Animal Welfare Professionals

We want to conduct a fundraiser with some small prizes, and some research I have done suggests that a Sweepstakes is easier to pull off legally online than a raffle.  I am looking at two companies that help with creating the legal terms, the website, the drawing, etc.:  RallyUp and Tapkat.  But sweepstakes seem to always prohibit "employees" or "agents" of the sponsor (us) from participating, and I am concerned that would exclude our volunteer fosters (which would seem wrong and confusing).  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I thought it would be a fun fundraiser, but I want it to be done by the book.

Would love to hear any thoughts or experience regarding sweepstakes, or alternative fun ways to use small prizes for online fundraising.  (We are split between multiple states, so we don't do much with in-person fundraising).

We want to conduct a fundraiser with some small prizes, and some research I have done suggests that a Sweepstakes is easier to pull off legally online than a raffle.  I am looking at two companies that help with creating the legal terms, the website, the drawing, etc.:  RallyUp and Tapkat.  But sweepstakes seem to always prohibit "employees" or "agents" of the sponsor (us) from participating, and I am concerned that would exclude our volunteer fosters (which would seem wrong and confusing).  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I thought it would be a fun fundraiser, but I want it to be done by the book.

Would love to hear any thoughts or experience regarding sweepstakes, or alternative fun ways to use small prizes for online fundraising.  (We are split between multiple states, so we don't do much with in-person fundraising).

Our Rescue has done and will be again putting out an online auction. It runs for a month to get enough people to see advertisements for it and it worked as we advertised at an event fundraising. This issue is finding those unique experiences or prizes besides the same ones from our local community, which are great and generous, but we can't seem to get a few really wowza ones. Does anyone ever use Shareway? Or have experience with another site like Shareway? I have tried it, but before I give my experience wanted to see how it went for others. The sweepstakes sounds interesting, what are you giving away?

Our volunteers and fosters are slit between two states to some degree as well that's why the online auction seems to work for those who might want to try for a certain item.

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Heather Hoffmann
Volunteer
SoCo Animal Rescue
GA

Original Message:
Sent: 08-12-2024 10:46 AM
From: Anne Fessler
Subject: Has anyone tried a sweepstakes fundraiser?

We want to conduct a fundraiser with some small prizes, and some research I have done suggests that a Sweepstakes is easier to pull off legally online than a raffle.  I am looking at two companies that help with creating the legal terms, the website, the drawing, etc.:  RallyUp and Tapkat.  But sweepstakes seem to always prohibit "employees" or "agents" of the sponsor (us) from participating, and I am concerned that would exclude our volunteer fosters (which would seem wrong and confusing).  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I thought it would be a fun fundraiser, but I want it to be done by the book.

Would love to hear any thoughts or experience regarding sweepstakes, or alternative fun ways to use small prizes for online fundraising.  (We are split between multiple states, so we don't do much with in-person fundraising).

#FundraisingandDevelopment

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Anne Fessler
Underhound Railroad
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Thanks, everyone!  I did a free trial of Shareway for a week and sent out a bunch of requests.  So far we only heard back from Bark Box and Kendra Scott, who both donated!  So our sweepstakes prizes are a 1-month gift certificate for Bark Box, an indoor security cam that is supposed to be good to use as a pet cam, an Embark DNA kit, a $25 Amazon gift card, and a $30 Etsy gift card with a suggestion that they use it for a keychain with their dog's face and name.  Our director and I are both pitching in towards the cost of the prizes.  We are doing the sweepstakes as one "grand prize" rather than individual small ones.

FYI, a key element of a sweepstakes is that it has to allow a free "alternate method of entry" (no donation required).  RallyUp and Tapkat both have that feature built into their sites.  The person fills out a form, prints it out, and mails it in to get their free entry.  From what I hear, most people donate, probably because they know it's a nonprofit fundraiser.

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Anne Fessler
Underhound Railroad

Original Message:
Sent: 08-13-2024 06:09 AM
From: Heather Hoffmann
Subject: Has anyone tried a sweepstakes fundraiser?

Our Rescue has done and will be again putting out an online auction. It runs for a month to get enough people to see advertisements for it and it worked as we advertised at an event fundraising. This issue is finding those unique experiences or prizes besides the same ones from our local community, which are great and generous, but we can't seem to get a few really wowza ones. Does anyone ever use Shareway? Or have experience with another site like Shareway? I have tried it, but before I give my experience wanted to see how it went for others. The sweepstakes sounds interesting, what are you giving away?

Our volunteers and fosters are slit between two states to some degree as well that's why the online auction seems to work for those who might want to try for a certain item.

------------------------------
Heather Hoffmann
Volunteer
SoCo Animal Rescue
GA

Original Message:
Sent: 08-12-2024 10:46 AM
From: Anne Fessler
Subject: Has anyone tried a sweepstakes fundraiser?

We want to conduct a fundraiser with some small prizes, and some research I have done suggests that a Sweepstakes is easier to pull off legally online than a raffle.  I am looking at two companies that help with creating the legal terms, the website, the drawing, etc.:  RallyUp and Tapkat.  But sweepstakes seem to always prohibit "employees" or "agents" of the sponsor (us) from participating, and I am concerned that would exclude our volunteer fosters (which would seem wrong and confusing).  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I thought it would be a fun fundraiser, but I want it to be done by the book.

Would love to hear any thoughts or experience regarding sweepstakes, or alternative fun ways to use small prizes for online fundraising.  (We are split between multiple states, so we don't do much with in-person fundraising).

#FundraisingandDevelopment

------------------------------
Anne Fessler
Underhound Railroad
------------------------------

We want to conduct a fundraiser with some small prizes, and some research I have done suggests that a Sweepstakes is easier to pull off legally online than a raffle.  I am looking at two companies that help with creating the legal terms, the website, the drawing, etc.:  RallyUp and Tapkat.  But sweepstakes seem to always prohibit "employees" or "agents" of the sponsor (us) from participating, and I am concerned that would exclude our volunteer fosters (which would seem wrong and confusing).  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I thought it would be a fun fundraiser, but I want it to be done by the book.

Would love to hear any thoughts or experience regarding sweepstakes, or alternative fun ways to use small prizes for online fundraising.  (We are split between multiple states, so we don't do much with in-person fundraising).

Yeah, adding a clause to include volunteers might be the way to go. Or, you could consider alternative ideas like a social media contest or a "guess the number" game.

We want to conduct a fundraiser with some small prizes, and some research I have done suggests that a Sweepstakes is easier to pull off legally online than a raffle.  I am looking at two companies that help with creating the legal terms, the website, the drawing, etc.:  RallyUp and Tapkat.  But sweepstakes seem to always prohibit "employees" or "agents" of the sponsor (us) from participating, and I am concerned that would exclude our volunteer fosters (which would seem wrong and confusing).  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I thought it would be a fun fundraiser, but I want it to be done by the book.

Would love to hear any thoughts or experience regarding sweepstakes, or alternative fun ways to use small prizes for online fundraising.  (We are split between multiple states, so we don't do much with in-person fundraising).