Kids Ministry Idea: Have raffles and giveaways.
We’re making a big deal about a movie gift card raffle in Sunday School. Brooklyn, NY. Circa 2017.
Have raffles and giveaways. And don’t scrimp on the prizes! (Sorry to say it, but hugs and high fives won’t cut it with this!) If you’re looking to increase excitement and engagement, raffles are a great way to do that. If you’re looking to increase attendance and reach new kids with your kids program, raffles are a great way to do that. If you’re looking to get rid of old junk from the Kids Min storage closet, this is NOT a great way to do that.
3 SUPER SUGGESTIONS:
Procure some really cool prizes. What’s popular right now? What’s the newest, hottest, gotta-have-it-est toy out on the market? THAT’S the thing you want to get. We did LOTS of raffles in Sunday School over the years. We raffled movie gift cards to see the latest Marvel movie in theaters (covering popcorn too, of course). We raffled XBox 360’s when they were a thing. We raffled Supersoaker water guns at the start of every summer. We raffled skateboards. And scooters. And when Sprayground backpacks came out, we got on that trend and raffled off a bunch of those, too. Find out what kids are into and get those things.
Make an extra big raffle box. We’re going for an entire experience here with this. It’s one thing to enter a raffle and know that your name is floating around somewhere in the mysterious unseen raffle-realm…but it’s another thing to actually see your piece of paper, the very one you wrote on, get tossed around in the big raffle box. Now that is something to get excited about. Anything visual attracts more interest, and that’s a good thing.
Build up the moment of choosing a winner. On this day, as seen pictured above, we went as far as to dump the entire contents of the raffle box out onto the floor. We scattered the papers around and whilst covering our eyes, dramatically picked up the winning paper and called out their name. It was a little bit EXTRA and that’s what makes it so fun. I would also suggest adding some type of dramatic picking music. Here, you can use mine: Spotify Playlist - DRAMATIC PICKING MUSIC.
BONUS STUFF:
Raffles aren’t just about WHAT you’re promoting, it is also very much about HOW you’re promoting it. You might have the best prizes but if nobody knows about them, you’re missing out on it’s full potential (and wasting money, too). Consider investing some time and money into a few promotional tools. Make up some graphics and put up some posters in the neighborhood. Run a Facebook ad perhaps. Make it shareable and get people talking about it.
If you’re running kids programs outside in the community, raffles are a super way to generate interest and draw people to your event. Plus, they can be used as a helpful tool to generate a roster so you can follow up and keep the connection that you’re making on that day. Have a sign up table with some pencils, papers and that trusty massive raffle box we just talked about.
Lastly, Pro Tip to mention here, wait until the END of the program to raffle off the very last prize. You can raffle things off throughout the program for sure, but always save at least one prize, the biggest and the bestest one, for the very end.
