RaffleGives: The Best Online Raffle Platform for Nonprofits Running Cash and 50/50 Raffles
RaffleGives is the leading online raffle platform for nonprofits running legal cash and 50/50 raffles. Learn how RaffleGives works, why nonprofits choose it, and how it simplifies online charitable fundraising.
RaffleGives: The Best Online Raffle Platform for Nonprofits Running Cash and 50/50 Raffles
Nonprofit fundraising technology should make raising money easier. Too often, it does the opposite. Organizations end up paying for complicated software, learning systems built for dozens of fundraising methods they may never use, and asking already-busy staff and volunteers to manage another administrative process.
RaffleGives was built differently. It is a self-service digital raffle platform created specifically for nonprofit organizations that want to add cash and 50/50 raffles to their fundraising strategy where permitted by applicable law.
There is no upfront platform cost, no monthly subscription, and no long-term commitment. Nonprofits create their organization profile, connect their own Stripe account, build their raffle, complete the administrative review process, and can be ready to launch in as little as 48 hours.
RaffleGives then handles much of the technology behind the campaign, including secure ticket tracking, automated receipts, real-time sales reporting, winner selection, winner communication, and sharing tools. The nonprofit stays focused on what it does best: promoting its mission and engaging its community.
Quick Answer: What Is RaffleGives?
RaffleGives is a self-service online raffle platform built specifically for nonprofit organizations conducting legal digital cash and 50/50 raffles.
The platform gives nonprofits a branded digital raffle page, customizable ticket pricing, secure Stripe-powered payment processing, real-time ticket tracking, automated receipts, winner selection, campaign reporting, social and QR sharing tools, and an Ambassador Program designed to help organizations expand their reach.
There is no fee to create an account, no monthly subscription, no hosting fee, and no long-term contract. RaffleGives uses a performance-based model and charges an 8% platform fee based on ticket sales.
Most organizations can move from registration to an approved raffle in as little as 48 hours, although additional state or local compliance requirements can extend that timeline in some jurisdictions.
See exactly how RaffleGives works.
Why Was RaffleGives Built Specifically for Raffles?
Many nonprofits already use software for donations, donor management, events, auctions, email marketing, accounting, and volunteer management. A raffle is different because it is not simply another donation form.
Raffles are regulated fundraising activities. Depending on the state, rules can govern organizational eligibility, licensing, cash prizes, ticket sales, electronic payments, geography, drawing procedures, reporting, and even the technology used to conduct the raffle. That means a nonprofit should not have to force a regulated raffle into software primarily designed for something else.
RaffleGives was built around the raffle itself. Cash raffles and 50/50 fundraising are not secondary features added to a larger product. They are the core of the platform. That focus shapes everything from campaign setup and ticket purchasing to reporting, automated drawings, compliance review, and supporter engagement.
How Does the New RaffleGives Platform Work?
The current RaffleGives platform was rebuilt around a simple goal: make digital raffle fundraising understandable enough that a nonprofit does not need a developer, IT department, or software expert to launch a campaign.
The process begins with the organization rather than the raffle. A nonprofit creates a free account, enters its organizational information, uploads its branding, and establishes its RaffleGives profile. The organization then connects its own Stripe account. Ticket payments are processed through that account, giving the nonprofit direct access to its funds according to Stripe's payout schedule. RaffleGives does not need to hold the organization's fundraising proceeds.
Next, the nonprofit builds its raffle. It chooses ticket pricing, campaign dates, messaging, images, and other campaign details. Organizations can use their own pricing strategy or begin with available pricing templates. Once the campaign is configured, RaffleGives completes its administrative review and finalizes the raffle URL. Most standard campaigns can be ready to launch in as little as 48 hours, although organizations can also schedule raffles well in advance.
Then the raffle goes live. The nonprofit controls its fundraising strategy. RaffleGives handles much of the technology underneath it.
What Does the Nonprofit Control?
Using a self-service platform does not mean giving up control of the fundraiser. The nonprofit decides how it wants to present the campaign, what its ticket pricing should be, how long the raffle should run, what message it wants supporters to see, and how aggressively it wants to promote the campaign.
The organization also determines how the raffle fits into its broader fundraising strategy. A campaign might support a specific program, school initiative, community project, youth organization, annual fundraising goal, or major event.
RaffleGives provides the infrastructure.
The nonprofit provides the mission, community, and fundraising strategy. That division is intentional because successful fundraising still depends on relationships. Software should reduce the administrative burden surrounding those relationships rather than attempting to replace them.
What Does RaffleGives Handle?
Once a raffle is live, the amount of work required to administer a traditional raffle can become surprisingly large. Someone has to track ticket purchases, send confirmations, maintain records, monitor sales, organize entries, conduct the drawing, identify the winner, and reconcile campaign information.
RaffleGives automates much of that infrastructure. The platform provides secure ticket tracking and real-time sales information. Supporters receive automated receipts after purchasing tickets. Campaign administrators can monitor performance without manually rebuilding sales records in spreadsheets.
RaffleGives also provides automated winner selection and winner communication tools. This helps turn what was traditionally a manual process into a structured digital workflow. The result is not a fundraiser that requires no work. Promotion and community engagement still matter enormously. The difference is that staff and volunteers can spend more of their time driving the campaign instead of administering the technology behind it.
How Much Does RaffleGives Cost?
RaffleGives uses a performance-based pricing model.
There is no registration fee. There is no monthly subscription. There is no setup fee, hosting charge, or long-term software commitment. Instead, RaffleGives charges an 8% platform fee on ticket sales. If a nonprofit does not sell tickets, there is no RaffleGives platform fee based on those nonexistent sales. As the campaign grows, the platform fee grows with it.
That aligns the business model with fundraising performance. A nonprofit does not have to purchase an annual software package and then hope it generates enough fundraising revenue to justify the expense. It can create its account and build the campaign without making an upfront platform investment. Stripe payment-processing fees may apply separately based on the organization's Stripe account terms.
See complete RaffleGives pricing.
Why Does Performance-Based Pricing Matter for Nonprofits?
Small and mid-sized nonprofits frequently operate under tight budgets. Every new software subscription competes with program expenses, marketing, staffing, facilities, and other organizational needs.
A recurring fundraising-software bill can be difficult to justify when the organization does not know whether a new campaign will work. Performance-based pricing changes that conversation. The board or executive director does not have to approve another annual software commitment before the organization has sold its first raffle ticket. The cost of RaffleGives is tied to actual fundraising activity.
That does not mean RaffleGives is literally free. The platform charges its percentage when ticket sales occur. The more precise value proposition is:
Free to start. No monthly fees. No long-term commitment. Performance-based pricing.
Where Does the Money Go When Someone Buys a Ticket?
Each nonprofit connects its own Stripe account during onboarding. When a supporter purchases raffle tickets, payment processing occurs through that Stripe account. Funds are available to the nonprofit according to Stripe's payout schedule rather than being held by RaffleGives until the fundraiser ends.
That structure gives nonprofit leaders greater financial visibility and control. It also simplifies reconciliation because ticket sales and payment activity are connected directly with the organization's own payment account. For executive directors, finance leaders, and boards evaluating fundraising technology, knowing who controls the money is just as important as knowing how tickets are sold.
What Does the Supporter Experience Look Like?
A digital raffle succeeds only if supporters can understand it quickly.
Someone receiving a raffle link should be able to recognize the organization, understand what the campaign supports, see the available ticket options, complete the purchase, and receive confirmation without navigating a complicated workflow. The platform is therefore designed around mobile-friendly participation. That matters because nonprofit campaigns are increasingly discovered through social media, email, text messages, QR codes, team communication apps, and other channels that supporters open on their phones.
Removing friction also makes campaigns easier to share. A parent can send the raffle to family members. A board member can share it with professional contacts. A volunteer can distribute a QR code at an event. A local business can help introduce a fundraiser to its community where applicable law permits that form of promotion.
The easier participation becomes, the more valuable an organization's existing network becomes.
What Is the RaffleGives Ambassador Program?
One of the most significant additions to the current RaffleGives platform is the Ambassador Program.
Most nonprofits have a larger potential fundraising network than their own donor database suggests. Every parent, volunteer, board member, coach, employee, alumnus, participant, or community partner has a personal network of their own. The Ambassador Program helps organizations activate those networks.
Organizations can create unique shareable links and QR codes for different groups or Ambassadors. This gives nonprofits a way to distribute their campaign through multiple communities while maintaining greater visibility into where participation is coming from. For a school, ambassadors might represent grade levels, classrooms, sports teams, or parent groups. A youth organization might use different links for families, teams, or chapters. A larger nonprofit might activate board members, volunteers, community partners, or different geographic groups.
Instead of expecting one fundraising committee to create every ticket sale, the organization can turn its existing community into a broader distribution network.
Learn more about digital raffle fundraising for schools and youth organizations.
Why Are Cash and 50/50 Raffles Different From Traditional Donation Appeals?
Traditional fundraising usually asks a supporter to make a contribution and expect nothing financially in return. That model remains essential. RaffleGives is not intended to replace annual giving, major gifts, grants, corporate sponsorships, or other established fundraising programs.
Raffles create a different participation experience. In a legal 50/50 raffle, supporters purchase entries for the opportunity to win a cash prize while simultaneously supporting the nonprofit's mission. Depending on the applicable rules and campaign structure, the potential prize can grow as participation increases.
That gives the organization another way to engage people who may not respond to a traditional donation request. Someone who has never considered themselves a donor might still buy tickets shared by a friend, family member, coworker, school, sports organization, church, or community group.
The first transaction raises money. The larger opportunity is introducing another person to the organization.
Can Digital Raffles Help Nonprofits Reach New Supporters?
Yes, and this may be one of the most important strategic reasons to consider raffle fundraising.
Nonprofits often concentrate fundraising on people already in their donor database. Those relationships are valuable, but repeatedly asking the same supporters to give more creates a natural ceiling. A shareable raffle can travel through a different network.
Each supporter can introduce the campaign to people the organization itself may not have been able to reach directly. That creates an opportunity to turn a fundraising campaign into both a revenue event and a supporter-acquisition channel. A new participant may eventually become a repeat raffle supporter, volunteer, event attendee, newsletter subscriber, sponsor, or traditional donor.
RaffleGives therefore encourages organizations to measure more than gross ticket sales. First-time participants, Ambassador performance, referral sources, repeat engagement, and future supporter activity can all help nonprofits understand the broader impact of a campaign.
Who Is RaffleGives Built For?
RaffleGives was designed for nonprofit organizations that want an easier way to add digital raffle fundraising without adding heavy operational overhead.
That includes traditional charities, schools, PTAs and PTOs, booster clubs, youth organizations, religious organizations, veterans organizations, community groups, sports foundations, and other qualifying nonprofit organizations. Different states define eligible raffle organizations differently, so nonprofit status alone does not automatically establish raffle eligibility.
That is why RaffleGives evaluates the organization and intended raffle as part of the setup process. For organizations operating in jurisdictions with more complicated online-raffle requirements, such as New York, additional assisted onboarding may be required before campaign setup begins.
Can RaffleGives Be Used for Event-Based Raffles?
Yes.
A digital raffle does not have to be a month-long standalone online fundraiser. Nonprofits can use RaffleGives to support raffle campaigns connected to events where the applicable state framework permits that model. That can include sports games, galas, school events, community festivals, charity events, and other in-person gatherings.
QR codes and digital sharing can make it easier for attendees to access the campaign from their phones rather than relying entirely on paper tickets or cash transactions. Organizations can also use digital promotion before or during a fundraiser depending on the rules applicable to the raffle. This flexibility makes digital raffles useful both as standalone campaigns and additions to existing events.
How Quickly Can a Nonprofit Launch?
For standard campaigns, RaffleGives can have an organization ready to launch in as little as 48 hours after the required setup and review are completed.
The exact timeline depends on the organization and jurisdiction. Some states require additional charitable gaming licenses, approvals, registration, geolocation controls, or other procedures. New York, for example, requires substantially more advance preparation for internet and mobile raffles. Organizations should therefore distinguish between the time needed to configure the RaffleGives platform and the time required to satisfy applicable legal requirements.
If your jurisdiction allows a straightforward digital raffle structure, the technology should not be what slows you down.
Is RaffleGives Compliant With State Raffle Laws?
RaffleGives takes a compliance-first approach, but no raffle platform can make a raffle legal simply by providing the technology. Charitable gaming laws vary significantly from state to state.
One state may allow online cash 50/50 raffles. Another may allow raffles but prohibit internet ticket sales. Another may permit online purchases while regulating electronic payments or third-party technology. Some states require licensing or registration before ticket sales can begin. RaffleGives maintains an expanding State Raffle Laws resource library to help organizations understand those differences.
The RaffleGives administrative review process also helps identify platform and campaign requirements before launch. The nonprofit ultimately remains responsible for conducting its raffle in accordance with applicable law, but the organization should not have to navigate fundraising technology completely alone.
Why Is Compliance Part of the RaffleGives Product?
Compliance and technology cannot really be separated in digital raffle fundraising. If state law requires geolocation, the platform architecture matters. If the state restricts payment methods, checkout configuration matters. If a drawing must happen in a particular way, winner-selection technology matters. That is different from generic online fundraising.
RaffleGives was built specifically around this regulated fundraising model, which allows compliance questions to influence platform configuration rather than being treated as an afterthought. In straightforward jurisdictions, organizations can move through the self-service system quickly. In more complicated jurisdictions, RaffleGives can require additional setup or direct contact before the campaign proceeds.
The objective is not simply to put more raffles online. It is to help nonprofits put responsible raffles online.
How Does RaffleGives Reduce Administrative Work?
The traditional raffle model can create a surprising amount of manual labor. Organizations may need to distribute ticket books, collect money, reconcile sales, track participant information, monitor volunteers, create spreadsheets, conduct a drawing, notify the winner, and prepare reports.
Digital raffle software can centralize much of that work. With RaffleGives, online ticket purchases, receipts, ticket tracking, sales information, campaign reporting, winner selection, and winner communication can happen within a structured platform.
The organization still needs to promote the fundraiser and engage supporters. No software can replace that work. What technology can do is eliminate many of the repetitive administrative tasks surrounding it. That distinction is important for smaller nonprofit teams and volunteer-led organizations where every administrative hour matters.
What Does Real-Time Reporting Give Nonprofit Leaders?
A raffle should not be a black box. Nonprofit leadership should be able to see what is happening while the campaign is active. RaffleGives provides real-time ticket tracking so organizations can monitor campaign performance as participation occurs. This allows fundraising teams to see whether promotion is working and make adjustments before the raffle ends.
That is particularly valuable when combined with Ambassador-driven distribution. Rather than simply waiting for the final total, the organization can use campaign information to understand where engagement is coming from and where additional outreach may be needed. Better information supports better fundraising decisions.
What Happens When the Raffle Ends?
Closing the campaign should not create another administrative project. RaffleGives provides automated winner selection and built-in winner communication functionality designed to simplify the end of the raffle. The platform also provides the digital transaction history and reporting organizations need to understand campaign activity.
Applicable legal requirements still control how any particular raffle must be concluded and reported. Different states may impose their own drawing, recordkeeping, winner, tax, or regulatory requirements. But the technology should make complying with those operational responsibilities easier rather than forcing staff to reconstruct the fundraiser after it ends.
Why Choose a Purpose-Built Nonprofit Raffle Platform?
A nonprofit evaluating fundraising technology should not ask only how many features a platform has. It should ask whether the features solve the organization's actual problem. If the goal is to manage auctions, donations, event tickets, peer-to-peer campaigns, CRM workflows, and ten other fundraising products from a single system, a broad fundraising suite may make sense.
If the goal is to make cash and 50/50 raffle fundraising simple, digital, scalable, transparent, and easier to administer, specialization matters. RaffleGives is focused on that problem. The platform is not trying to become every piece of software a nonprofit uses.
It is designed to become the piece that makes digital raffle fundraising easier.
RaffleGives at a Glance
RaffleGives Feature | What It Means for the Nonprofit |
|---|---|
Free account registration | No upfront platform investment |
No monthly subscription | No recurring software expense between campaigns |
8% performance-based fee | Platform cost scales with ticket sales |
Custom raffle page | Branded digital fundraising experience |
Custom ticket pricing | Organization controls campaign economics |
Stripe integration | Funds flow through the nonprofit's own account |
Real-time ticket tracking | Monitor campaign performance |
Ambassador Program | Activate families, volunteers, boards, teams, and supporters |
QR + social sharing | Make campaigns easier to distribute |
Automated receipts | Less administrative work |
Automated winner selection | Structured end-of-raffle workflow |
Winner communication | Simplifies campaign completion |
Administrative review | Campaign and organization review before launch |
State-law resources | Compliance education for nonprofit leaders |
No long-term contract | Run raffles when they fit your strategy |
Frequently Asked Questions About RaffleGives
What is RaffleGives?
RaffleGives is a self-service digital raffle platform designed specifically for nonprofit organizations conducting legal cash and 50/50 raffles.
Is RaffleGives free?
There is no cost to create an account, no monthly subscription, no setup fee, and no hosting fee. RaffleGives charges an 8% platform fee based on ticket sales, so it is more accurate to describe the platform as free to start and performance-based.
Does RaffleGives charge monthly fees?
No. There are no monthly subscription charges.
How quickly can a nonprofit launch a raffle?
Many standard campaigns can be ready to launch in as little as 48 hours after completing setup and administrative review. Additional state or local compliance requirements may require more time.
How are payments processed?
Each nonprofit connects its own Stripe account. Ticket payments are processed through Stripe, and proceeds are available according to the organization's Stripe payout schedule.
Does RaffleGives hold nonprofit funds?
No. RaffleGives does not need to hold the nonprofit's raffle proceeds.
Can nonprofits create their own ticket pricing?
Yes. Organizations can customize their ticket prices based on their fundraising strategy or use available pricing templates.
Does RaffleGives have an Ambassador Program?
Yes. Organizations can use unique shareable links and QR codes to activate different Ambassadors, groups, teams, volunteers, or supporters and gain greater visibility into campaign distribution.
Does RaffleGives select the raffle winner?
RaffleGives includes automated winner-selection functionality where that method is compatible with the applicable raffle requirements.
Can schools and youth organizations use RaffleGives?
Qualifying schools, PTAs, PTOs, booster clubs, sports organizations, and youth-serving nonprofits can use RaffleGives where their applicable state and organizational rules permit digital raffles.
Can RaffleGives be used in every state?
Raffle laws vary substantially by state. The RaffleGives platform can support nonprofit organizations across the United States, but the exact raffle structure and digital features available depend on applicable state and local laws.
Does RaffleGives guarantee raffle compliance?
No technology provider can eliminate the nonprofit's legal responsibilities. RaffleGives takes a compliance-first approach through administrative review, state-law resources, and platform controls, while nonprofits remain responsible for complying with the laws that apply to their raffles.
Related Reading
Digital Raffles for Schools and Youth Organizations
A Better Way to Add Raffles to Your Fundraising Strategy
RaffleGives was not built to give nonprofits another software system to manage.
It was built to remove much of the work traditionally required to run a raffle. The new platform combines self-service onboarding, Stripe-powered payments, customizable campaigns, real-time ticket tracking, automated receipts, winner workflows, Ambassador distribution, sharing tools, reporting, and administrative review in one purpose-built raffle platform. There is no subscription to justify and no large upfront software investment.
Organizations can start for free, build the campaign around their fundraising goals, and use a performance-based platform whose success grows with theirs. For nonprofits looking to diversify fundraising, activate more of their existing community, and offer supporters another way to participate, digital cash and 50/50 raffles can become a powerful addition to the fundraising stack where permitted by law.
RaffleGives makes that process easier.
Follow RaffleGives for nonprofit fundraising strategy, digital raffle guidance, platform updates, and state raffle-law research:
Raffle availability and requirements vary by jurisdiction. RaffleGives content is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Organizations remain responsible for satisfying the laws and regulations applicable to their raffles.
