What is a preferred prizes drawing?

In a standard drawing, participants enter and the system picks winners. Nobody chooses what they’re playing for. Preferred prizes works the other way around. Every participant gets a set number of tickets and decides which prizes to enter. They can put all their tickets on one prize, spread them across several, or focus on the prizes where they think they have the best odds.

Each prize has its own pool of tickets and its own separate drawing. Someone who put five tickets on the trip to Paris is competing only with others who picked that trip. Someone who put three tickets on the spa voucher is in that smaller pool instead.

This format has been around for a long time and goes by different names depending on where you are:

• Bucket raffle: the descriptive term, used widely in fundraising
• Tricky tray: common in the Northeast US, especially New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania
• Basket raffle: used when the prizes are gift baskets, popular at school and church fundraisers
• Chinese auction: an older term, still heard in some places but generally being phased out
• Multi-prize raffle or prize choice drawing: descriptive variants

The mechanics are the same in all of them. In the physical version, participants drop printed tickets into jars or boxes next to each prize. RandomPicker does the same thing online: the boxes are digital, the drawing is automated, and the whole result is captured in a public record participants can verify.

How it works

Here’s how a preferred prizes drawing runs from start to finish.

1. Organizer creates the project
Choose Preferred Prizes as the project type and set how many tickets each participant gets (for example, 10). Every participant in the drawing receives the same number.

2. Organizer adds prizes
Add each prize with a name, description, and quantity. Quantity matters here: a prize with quantity 5 will draw five winners from its ticket pool. So you can have one trip to Paris (quantity 1), five wellness vouchers (quantity 5), and five book vouchers (quantity 5) all in the same drawing.

3. Participants allocate their tickets
Most organizers let participants fill in their own allocation through the registration form. Each participant opens the form and sees something like this:

The participant types numbers next to each prize. A running counter shows how many tickets they’ve used out of their allowance. The form also tells them what will happen to any tickets they don’t place: they’ll either be ignored or randomly assigned, depending on what the organizer set in the project.

4. Drawings run separately for each prize
When the drawing starts, RandomPicker runs a separate random draw for each prize, picking only from the tickets allocated to that prize. The trip to Paris is drawn from the trip pool. The wellness voucher is drawn from the voucher pool. And so on.

5. The drawing produces a public verification record
Once all the draws have run, RandomPicker generates one public record for the whole drawing. It shows every prize, every winner, the entries that went into each prize’s pool, and the timestamp. Participants can open the record and confirm their tickets were counted in the right pool and that the result was random. For fundraisers and corporate programs, this is what makes online preferred prizes drawings work. Participants don’t have to take the result on trust, they can verify it themselves.

Three ways to collect ticket allocations

Most projects use the registration form, but two other options work for situations where the form isn’t a good fit.

Registration form

Participants get a link to the form, fill in their name and any custom fields you’ve added, allocate their tickets across the prizes, and submit. The form can be hosted on RandomPicker or embedded into your own website as a widget. Available on Standard, Plus and Advanced plans.

This is the right choice for most drawings: when participants are remote, when there are too many people for manual entry, or when you want everyone to see the same prize list and rules.

Excel upload

Download the Excel template from the project, fill in one row per participant with their name and how many tickets they’re allocating to each prize, and upload it back. The template has one column per prize, so allocations are explicit and easy to review.

This works well for in-person events where participants filled in paper forms or dropped physical tickets in buckets. The organizer collects the results, types them into the spreadsheet, and runs the digital drawing so there’s a verifiable record afterwards.

Manual entry

Add participants one at a time through the entries section. Type the name, optionally add an internal note, and enter the ticket counts for each prize. Useful for small drawings, last-minute additions, or fixing a single allocation without re-uploading a whole file.

Setup options

A few project settings affect how the drawing runs.

Tickets per participant
Set the number of tickets at the project level. Every participant gets the same number; there’s no per-person setting.

What happens to unallocated tickets
If a participant doesn’t use all their tickets, RandomPicker handles them in one of two ways:

• Use only tickets with assigned prize (recommended) — unused tickets are ignored. They don’t enter any drawing. This is the cleaner option and works best when you want participants to see exactly where their tickets went.
• Use all tickets — unused tickets get randomly assigned to prizes by the system. Every ticket counts somewhere, but it can produce results that confuse participants (“I won the spa voucher? I didn’t put any tickets on it.”) Use this mode only if you have a specific reason.

Multiple winners per prize
Set quantity on each prize to draw multiple winners from that prize’s pool. A prize with quantity 3 produces three winners.

One win per participant
In RandomPicker, each row in the entry list counts as one participant, and one participant can win at most one prize per drawing. It doesn’t matter how many prizes their tickets are spread across. They can still only win one of them.

If you want to allow the same person to potentially win more than once (for example, a fundraiser supporter who bought multiple ticket sheets), add them as separate rows. Each row is treated as an independent participant with its own ticket allocation.

Note on weights
Preferred Prizes doesn’t use the weights feature available in standard drawings. The number of tickets a participant allocates to a prize already controls their odds for that prize, so a separate weight setting would be redundant.

Here is the detailed setup documentation.

Use cases

Employee recognition and company drawings

Run a year-end or quarterly drawing where everyone gets the same number of tickets and chooses where to put them. A varied prize list (family experiences, gadgets, gift cards, time off) covers different interests, and each employee competes only for the prizes they actually want. People feel respected when they have a say, and HR doesn’t have to guess who would like what.

Customer loyalty drawings

Customers earn tickets through purchases, reviews, or repeat orders, then put them on the prizes they actually want. People engage more than they would with a standard sweepstakes because they’re playing for things they picked, not whatever the brand decides to give away.

Conferences and trade shows

Attendees pick up tickets at registration or by visiting sponsor booths, then put them on the prizes they want. This keeps people moving through the venue and gives sponsors a real reason to participate. Their prize attracts attendees who actually wanted it, not just whoever happened to drop a business card in the bowl.

Fundraisers (tricky trays and basket raffles)

The traditional format. Supporters buy ticket sheets at a gala or charity event and place them in buckets next to the prizes they want. Run RandomPicker alongside the in-person event for the actual draws and verification, or move the whole thing online for remote supporters.

School and PTA fundraisers

Parents buy tickets and allocate them to donated prizes: gift cards, experiences, gift baskets. Multiple drawings produce multiple winners, which keeps families engaged through the whole event.

Virtual team events

Remote teams join a single drawing where everyone allocates tickets to prizes that ship anywhere. It works across time zones because participants pick their allocation on their own schedule before the deadline.

Preferred prizes vs standard drawing

	Standard drawing	Preferred prizes
Number of prizes	One or several	Several, often many
Who chooses what’s entered	Everyone is in one pool	Participants choose which prizes to enter
Drawings	One drawing for all prizes	Separate drawing per prize
Participant role	Passive (submit and wait)	Active (allocate strategically)
Setup	Simple	Moderate

• Use a standard drawing when you have one main prize, when prize assignment can be random, or when you want the simplest possible process for participants.
• Use preferred prizes when you have several prizes of different appeal, when participants are likely to care more about some prizes than others, or when you want them involved in the choice rather than just submitting and waiting.

Tips for running a preferred prizes drawing

Mix prize values. Include some headline prizes and some smaller ones. The big ones attract most of the tickets, but the smaller prizes produce winners with much better odds, which creates more total winners and more buzz.

Keep the explanation simple. “You have 10 tickets. Put them on the prizes you want. The more you put on a prize, the better your chances of winning that prize.” That’s it. Plain wording in the email or event materials does more than a long explanation.

Decide how to handle unallocated tickets before launching. “Use only tickets with assigned prize” is the cleaner default. Switch to “use all tickets” only if you have a specific reason. It can produce results that confuse participants.

Test with a small group first. If this is your first preferred prizes drawing, run a practice round with staff or a few volunteers. You’ll catch any setup issues before going live.

Share the verification record. Participants put thought into their allocations and want to know the result was fair. The drawing produces one public record covering every prize and winner. Link to it in the winner announcement.

Frequently asked questions

Can a participant win more than one prize?
Each row in the entry list counts as one participant, and one row can win at most one prize per drawing, even if its tickets are spread across several pools. To allow the same person to potentially win multiple prizes (for example, a fundraiser supporter with multiple ticket sheets), add them as multiple separate rows.

What happens if someone doesn’t allocate all their tickets?
There are two options. The default is to ignore unused tickets, so they don’t enter any drawing. The alternative is to randomly assign them to prizes so every ticket is used. The organizer picks one of these in the project settings.

Does everyone in the drawing get the same number of tickets?
Yes. The ticket count is a project-level setting and applies to every participant. To give someone more total tickets (for example, a fundraiser supporter who bought multiple ticket sheets), add them as multiple rows in the entry list. Each row gets its own allocation of the project’s standard count.

Can I use weights with preferred prizes?
No. Weights aren’t available in this project type because the number of tickets a participant allocates to a prize already controls their odds.

Can participants change their allocation after submitting?
Once a participant submits the registration form, the allocation is recorded. The organizer can edit individual entries before the drawing runs.

Can I run a preferred prizes drawing for remote participants?
Yes. Most projects work this way: share the registration form link, participants allocate from anywhere, the drawing runs centrally, and results are published with a public verification record.

Is this different from a silent auction?
Yes. In a silent auction, participants bid money and the highest bidder wins. In a preferred prizes drawing, participants allocate tickets and winners are picked randomly from each prize’s pool. More tickets means better odds, but it’s still a draw, not a guaranteed win for whoever put the most in.

Is this legal for fundraisers?
Raffle and drawing laws vary by location. The mechanics of a preferred prizes drawing are the same as any other raffle, so local rules about ticket sales, registration, and reporting still apply. RandomPicker handles the drawing process and verification; legal compliance is the organizer’s responsibility.

Run your drawing with public verification

Preferred prizes drawings ask more of participants. They think about their allocation, pick prizes strategically, and want to know it counted. Each drawing in RandomPicker produces a public record showing every prize, every winner, the entries for each pool, and the timestamp. Participants can open the record and confirm their tickets were where they should be.

For fundraisers, employee programs, and customer drawings especially, that verifiable result is what makes the format work online. Participants put thought into their allocations, and the result they get back is something they can check for themselves.

Related resources:

• Preferred prizes – detailed setup documentation
• Embed the registration form on your own site
• See how RandomPicker works