Raffle to Raise Funds for Feminine Hygiene Products

Alex describes his organize an activity in his own words:

Feminine hygiene products are quite expensive and those who experience periods cannot always predict when certain products are going to be needed. For that reason I held a raffle in which the profits were used to buy feminine hygiene products and then donated to Anoka SWOT, a gender equity club at Anoka High School. (Side note: Anoka SWOT has a feminine hygiene closet that is stocked to help those who have periods but cannot afford or do not have direct access to feminine hygiene products)…The raffle was held via venmo and a raffle jar placed at the Holiday Gas Station (At the register), in which I work at. Each raffle ticket cost $2, those who purchased a raffle ticket only knew of the cause and that the prize was worth $25 dollars but not what the prize specifically was. I made a flyer which I posted on Instagram each day until the raffle was over, this same flyer was taped onto the jar that was placed at Holiday. Payments were made either into the jar or through a private venmo transaction. Through venmo people left the $2 and their name and phone number. At Holiday people left $2 in the jar and gave whoever was cashiering a name and phone number. This information was then transferred to my notes app where each person was numbered. At the end of the two days, a grand total of 40 people had purchased a raffle ticket. With each person numbered, I used Google’s random number generator to pick a number which gave me the raffle prize winner. After that I went and purchased $25 dollars worth of items, I knew previously that I wanted to get gift cards, but because of the fact that I actually knew of the winner I bought things in which I knew the person likes ( I do not recommended buying the prize after receiving any money, it can seem suspicious and can cause anxiety even if you have the best intentions). For the prize I purchased a $15 Starbucks gift card, $10 Holiday gas station card, and two white candy chocolate bars. With 40 people purchasing a ticket, I had made roughly 55 dollars in profit, with this money I purchased the feminine hygiene products at the same time I purchased the prize. Due to the fact that I knew of the winner from high school, we agreed to meet at Holiday so I could give her the prize, the feminine hygiene products were dropped off at the door of the Anoka SWOT’s president’s house, who I also knew due to the fact that I went to Anoka High School.

Accomplishments:

Overall in revenue I generated 80 dollars
To break this number down I…
Had 40 people participate in the raffle
Made 53 Dollars in profit
12 Tampon boxes donated
I learned about the selfless nature of people
I created new connections with the people who decided to donate

Want to organize a similar activity? Here are Alex’s tips for you:

Do not be afraid to ask for help or use the internet to research similar projects. It will help you brainstorm and innovate new ideas! I had no idea what was the best way to do a raffle until I looked up a few examples of what some organizations specifically did.

Do not be afraid to be generic with the prize. People like prizes, whether it be something super unique or just a $5 Starbucks gift card!

As I am not a woman, I do not know too much about what menstrual products are more commonly used or preferred, so I made sure to talk to a few close friends to make sure I was getting decent products. With that being said, if you do not have experience with something (like me with menstrual products) find someone who does have experience with that particular item and talk to them.

I suggest working in a group. Yes, group work can seem more challenging at times, but my outreach could have been so much bigger and therefore I could have done more good if I had worked in a group.

Buy the prize first. It is a lot less anxiety producing if you buy the prize and make the goodie bag first rather than obtaining the money and then figuring out the prize.

Use as many social media platforms as possible! I just used Instagram to post flyers, my outreach could have been a lot wider if I used apps like Facebook or Snapchat.