Professional Auctioneer Profile: Consider a Raffle

Louis Murad is a professional, full time, licensed charity auctioneer who has been helping clients engineer successful live auctions since 1998.  Louis is a member of the National Auctioneers Association and holds the Benefit Auction Specialist designation.  He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. 

Louis and his wife, Claire, are the owners of Murad Auctions and employ a staff of 6 auctioneers who work with nonprofits, schools and other fundraising entities, consulting and helping to increase the profits of all types of fundraising events.

Claire Murad consults with her clients in all aspects of event fundraising.  She began as a volunteer, functioning as silent and live auction chair, solicitations chair and event manager for several nonprofits.  Since 2002, she has helped clients with their event night processes including streamlining registration and check out for luncheons, donor dinners, and fundraisers, managing, online, bid sheet and mobile bidding auctions, and providing guidance for item solicitation, and marketing of events. She holds a marketing degree from Texas A & M University. 

Louis and Claire have seen many successful charity event strategies. One strategy that they recommend is adding a Travel Experience Raffle to supplement your event’s auction festivities.

Take, for example, the USA Explorer Package offered by Auction Packages. This package allows the winner to choose between 5 travel destinations for two people, including New York, Sonoma, Orlando, Boston and Scottsdale. The tickets for this raffle are easy to sell! Why? Because the prize appeals to everyone!

The USA Explore Package includes:
• New York City Getaway - 3 Night Four Star Hotel Stay and a Cooking Class including a Multi Course Lunch or Dinner for (2)
• Fairmont Sonoma 3 Night Stay with a Merryvale Winery Wine & Cheese Experience for (2) and a $150 Budget Gift Card
• Disney World Resort Adventure with a 3 Night Stay at Art of Animation, All Star Music or similar for (2) and a $500 Disney Gift Card 
• Best of Boston with a 3 Night Stay at The Fairmont Copley Plaza, Samuel Adams Brewery Tour with Dinner and Beer Pairing for (2)
• Fairmont Scottsdale Princess 3 Night Stay for (2) with a $300 Gift Card for Golf, Spa or Dinner

Simply create flyers and promote the raffle in your community via social media, word of mouth and your event website. With help from the Murad Auctions event management software, clients can quickly create a “giving center” or” micro website” to showcase and sell these raffle tickets for their fundraiser event. The website makes it easy to promote the raffle and allow your sellers to share the site with their friends.  The site even has social media shares built in to aid in this process.

We advise our clients to award a prize to the person who sells the most tickets.  You can encourage your board, volunteers and donors to sell tickets simply by sending out the website link to their friends and colleagues to purchase the tickets on your site.  You can also post updates on the top sellers on your website.

Be sure to sell raffle tickets at your event and use this fun method:  The price of tickets could be 1 for $25, 3 for $60 and 5 for $100, or guests can purchase an Arm’s Length Raffle for $200.

Convenience is the name of the game when it comes to engaging donors and this also applies to your raffle. The Murad Auctions software prints the raffle tickets for you, so you don’t have to fill out tickets, or mail raffle tickets to purchasers.  In addition, we have iPads you can use at your event to allow your volunteers to easily sell raffle tickets to your guests.  Guests can even purchase the raffle tickets on their own mobile phones if your event leverages our mobile bidding platform.  We make it easy to take your raffle ticket sales to the next level!

Do you or your Event Team want more information regarding a Travel Experience Raffle? Do you need to explore how a Raffle can put your fundraising over the top? We at Auction Packages can help. Our team of Event Specialists can guide you through the myriad of options to make your next event a success. We Live to Give.