The 50-50 raffle is a special and very simple type of a raffle prize. It is used by many fundraisers from nonprofits, charities, academic and other organizations.

What is 50 50 raffle?


The idea of a 50 50 raffle is really simple. Imagine a raffle where people pay for raffle tickets. The main prize is half of the sum of proceeds collected during the event.

How many tickets can a participant buy in the 50 50 raffle?


Usually, there are no limits and people can buy as many tickets as they want. The more tickets the person buys the higher chance of winning.

The advantages of 50/50 raffle

  • It’s clear – everybody understands how it works – participants purchase a ticket and get a chance to win 50% of the money collected.
  • Accessible for everyone – the ticket price is usually only one dollar, everybody can afford to buy a few tickets.
  • Easy to organize and low expense – no need to buy prizes, the only costs are paper tickets.
  • 5050 raffle can be combined with your other fundraising activities.
  • Safe and scalable – if you organize only a small event and collect a small sum, the winner gets half of the sales, it won’t break your budget at all. And vice versa for large national raffle. You are always in a safe way.
  • You can do it everywhere, there are no special place requirements.
  • Repeatable – as this is a popular way to raise funds even for donors, you can repeat it regularly.
  • It happened many times that the winner donated his prize to the charity or nonprofit, so the effect was 100% of the tickets sold.

50:50 raffle tickets


Regarding the raffle ticket price, set the right ticket price which is relevant for the target audience. The typical raffle ticket price for common events is $1, but $5 or $10 are also used.

You can also offer some kind of discount – for example, if the price for one is $1, the price for 12 tickets could be $10.

The raffle ticket price should be fixed – the same for all people.

You can buy many raffle ticket rolls with different designs. Or make your own unique raffle tickets.

Have enough tickets printed.

How to run a 50-50 raffle?


Check your local laws and raffle regulations, there are many limits, information requirements or approvals in almost all states and countries worldwide. The 5050 raffles are even prohibited in several states.

Plan the sale of tickets thoroughly to sell as many tickets as you can during the event. Offer the tickets to everyone and you can make several rounds to sell more tickets. Try to make the selling process interesting or funny for both sides.

Prepare the exact raffle rules and publish them at the beginning of the event so there are no doubts.

Select the winner at the end of the event.

You can draw the winner manually from a hat (transparent jar, lottery wheel…). Make sure that the drawing is done by some impartial person (who didn’t buy a ticket). Or use our random name picker to select the winner in a transparent way.

The winner must be present during the drawing to be eligible to win. Put this requirement into the raffle rules.

If the winner does not claim the prize in a time limit (usually one or two minutes), continue drawing another winner.

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