Raffle prizes from corporate companies

[Kkinn]

Has anyone ever contacted corporate companies (uk based) such as Sainsbury’s, smyths, thorntons about raffle prize donations for a school fare and been successful? If so how did it go?

Our local Tesco has a charity coordinator who has a budget for this type of thing, I’d assume other companies would be the same. It’s also worth asking local independents too, such as hairdressers/beauty places. Many have, or had dc at the school and like to offer a treatment voucher as a prize to support. Good luck!

I am a trustee of a small charity that gives Christmas presents to children.

In the current climate getting any prizes is really tough. Thortons and Smyths both support their own charity partners and have said no.

I've had some luck with tescos and Morrisons, by going to specific shops, asking for their community champion and being really clear on what would help. That's then 50/50 on if they can support.

A lot of big companies prefer one off contributions to their own preferred charity.

Some years ago I was a trustee of a school based charity and one of my roles was getting prizes.

Some companies have specific charities they support, some like Tesco have a local budget and were great continued support. I found local /independent companies were the most likely to support (often in return for some free publicity). We often would do a larger first prize by grouping a few prizes together (eg the local independent cinema and pizzeria or one year i got a local family to donate a free weekend in their holiday cottage then contacted a couple of local activities and that was our first prize).

Also asked the parents at the school and local churches usually would ask for us.

Local payed for museums, soft play, family farms are always good. I imagine though its harder to get prizes donated these days.

There are lots - usually Grants databases will list them. Easier if you are a registered charity rather than a "Friends of..."

You're normally best approaching your local one rather than centrally. Morrisons often has a community employee who will help.
Ours is really helpful - we give a list when it's coming up to Christmas dinner time and they discuss what's the best value for us to get, and often give discounts on other things.

Local businesses run by parents or those who the parents are clients so it’s free advertising. I give a voucher to my kids old school to get my logo on their posters etc

I used to help organise raffle prizes for our pta, and it was quite hard work. A lot of companies now have chosen charities they support, and won’t donate to local raffles. After a while, you did learn who locally woukd donate.

We used to contact:
local leisure centre
cinema
soft play centres
local zoos and farms
etc