We struggle to maintain enough volunteer capacity to sell the tickets, so we haven't been able to track sales by individual although we have wanted to. We do know that we usually do about a 1:3 ratio for ticket sales versus product offered. At that horrible return, we have put many of the specialized items on eBay for a better shot at maximizing the product donations.
While we continue to want to gain members, raising money comes in a close second in terms of priorities. With money we can invest in membership acquisition and retention, so really money wins out. Given our lack of volunteers, we're also to a point where we're going to need to hire someone to handle some of the mundane tasks of running the association. That means fundraising becomes more important.
The fall ride sponsored by 4 Wheel Parts was only the second time where we made more money in the raffle than the value of the prizes given away (the first time was the winch raffle at Off-Road Expo 2007). It suceeded, so it's probably a model we'll follow for the free events. The EJS raffle will always be $1 per ticket, and we'll probably continue giving away $20,000 in prizes for $5,000 in income. Maybe this year, we'll open that up to online ticket sales. The Summer Convention in 2008 will probably have a single raffle ticket included in the price of registration similar to EJS registration.
The idea of a tiered raffle with different prize categories for different ticket values has been brought up a few times. It's a good idea. Although it sounds like something simple, we have difficulty implementing our current strategies (again, lack of volunteers), so it's probably out until we have enough bodies to do it right.
If even 7% of the recreational 4x4 users in the state joined U4WDA and BRC, we wouldn't be discussing any of this. We'd be focused on wheeling while our paid staff took care of everything. Until then, we have to rely on the 1.3% that we currently get.
