Letter requesting raffle prizes

A question about : Letter requesting raffle prizes

I'm having a nightmare of a time writing a letter to local businesses requesting either a raffle prize or offering the opportunity to advertise in our school funday programme. Everything I've writen so far comes across as a bit pathetic. Can anyone offer any pointers?

Ideally we're aiming to sell Ј1500 of pre-printed raffle tickets. So the prizes need to be something a bit more than a bottle of wine and a tin of chocs. The committee didn't like the idea of a hamper made up of lots of small donations.

Best answers:

• You are going to have a hard time as lot of organisations give out grants and I have seen one organisation sending out rejection letters to people who applied. I think the hamper may have been a good idea. I know people ususally buy the prize then give it away.
• i'm afraid you wont get much, unless you go for the hamper, as most companies will reject anything over a "token" amount.
• I'm not aiming for big organisations, just local small businesses. I wanted to write something that would appeal to them and get a positive response without costing the businesses huge amounts of time or money.
  More along the lines of "place an advert in our funday programme for £10". We have to print a programme anyway, last year we sold 400 programmes to parents. If we can sell 1/4 page advertising space at £10 then thats £40 per page. It seemed a bit more reasonable than the local pre-school who ask the same businesses for £50 per time and somehow manage to get it.
  Most of the businesses locally are hairdressers, nail salons, reflexology studios, health spas and the like.
  Perhaps a business owner who gets approached by local schools could offer some help?
• Are you fundraising for something specific? Its always easier to ask for donations when you can say "We are holding a funday to try and raise Јxxx to buy such-and-such and wondered if you would consider supporting your local school by either making a donation for our raffle or advertising in the funday programme (see below for costs). All contributions will be fully acknowledged."
  I would be straight to the point and ask outright rather than try and pu$$y-foot around the subject.
  Maybe you could include a list of contributors on a school notice board/website/in the newsletter for the next x issues covering the next school year/etc. Keep it short and sweet and leave a phone contact and email address for further queries.
  See what you get before you reject any ideas.
  Good Luck.
• Don't discount the big supermarkets, our local Tesco and M&S always supports the local schools efforts in one or another. For instance they used to give us carrier bags when we had to bag up the uniform orders as did Iceland.
  Try and go in and ask yourself or ask the members of your PTA/committee and see if anyone knows someone in the shops/supermarkets and you could split up the task between you.
• You should have no trouble in selling advertising provided that you do it properly and as people suggested provide a business case for it. I was wondering how much time do you have?
  I also think it might be a good idea to have smaller prizes. I was also thinking could you have posters up saying this has been sponsored by?
• Thank you. Suggestions noted with enthusiasm. Will make sure everything is delivered in person by people using the service. I have 3 1/2 months until the event. So no gun to head but very concious that all the other schools in the area have big summer events at similar times.
  The school P.T.A. have agreed to fund a first prize of Ј100. As long as I have 2 other attention grabbing prizes by late April I can get them printed on the tickets along with the donor details. I will also dedicate the back page of the programme to thanking the local businesses by name for their donations. You're right, smaller prizes would also be much appreciated. I will re-visit the idea of a hamper.
  Thank you all!
• Ideally the best thing would have been to do is to organise it at a different time from the other schools rather then at the same time.
• You could have something indoor during the winter or get people in during the break if that is possible.
• If you hope to sell Ј1500 worth of tickets then the PTA can afford to buy the prises themselves. This is what we did in Primary school PTA. We would give Ј100 cash, buy a TV/IPOD and a mobile phone etc.
  We also did a M&S hamper. Ask in M&S if they have any boxes you can have to create a hamper, they might give you some freebies. Parents asked to donate only M&S food/toiletries. We usually had enough for 2 good hampers (there will be a mum who can wrap them up in cellophane to make them look good). Also put together 2 children hampers, one boy, one girl for children to win.