By: Farrah
Dream Home Raffle to Raise Money For School – Too Rich for My Blood
When I saw the ad in the SF Chronicle for the 1.4 million dollar “Dream House”
being raffled off in Santa Cruz to raise money for the Mount Madonna School, I couldn’t wait to get home and “play the numbers.” My bubble burst when I looked it up online and got the full story – each raffle ticket costs $150. WTH???! You mean to tell me you have to already be ballin for this chance to be even more ballin? Who but rich (or stupid) folks are willing to throw away pay $150 for the slight chance of winning an expensive home? Basically this is like going to an expensive political fundraiser where the organizers are giving away a new car to one of the attendees.
Although I generally support the initiatives to raise money for education, as a former non-profit employee, I never got used to the glitzy, expensive fundraisers that non-profits and community organizations often hold that clash with the communities that they serve. It always bothered me just a bit that I wouldn’t have been able to afford a ticket to go to my own organization’s annual banquet. I always wondered why organizations didn’t just solicit a greater number of donations from people of all means instead of soliciting large donations from a relatively small group.
Anyhow, if you can afford the ticket, the money goes to a good cause. And who knows, you might be able to increase your portfolio.
BTW, this is very similar to the dream home raffle that we reported on back in December that benefited Community Action Marin.
Picture courtesy of Dream House Raffle
Filed under: events, farrah wilder, news, random, real estate , Best of What's Around, events, farrah, news, random, real estate, santa cruz
Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
Schtuffers – I took the bait and purchased 1 ticket – it was a good cause and i plan on winning the house. When I win the house, I’ll throw a party there before I sell it!
Good luck! I wanna come to that party!
You ask, “Who but rich (or stupid) folks are willing to throw away pay (sic) $150 for the slight chance of winning an expensive home?”. And you don’t understand glitzy fundraising schemes. In the end, however, those high-dollar, glitzy schemes are the ones that have proven to work. Sure, you can have hundreds of bake sales and scores of individual fund raising events for a particular cause but running all of them takes all kinds of manpower, effort and results in a low return on investment. If you’ve ever been in charge of raising thousands of dollars it’s easy to see that organizing a few events with high return beats many events with low return. It’s also far easier on your volunteers.
Please don’t disparage the sponsor and prize offerer, the volunteers who give their time and those who donate simply because you feel the price is high for you. You are still free to donate to the Mount Madonna School as an individual in any way you wish.