4 Perfect Prize Draws To Inspire Your Fundraising Efforts

At Crowdfunder we provide plenty of different ways to raise the money you need for your project or cause. Charity profiles, community share offers and fundraisers all have their place for getting you to your target. However, it’s our prize draw functionality that is catching the attention of many individuals and charities. The simple premise of having a prize that can be won by anyone is a compelling option over other fundraising methods such as online auctions that reward the highest bidder..

Prize draws are a perfect way to engage and excite your crowd, with plenty of opportunities to have your project shared through social media and beyond. Prize draws are run in a similar fashion to traditional raffles or competitions that allow a prize to be won in exchange for an official entry into a draw. The main difference is that everyone can see the amount raised and the number of entries, helping your audience stay involved in real time. Plus unlike auctions, anyone that enters can win!

Out of our top 100 crowdfunding projects of 2023, 10 of the featured projects were prize draws showcasing a diverse range of causes from businesses and charities to individuals. Read on to find out why these prize draws were so successful.

Ipswich Town Foundation

The Ipswich Town Foundation aims to positively impact the community through innovative sporting activities, promoting healthy recreation, education, and social inclusion. As an extension of Ipswich Town Football Club, it engages around 6,000 individuals weekly, focusing on young people and vulnerable adults in East Anglia. The foundation strives to enhance life conditions, develop skills, and integrate socially excluded individuals into society by using sports as a primary tool.

In spring 2023, Ipswich Town Foundation launched a prize draw giving away all 16 of the match worn shirts from their match against Charlton Athletic, each signed on the front and back. The prize draw was to raise funds for the foundation in order to continue the growth and expansion of their work in Ipswich, Suffolk and beyond.

Not only did this particular project raise over £18k from 1,316 supporters, but it is just one project out of 17 prize draws the organisation has run on Crowdfunder. This practice of coming back to run multiple projects has provided regular fundraising opportunities resulting in £56,115 raised and an engaged following of over 4,000 supporters.

See Ipswich Town Foundation’s profile and find out more about their projects here.

Win a Trip to See Mountain Gorillas

Fauna & Flora is an international wildlife conservation charity who work closely with conservation partners in well over 40 countries to save nature, together. In July 2023 they offered a truly life changing experience to supporters of their prize draw – an opportunity for two people to see mountain gorillas in the wild, and stay at a luxury lodge in Rwanda for 3 nights.

On their prize draw page they detailed the experience, and backed it up with breathtaking images of the amazing Rwandan landscapes, the jungles and – of course – the gorillas that the two lucky winners of the prize draw would be visiting. 

Fauna and Flora also expertly used this opportunity to discuss the plight of the mountain gorilla, why their work is important and how it ties to the habitat that gorillas live in.

This was a truly special prize draw that went on to raise over £31,000 from 1300 supporters! It featured at number 37 in our Top 100 list.

Take a look at the prize draw page here

Hope Blamire Christmas charity draw

Hope Blamire is an artist based in Scotland who paints the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. However it’s not simply Hope’s art that was on offer in her annual Christmas prize draw. 

In fact, there was a veritable smorgasbord of prizes. Artwork, jewellery, vouchers, learning courses, home decor and a huge amount of stays at different locations in Scotland filled the list of over 100 prizes up for grabs. And with the ability to enter from only £2, the prize draw offered an extremely affordable and easy entry point. However of course, they made great use of multiple ticket options, with the ability to purchase 250 tickets at the top level!

All of this was part of a fundraising drive to raise money for multiple worthy causes. Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance, Calum’s Cabin, Beautiful Inside & Out and Eilidh’s Trust were all named in the prize draw as beneficiaries of the fundraising effort.

In just 13 days, Hope Blamire’s prize draw raised £138,514 from 7958 supporters, making the total amount she’s raised to date through Crowdfunder a stunning £408,000 from 4 projects and lodging her project firmly into the Crowdfunder Top 100!

See the prize draw page here

The Ultimate Prize Draw: Win Glastonbury Festival Tickets

Here it is – the big one. If you’re not a huge entity such as Glastonbury Festival or working with a big charity like Oxfam, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the crowdfunding process and running a prize draw is no different. However, once you look past the big numbers, there is plenty to take away from the biggest prize draw of the year (and our number 1 project of 2023 in our Top 100 list) to make your prize draw a success.

In early 2023, the Turkey and Syria earthquake – and ensuing relief and recovery effort – was all over the news. Naturally, the crowd started to come together with multiple great projects on Crowdfunder raising money to help the people of Turkey and Syria recover from the awful natural disaster that had destroyed lives. 

One of the projects that emerged was Oxfam’s partnership with Glastonbury Festival. They created a prize draw which offered a range of sought-after prizes at an affordable entry point, all to raise funds for the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal.

The headline for this draw was to win one of ten pairs of Glastonbury tickets, each with their own unique experience included. The main prize included the chance to watch a set from the viewing platform of the legendary Pyramid stage at the festival. Other prizes included backstage tours, an ad in the festival’s on-site newspaper, and even the chance to introduce an act on stage!

The price of one entry was just £10, meaning anybody could be in with the chance of winning these awesome prizes.

The incredible prizes, combined with a great cause created a huge amount of support, with the 2023 prize draw raising £1,044,190 from over 46,000 supporters all vying for the chance to go to this hallowed festival. See the prize draw page here.

It did so well, in fact, that in 2024 Glastonbury and Oxfam came back to Crowdfunder to run another prize draw. This time they brought charities British Red Cross and WarChild with them, to raise money for people affected by conflicts around the world. With 20 pairs of Glastonbury tickets on the line, their 2nd prize draw raised over £1.2 million to be split between all 3 charities. To find out more about this prize draw, find their project page here.

Your Turn to Shine: Launching Your Own Prize Draw on Crowdfunder

All of the prize draws mentioned in this article have things in common. Great causes, worthwhile prizes and an accessible cost of entry. With these three elements, you too could run an effective and engaging prize draw, bringing the power of the crowd to raise funds for your cause.

To find out more about setting up prize draws on Crowdfunder, as well as some of the best prize draw examples on the platform, take a look at our prize draws page.