Is it legal?
Yes. A prize draw structured the right way needs no lottery licence. A free entry route is built in, which is what keeps it a draw. Crowdfunder's prize draw mechanic is the simplest route to a compliant draw.
For NTIA members
You already have everything you need to run a prize draw.
A prize draw can raise £1,000s in as little as 7 days. You already have fantastic access, tickets, experiences and merch. Package up something special into a prize and create cashflow that complements your trading activity and doesn't rely on footfall.
Why this works
The setup is already in place.
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A relevant audience.
Regulars, your mailing list, your socials. They're who enters first and brings everyone else in.
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Prize inventory worth winning.
Money cannot buy access, VIP nights, lifetime entry, private hire, signed merch. Things people can't just go and buy.
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A network you can ask.
Artists, suppliers, brand partners. Most can be asked to donate a prize. Some will say yes.
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A reason to run one.
Refurb funds, new kit, marketing pots, an anniversary. Pick one and it's the campaign hook, or don't. It's treated as 100% unrestricted income for you to use however you wish.
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A platform that takes nothing.
Crowdfunder doesn't charge a platform fee on prize draws. The money raised goes straight to your account.
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A legal route.
A prize draw structured the right way needs no lottery licence, because a free entry route is built in. No complexity.
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A conversion rate paid ads can't match.
Around 1 in 7 visitors to a prize draw page enters it. Try getting that anywhere else.
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A list-building side effect.
Every entrant adds to your email database. You keep the list when the draw closes.
Prize ideas
The prize is already there. You can get creative with this.
From what you already do
- The headline night experience. Meet the artist in the green room, watch from the booth, four guests on the list.
- A lock-in. After doors close, a resident DJ plays a set for the winner and ten friends.
- A private party. Private hire on a quiet night, a curated DJ, drinks package, late licence.
- Yearly Hero. Two tickets for free to any show for a year.
- Lifetime member. Name on the wall. Skip the queue. One free drink on entry forever.
From your network
- Two tickets and a meet-and-greet at the artist's next show. Sorted through their tour manager.
- A worn-on-stage tour shirt or piece of kit, signed. Acts donate these to causes all the time.
- A signed setlist from the last headline night, plus a vinyl of the album they're touring.
- A pair of festival tickets and hospitality passes. Through a promoter contact.
- DJ kit from a brand partner. A controller, headphones, or audio gear from the brand whose kit is already on your decks.
Then ask them to share it. When you work with a celebrity or someone with influence, the people most likely to want their prize are their fans. That means their audience becomes yours for the duration of the draw, and that's where the magic can really happen.
Run it again
Same format, every time.
A prize draw can be a one-off stunt, but it's actually more than just that. Once you've run one, the second is faster, and easier. The page is built, the comms cadence is written, and the list it grew last time turns up to enter the next one. By the third or fourth, it's a routine cash line. And because you use a different prize each time, you can run them frequently without annoying your audience.
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The list compounds.
Every entrant joins your email list. The next draw goes out to a bigger audience.
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The production cost falls.
Page, comms cadence, email templates. Built once, reused every time.
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Monthly works if you've got the inventory. Otherwise quarterly is the sweet spot.
Venues with regular headline bookings can run them as a steady cash line. Four a year is plenty for most.
What it could raise
Have a play.
Take a guess based on the audience that you and your prize-giver have. Prize draw page views are driven by your channels, and amplified when your celebrity or famous prize donor sends people to the draw.
~£7,000 Raised per draw
~£28,000 Raised per year
~2,800 Entrants per year
Where these numbers come from
- 14% conversion
- Around 1 in 7 visitors to a prize draw page enters it. The rate well-run draws hit on Crowdfunder.
- £10 per entrant
- Based on a £5 ticket and an average of two tickets per buyer.
This provides a rough shape, not a forecast. Real numbers vary with prize strength, audience fit, and how hard you and your prize-giver push the draw.
At scale
What the same mechanic does at the top end.
Coldplay × Crisis & War Child
£520,000
raised in 13 days. 23,000 supporters. 150 pairs of tickets to an intimate gig with Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland.
Glastonbury × Médecins Sans Frontières
£929,480
raised for MSF's medical work in Gaza and Sudan. 25 pairs of (sold out) Glastonbury tickets as the prize.
This is the exact same mechanic on the same platform we would use together.
How to do one properly
Six things to get right.
01
The right prize.
Specific, possibly audacious, money-can't-buy, painted vividly on the page. The clearer the prize, the more people enter.
02
A page that converts.
Crowdfunder gives you the platform. The work is creating the headline, the page copy, prize photos, the FAQ. Done well, 1 in 7 page viewers convert to entrants.
03
A 7 to 14 day window.
Long enough for momentum to build, short enough to create urgency. A hard close date everyone knows about. And, importantly, quick enough for it not to be annoying for you.
04
A comms cadence.
Launch push, mid-point push, final 48 hours push. Across your email, your socials, and on the door. Plus whatever your prize donor (if you have one) will do as well.
05
A prize-giver who shares.
When the donor pushes the draw to their audience, the potential grows. This is where the magic really happens.
06
A proper close.
Pick the winner publicly. Announce it across your channels. Then nurture non-winners to make sure they buy tickets to whatever is next.
What it costs
Three ways to run one.
Run it yourself
Totally free.
Crowdfunder takes no platform fee on prize draws. You build the page, write the comms, and run the campaign yourself, from scratch.
Blueprint · Self-serve
£400 off for NTIA members.
A personalised roadmap that walks you through the whole process, built around your organisation, your audience and your prize. We write all your copy, all your comms and your (fully compliant) terms and conditions, and you run the campaign with the playbook in hand. £350 for NTIA members, down from £750.
Launchpad · Managed
20% off for NTIA members.
I run the prize draw with you. Prize, page, comms, launch, close. End to end. Custom quote per project, 20% off the standard rate for NTIA members.
NTIA member offer
Two ways in.
£400 off the Blueprint, for any NTIA member.
£350 instead of £750. Everything you need to pick up this idea and create a highly converting prize draw, to be built and run at your leisure. Available to any NTIA member who completes the quiz.
20% off a managed Launchpad.
I run the prize draw with you end to end. Prize, page, comms, launch, live monitoring, close. Quoted per project, at 20% off the standard rate for NTIA members.
About
9 years getting good at this.
I'm Si Walker. I founded The Prize Draw Company. Before that, I spent 9 years in UK crowdfunding. At Crowdfunder, I helped NTIA out and did some work with the Sub Club team ahead of their £100k-in-48-hours crowdfund. I also helped build the prize draw functionality on Crowdfunder, and stayed long enough to get a few £million raised through it.
Aside from that, I've helped raise over £22 million across hundreds of campaigns and I've even given a TED talk on the model. Most of my work sits in charity, social enterprise and the independent end of business.
At the moment I run every engagement myself. No juniors, no account handlers. Every NTIA member I work with talks to me, works with me, and gets the same delivery.
Get started
Could a prize draw work for your audience?
Answer some questions and get a personalised readiness score with one clear recommendation. NTIA members who complete the quiz can claim the member rate on the Blueprint. This will give you a really clear idea of whether a prize draw is suitable. Trust me, neither of us want you to put effort into a non-starter. Think of it like a discovery call that doesn't take 30 minutes and depend on calendar sync ups.
Find out in 5 minutesFive questions, answered
The bits people usually ask.
What does it cost?
Crowdfunder takes no platform fee on prize draws. Stripe (the payment processor that sits under Crowdfunder) will take ~2%. If you want my help, NTIA members get the Blueprint at £350 instead of £750, or 20% off the Launchpad.
How long does it take?
The draw is live for 7 to 14 days. A prize draw can, literally, be launched in 48 hours, but depending on your capacity you might want to plan in 4 weeks of prep before launch. Once you've run the first one, the second is faster.
What do I get just for taking the quiz?
Every NTIA member who completes the quiz gets a personalised readiness assessment. The member rate on the Blueprint, £350 instead of £750, is open to all NTIA members.
What if I don't have a big audience yet?
Most independent venues have more reach than they think once you count regulars, mailing list, social followers and the people on your prize-giver's audience. The right prize and a clear close window do most of the work.