How to Choose the Best Prize for Your TapKat Sweepstakes
Choosing a great prize for your TapKat sweepstakes is key to fundraising success. A great prize will excite your current donor base, reactivate lapsed donors, and even bring in new donors. The prize will capture their imagination and move them to make a donation to a great cause!
How do you know what makes a “great prize”? In general terms, a great prize is one that:
Is highly desirable
Appeals to the base you’re trying to draw in
Let’s look at this more closely.
Choose a TapKat Sweepstakes Prize that is Highly Desirable
A prize is “highly desirable” when it is difficult to obtain and lots of people want it. Note that “highly desirable” doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s super expensive — for instance, a trip to Hawaii isn’t as outrageously expensive as a hot new Corvette, but is still highly desirable!
Some examples of desirable prizes include:
Vehicles like camper vans, motorcycles and sports cars…
Shopping sprees to fun and exciting retailers like Coach, Saks Fifth Avenue, REI, Prana, Amazon, Wayfair, IKEA…
Experiences like a meet-and-greet with a celebrity, NASCAR racing experience, or a Masters Tournament golf package…
Trips like a weekend in Las Vegas, a cruise to the Caribbean, or a family vacation to Disneyland.
See where we’re headed with this? Items or experiences that most people would have on their bucket list are essentially the right way to go!
Choose a TapKat Sweepstakes Prize that Appeals to the Donor Base You Want to Attract
Now that you understand the general gist of prizes we encourage our nonprofits to consider, it’s time to add an additional layer of strategy to your prize search.
We always ask our nonprofits one important question: who are you trying to attract with this sweepstakes?
Some nonprofits are exclusively interested in appealing to their current donor or member base.
This makes the most sense for nonprofits that are clubs, or associations, who have a built-in donor base. A good example of this kind of nonprofit is Backcountry Discovery Routes (BDR), a nonprofit dedicated to preserving off-highway riding opportunities for adventure motorcycles.
BDR is a member-based organization that wanted to engage their current donor base in a new way with the sweepstakes. Because they know their base so well, they were able to choose a hyper-niche prize that they knew without a doubt would appeal to their membership base of backcountry motorcyclists. In 2021, they chose a Yamaha Ténéré 700 as a prize. About halfway through their sweepstakes they also threw in an accessories package to sweeten the deal.
It worked! They engaged their current base in a new way, and raised nearly $300,000 with the sweepstakes.
Some nonprofits want to expand their donor base by attracting new donors.
In this case, the goal is to reach as broad an audience as possible to build out the donor base. Bikes for the family, gift certificates, popular sports cars and vacation trips are good examples of items that have a wide range of fans. We also suggest offering a cash alternative for these prizes as there will be donors who are participating to support your cause but might not need a new set of bikes this year.
In 2021, The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Denver wanted to attract a broad range of new donors to their sweepstakes. They chose to give away a Mercedes Sprinter Camper Van, a highly desirable prize that many people across the country would love to win.
The sweepstakes was a great success, and raised $275,675 for the nonprofit. They did a great job selecting a sweet prize, and promoting it consistently throughout the duration of their fundraiser.
Choose a TapKat Sweepstakes Prize that Makes Sense for Your Nonprofit
When choosing your prize, it’s really fun to shoot for the moon — and then think practically about what your nonprofit will be able to accomplish with your first sweepstakes.
> Think about the size of your donor base. It’s inspiring to see how much money some nonprofits are raising when they give away a sports car, but that’s not necessarily the best prize for nonprofits that are smaller and working on building up their donor bases.
> Choose a prize that feels manageable. A Caribbean cruise on consignment will probably cost the nonprofit something like $5,000, while a sprinter van could cost closer to $90,000. Choose a prize that makes sense for the size of your nonprofit!
> Bonus points if your prize aligns with your mission. It’s absolutely NOT necessary that your prize lines up with your nonprofit mission, but if it makes sense, it can be a fun cherry on top!
We see car museums give away cars, bird watching clubs give away spotting scopes, and climbing clubs give away gift certificates to outdoor adventure gear stores. If the prize aligns harmoniously with your mission, it can be extra fun for your donors — but it is not necessary in order to have a successful sweepstakes!
If you need help generating prize ideas, take a look at the list below.
Want to see some of the prizes our nonprofits are currently showcasing in their sweepstakes? Visit www.TapKat.win for more ideas, or browse through our travel partner Charity Ace’s website.
Acquire your TapKat Sweepstakes Prize on Consignment
At TapKat, we highly encourage our nonprofit clients to get a prize on consignment. Not only does this eliminate financial risk for your nonprofit, but it also means no upfront costs, and potentially more flexibility for your winner. Plus, when you work with a prize provider to acquire a prize on consignment, you’re actively building a relationship with company that wants to support your mission — and those relationships come in handy!
We wrote an entire blog post on what it means to get a prize on consignment, and how to do it.
Now you’re armed with plenty of ideas and resources for selecting the right prize for your TapKat sweepstakes. Ready to get started with your sweepstakes site? It’s easy — click here!
—
