How Things Work: Raffles

Planning, assembling and delivering a successful skydiving event is not easy. There are many things to consider, and even if you do everything right, the weather may ruin it, the aircraft might break, or for unknowable reasons, your efforts simply don’t grab people’s attention.

The most important elements to get right are the big stuff. You need to offer a solid version of the product – most simply framed as opportunities above and beyond what is available as standard at the dropzone. A skills camp involves structure and progression, boogies present entertainment and fun, and adventure travel sells something cool and fancy.

Everything that can be built on top of the crucial basics can help the scale and potential impact of an event. Named coaches with local status or international recognition can offer a boost, a videographer who can actually spend all day working on content can deliver internal and external rewards. Novelty aircraft, a special party location, arrangements with local activities – there are a lot of possibilities.

Established Rules

Approaching equipment manufacturers for event support is as old as sport skydiving – and is usually most recognisable on location in the form of small but useful branded items – pull-up cords, buffs, stickers etc.

A finale raffle is a time-honoured tradition, for which manufacturers are approached to donate prizes. These are most often in the form of additional upgraded promotional items, plus discount vouchers for the more expensive things we require to skydive successfully. 

Even the biggest skydiving gear factories have to choose and prioritise where and how to allocate support. What a manufacturer hopes for in return for their voucher or prize is recognition and gratitude, both live and direct – and shared externally after the fact.   

However, the quality of event raffles is a very, very mixed bag.

Good

At the successful end of the scale, the raffle can be a satisfying interaction between the skydiving community and the industry that supports it, as attendees, staff and organisers gather at the end of a successful string of days to celebrate what has collectively been achieved – plus some people get free stuff.  

The best results are generated when raffle prizes go to people who genuinely need them, everyone at the event knows this has happened, and it has been done in a way that creates a sharable image or video (vertical video yo).

A Commendable Effort: This is witnessing the organisers communicate what the prize is and thank the contributor, then interact with the crowd to find a small number of people who want and need it the most. Then have them play a simple game (like whoever finishes a beer the fastest or does the best impression of an aeroplane) to win.         

Not So Good

At the unsuccessful end of the scale, the raffle is a thing that is supposed to happen but nobody had the time or energy to invest in doing a good job from the start, so it is an afterthought for all involved. 

The worst result is when the prizes are redundant or useless to the winners, no effort is made to identify the contributor and nobody takes any photos.  

A Notable Failure: This is watching while someone quite literally just stands up in front of the gathered attendees and says “All the stuff is here on this table, if I call your number just come and grab something”.   

Steps

Nobody wants the raffle to be bad. Most often any lack of quality is simply because there is a lot to do and everyone is very busy. Companies want to support as many events as possible, and if you approach to ask for things for a boogie or camp you will almost always get something. What we want and hope for is that receiving support is embraced as an opportunity. Support items are not endless, but we aim to develop our connections to the right athletes, events, teams and dropzones. For the most productive relationships we can and do offer more.    

Raffle Success Tips:

1. Thank the contributor publicly as part of promoting the event (tailored, individual posts are best).

2. Add their logo to your material (avoid spamming everyone, but again – tailored posts are best).

3. Ensure your attendees know there is a raffle and what is in it.  

4. If possible, retain the element of chance – but among those who would benefit from a particular prize (see aforementioned silly games). 

5. Thank all the contributing manufacturers clearly and publicly during the raffle.

6. Make some media to share afterwards that connects the event and allows for sharing (even just one decent photo guys).

7. Follow up with a quick private email to say thanks. 

Tour Rep Opinion: Get it right or leave it out. It is better to have no raffle than a bad one. The prizes don’t have to be grand to create success (even small things go down great with newer skydivers), but valuable donations that then vanish into thin air can be frustrating.        

If you are planning an event and want support, the best way forward is to ask what the ideal version is for your sponsors. Communicating well will get results, and creativity in engaging people might lead to a surprising level of interest. Receiving support is not dependent on holding a raffle on party night and there are many ways to apply the things you receive.