Village Fete Charity Raffle

How do I go about holding a raffle to support the fundraising efforts?

Published: 08 April 2016

Q:  I run a village pub and the local residents are considering holding a village fete as part of the Queen’s birthday celebrations, with all funds raised being donated to a local charity.  I would like to support the fundraising efforts by providing a raffle.  Are there any restrictions? 

A:  The use of raffles for charitable purposes used to be restricted to non-commercial events, such as the village fete you have proposed.  However, from the 6th April 2016 raffles can be used to raise charitable funds if they are held as an incidental part of a larger event, whether or not the event itself is commercial or not. 

The only restrictions to your raffle are that a maximum of £500 can be spent on the prizes, although additional prizes can be donated and you may not deduct more than £100 from the proceeds to cover expenses, such as the costs of tickets. 

All raffle tickets must be sold at the event and there can be no rollover of prizes from one event to another.  There is also no longer a requirement to draw the winning ticket at the event itself, which will enable other raffle/lottery style games such as balloon races.