regards to insurance, licences, permits, spectator and participant safety.
