School fetes, sports club game days, community markets, shopping centre stalls, church fairs: in-person events put your raffle in front of hundreds of people who did not arrive planning to buy a ticket. Converting that foot traffic is a different job from selling to a seated gala audience. People are moving, distracted, often carrying kids or shopping, and you have seconds to earn their attention.
This guide covers how to sell charity raffle tickets at in-person events of every kind. If your raffle is part of a gala dinner or seated function, our volunteer playbook for selling raffle tickets on the night covers that setting in detail.
Set up a stall people can read in three seconds
Passing foot traffic decides whether to stop before they reach you. Your signage needs to answer three questions at a glance: what can I win, how much is a ticket, and who does it help.
- Lead with the prize, not the raffle: "WIN a weekend in the Hunter Valley" beats "Raffle tickets here"
- Show the price in big type, including your bundle deal: "$5 a ticket, 3 for $10"
- One line on the cause: "All proceeds fund new junior equipment"
- Display the prizes physically where you can, or use large photos where you cannot
Position the stall where people naturally slow down: near the entrance, the food, or the queue for anything.
Put a QR code on everything
The single highest-impact change for in-person raffle sales is a QR code that takes people straight to your ticket page. Print it large on your signage, on table talkers, and on cards volunteers can hand out. Someone who does not want to stop can scan as they walk past and buy from their phone in under a minute, and someone who has no cash is no longer a lost sale.
When restaurant owner Julia Moretz ran a community fundraiser after a hurricane, printed QR codes around the venue took guests straight into the campaign from their phones. The only questions she fielded all event were about the venue Wi-Fi.
Take every form of payment
At community events, the moment you say "cash only" or "card only", you lose a share of sales. Cover all three:
- Card and phone payments through your digital raffle page, via the QR code
- Cash sales, entered by volunteers into the platform on the spot so the purchaser still receives their digital ticket by email or SMS
- On-behalf purchases for supporters who want a hand: on GalaBid, volunteers log into volunteer mode and can buy tickets for any guest, taking cash or card, in under a minute
Digital entry of cash sales matters more than most organisers realise: it means one set of records, no reconciling ticket stubs against a cash tin at the end of the day, and every purchaser is on your list for the results email.
Brief your sellers like a team, not a roster
A volunteer standing behind a table sells a fraction of what a volunteer working the crowd does. Before the event:
- Give every seller the one-line pitch: prize, price, cause. "Win a $500 grocery voucher, three tickets for $10, all funds go to the new clubhouse."
- Set a simple goal per seller or per shift, and share progress. Nothing lifts sales like "we're 40 tickets from target with an hour to go."
- Pair roving sellers with the stall: rovers create interest and point to the stall or QR code; the stall closes the sale.
- Equip each seller with a device in volunteer mode and a stack of QR cards.
Our guide to getting raffle prizes donated includes scripts that adapt well to the in-person ask.
Use the event's own moments
Every event has natural moments when attention gathers: half-time at a sports match, the announcement stage at a fete, the school principal's welcome. Ask for thirty seconds in each. A short announcement naming the star prize and pointing to the stall or screen QR code reliably produces a sales spike, and repeating it before the draw closes produces another.
If there is a screen, put the QR code and prize list on it between announcements.
Start selling before the event, not just at it
The event is your peak sales window, not your only one. Launch ticket sales online two to four weeks out, and every email, newsletter and social post about the event becomes a raffle sales channel too. Across GalaBid campaigns, up to 40% of sales can happen before the event itself, and supporters who cannot attend on the day can still take part.
The draw itself can then happen at the event, with winners notified automatically by email or SMS even if they have already gone home.
After the event: close it out properly
Draw on time, thank everyone within 48 hours, and share the total raised. Your platform reports give you every purchaser's details, so the follow-up is a filter and a send rather than a data entry job. Our raffle thank you email templates cover winners, non-winners and volunteers, ready to personalise.
The quick checklist
Before your next event: prize-led signage with prices; QR codes printed large and handed out on cards; volunteer mode set up on every seller's device; cash sales entered digitally; a thirty-second announcement booked at the event's natural moments; online sales launched weeks ahead; and thank-you emails drafted before the day.
Set up your raffle free on GalaBid's raffle platform, with QR code sharing, volunteer selling mode and instant digital tickets built in.