Charity Raffles by the Numbers
Charities and not-for-profits have run more than 1,700 raffles on RaffleLink since 2016 and raised about $17.5 million doing it. That is enough to describe what a normal charity raffle looks like, and, more usefully for a fundraising manager building a case, what separates the raffles that move the needle from the ones that cover a morning tea.
This is the baseline for charities. Schools have their own version; charity raffles behave differently, and the difference is the point of this post.
What a charity raffle typically raises
| Charity raffles on RaffleLink | |
|---|---|
| Median raised | $3,300 |
| Top quarter | $7,600 and up |
| Top 10% | $21,000 and up |
| Median number of buyers | 82 |
| Median campaign | about 6 weeks |
| Organisations | 1,000+ |
The median is modest and the spread is enormous. That spread is the first thing to understand.
What raffles of each size look like
Group charity raffles by what they raised and read across. Pick the total you are aiming at and the row tells you what it took:
| Raffle size | Buyers (median) | Typical ticket | Days on sale | States opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 57 | $5 | 32 | 1 |
| $5,000–$20,000 | 170 | $10 | 42 | 1 |
| $20,000–$50,000 | 500 | $15 | 60 | 2 |
| $50,000–$100,000 | 976 | $25 | 76 | 3 |
| Over $100,000 | 2,782 | $25 | 86 | 6 |
A $50,000 raffle is not a $5,000 raffle sold harder. The recipe for the lower rows is not subtle: a higher ticket, a longer sale, and a raffle opened to more than one state, and the buyer count grows with all three. About one charity raffle in ten clears $20,000; we wrote those up separately in The Big Charity Raffle.
Whatever else a first raffle does, it builds the buyer list the second one starts from, and the second raffle usually lands a row lower in that table than the first. (We looked at one organisation’s returning supporters in detail here.)
The prize sets the ticket, and the ticket sets the total
We classified the first prize of every raffle. Results by prize type:
| First prize | Raffles | Median raised | Top quarter | Buyers | Typical ticket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamper or prize pack | 148 | $1,750 | $3,500 | 59 | $5 |
| Experience or event tickets | 221 | $2,300 | $5,800 | 65 | $5 |
| Gift card or voucher | 160 | $3,100 | $7,900 | 89 | $5 |
| Jewellery, art or luxury goods | 127 | $3,100 | $6,200 | 66 | $10 |
| Electronics or appliance | 176 | $3,600 | $5,600 | 92 | $5 |
| Holiday or accommodation | 381 | $3,600 | $7,900 | 87 | $10 |
| Cash | 112 | $6,800 | $23,700 | 118 | $10 |
| Boat, bike, caravan or other vehicle | 59 | $7,000 | $17,900 | 162 | $10 |
| Car | 76 | $38,700 | $74,000 | 439 | $25 |
Holidays are the charity raffle default (one in four first prizes) and they perform respectably. Cash is the standout below the car tier: a cash first prize raises twice the median and its top quarter runs to $23,700, because a cash prize justifies a $10 or $20 ticket and needs no explaining. Cash prizes are not allowed in Victorian raffles, where a gold bullion or voucher prize plays the same role; the permit checker covers your state.
The ticket price alone, regardless of prize:
| Ticket price | Raffles | Median raised | Buyers | Spend per buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1–$2 | 178 | $1,400 | 62 | $22 |
| $3–$5 | 694 | $2,200 | 74 | $29 |
| $6–$10 | 356 | $4,400 | 92 | $42 |
| $11–$20 | 189 | $6,000 | 109 | $56 |
| $21–$50 | 184 | $7,800 | 122 | $74 |
| $50+ | 62 | $13,600 | 91 | $143 |
Buyer counts barely move from $2 tickets to $50 tickets. What moves is spend per buyer, from $22 to $143. The $5 ticket is the most common price on the platform and it sits near the bottom of the table. Moving to $10 with a pack (three for $25, ten for $80) roughly doubles the result with the same supporters. More on setting the ladder in the ticket pricing guide.
Open more states, reach more people
Unlike a school, a charity’s supporters are rarely all in one postcode. Each state you sell into has its own permit position (RaffleLink checks them for you), and the raffles that open more of them raise more, for a reason the buyer data makes plain:
| States opened | Raffles | Median raised | Revenue from interstate buyers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home state only | 1,045 | $2,800 | 4% |
| 2–3 states | 209 | $4,900 | 29% |
| 4 or more | 409 | $5,200 | 51% |
Raffles opened to four or more states took half their money from outside the organisation’s home state. That is not a bigger share of the same pie; it is a second pie. For a charity with a national cause and an email list, staying home-state-only is the single most expensive default on this page. If Queensland is one of the states you are weighing up, we wrote a specific note on adding QLD.
Give it time
| Campaign length | Raffles | Median raised | Top quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two weeks or less | 305 | $2,200 | $4,800 |
| 3–5 weeks | 522 | $2,600 | $5,800 |
| 6–10 weeks | 490 | $3,600 | $7,700 |
| More than 10 weeks | 346 | $5,600 | $18,800 |
Longer campaigns raise more, and the top quarter of long campaigns raise a lot more. The caveat is that sales are not spread evenly across those weeks: a charity raffle typically takes a third or more of its money in the final week (one charity’s raffle took 66% in its last seven days), and an event-attached raffle takes almost all of it on the night. Length buys you more email sends and more reminders, not a steady trickle. Plan the closing week from day one.
When charities launch
Charity raffles are less seasonal than school raffles. Launches spread across the year with a spring peak (October 207, November 197) and a smaller one in March (180) and May (158). June and December are quiet, which makes an end-of-financial-year raffle a low-competition play for organisations whose supporters think in tax years.
How the money arrives
On RaffleLink, 93% of charity raffle revenue arrives online, 62% of orders are a ticket pack, and the average order is $49. Plan for the newsletter link and the pack, not the paper book.
About the numbers
Figures come from raffles run on RaffleLink since 2016 by organisations typed as charities and not-for-profits, with at least $500 in paid sales. Raffles run for a named individual are a different category and are excluded. Buyers are distinct purchasers. Prize types come from a classification of each raffle’s first prize (machine-classified, then audited). Interstate share compares the buyer’s address state with the organisation’s. Medians and quartiles are per raffle; no organisation’s result is identified. Australian dollars.
The charities page collects the formats, the compliance basics and the numbers in one place. There is no setup fee and nothing to pay until tickets sell.
