How A Scratch Card Fundraiser Works for a Booster Club

Introduction

A booster club scratch card fundraiser is a practical, profitable strategy to raise money for a booster club. It won’t cut into your budget and resources since fundraising with scratch-off cards requires only a small budget and a team of dedicated (volunteer) salespeople.

Scratch Card Fundraiser for Beginners

Scratch cards cost little to order and ship, and giving a scratch card to every seller introduces many new donors to your booster club. Some companies can supply the scratch-off cards, as well as coupon brochures to interest possible donors. These coupon brochures don’t cost much and feature great deals on name-brand luxuries.

When your booster organizes a scratch card fundraiser, you don’t need to deal with filling orders like you would with a cookie sale or brochure fundraising. The entire process

One scratch card filled out can yield about $100 in fundraising. This potential means that, broadly dispersed, scratch cards can return a hundred percent in profits.

 

What is a Scratch Card Fundraiser

A scratch card fundraiser uses cards with material covering words or symbols underneath to reveal prizes or donation amounts. Donors scratch off a couple of dots on the card, which then reveals a budget-friendly donation amount.

The overall goal is to reach as many people as possible, taking advantage of the low-cost donations that add up quickly. Also, the fact that you don’t need much organization means your booster club can run more than one fundraiser simultaneously.

With that in mind, there are a couple of different strategies that incentivize people to raise money for a booster club.

Coupon-Based

Coupon-based scratch offs are popular fundraisers because your sellers provide the donors with a coupon sheet of brand-name products. After they scratch off 1-2 dots, there will be an amount for them to donate.

The donation amounts differ from scratch-off dot to scratch-off dot, but it’s typically between $1-$5. This means your sellers need to reach as many people as possible.

What’s so great about this strategy is that most people don’t have a problem with spending a couple of dollars. On the one hand, donors are helping to raise money for a booster club. On the other hand, they receive an excellent brochure for products that’ll save them money.

Matching Symbols

Scratcher fundraisers can also feature a “match the symbols” approach. With this, potential donors can buy as many scratch-off dots as they want, and win a prize by scratching off two matching symbols.

If you choose this method, take some considerations in determining the value of a prize. Many companies will add enough diversity to keep the costs of the awards low.

“Find the Winner” Scratch Card Fundraiser

The “find the winner” strategy of fundraising with scratch off cards lets donors choose squares they hope wins them a grand prize. Once your supporters sell off enough scratcher cards, the booster club will reveal the winner and award the prize.

Quick Tip

One option you can explore is splitting the grand prize (if it’s monetary) between the winner and a charity of their choice.

 

How Much Does a Scratch Card Fundraiser Cost?

Even when you take into account the low cost of organizing supplies, fundraising with scratch-off cards cost a booster club next to nothing. Most scratch-off cards cost about $5.  Wait, that’s cost per card?  Yes, and while that seems like alot for a scratch off card, each card sold generates an almost 20x return on average!

 

The Revenue You Can Raise From A Scratch Card Fundraiser

Giving each salesperson two cards can potentially yield $200. Depending on how many salespeople you organize, this profit-margin adds up unbelievably.

If you think about it, your fundraisers can solicit their parents, grandparents, friends, and other possible contributors. Deploying over 20 fundraisers has the possibility of raising more than than $5,000.

What makes this facet so great is that you can run other fundraisers alongside fundraising with scratch off cards. As a result, you can exponentially increase the productivity of raising funds for your booster club.

 

Step By Step Guide

First, you need to decide whether you’ll order your scratch off cards or make them yourself.

If you want to organize a coupon-based fundraiser, ordering from a company is your best bet. They’ll give you the best deal for both the scratch-off cards and the coupon brochures.

When picking the brochures of coupons, keep in mind the demographics of your potential donors. Matching the needs and desires of the community will make your scratch card fundraiser even more appealing.

Making your own scratch-off cards is suited for the “find the winner” and “match the symbols” approach.

Set-Up

Once you’ve ordered your cards, decide on who will fundraise with the cards. Keeping careful tallies of where each card goes makes sure a card doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, which means a lower profit.

You also need to train the fundraisers in introducing the cause, educating them to focus on how their small donation benefits the great cause of your booster club.

Possible Script

“My name is [blank], and I’m raising money for [insert your booster club].

To raise money, we’ve organized a scratch card fundraiser. If you’re interested, you scratch off two circles on this scratch card. This will tell you how much to donate in return for a coupon sheet.

All the money we raise will be going to [explain how your booster club uses funds, and how this is important to the sports team]

Execution

Once you’ve trained the salespeople in how to promote your fundraiser, sit back and let them reach out to their friends, family, and acquaintances.

Collecting Funds

The fundraisers will keep a record of the funds they’ve raised. Depending on your preference, the salespeople can turn in their funds periodically or at a specified date.

 

Scratch Card Fundraiser Conclusion

Fundraising with scratch off cards is a great way to raise money for a booster club. The low cost of implementing the strategies outlined above will do wonders for reaching your booster club’s financial goals.

Many booster clubs have routinely organized scratcher fundraisers because it doesn’t impose on the regular functions of the organization. While you’re raising funds for the sports team, you can also implement other fundraising strategies like bake sales and services like car washing.

Helpful Scratch Card Fundraiser Tips:

1.  To cut costs as much as possible, you can create your scratch-off cards. To do this, design a game-board with cheap graphic design software (of for free using Canva). Then you can buy scratch-off stickers at any arts and crafts store.
2. A great way to incentivize your fundraisers is to offer prizes to the highest-earning salesperson. This prize creates a fun competition to motivate your team and raise as many funds as possible.