A 50/50 raffle is the rare fundraiser that almost runs itself. Sell tickets, draw a winner, split the pot — half goes to the winner, half stays with your organization. There's no inventory to order, no product to deliver, and the prize funds itself out of ticket sales. For a little league, a booster club, or a parent group looking for a low-effort revenue stream at an event you're already hosting, it's hard to beat.
But how you run it matters more than most volunteers expect. The difference between a roll of paper tickets and a digital 50/50 isn't just convenience at the table — it shows up in how much you raise, how much you keep, and whether the numbers actually reconcile when the night is over. This post walks through how the 50/50 works, the honest trade-offs between paper and digital, and a step-by-step plan for running one at a game.
How a 50/50 raffle works
The mechanics are simple, which is most of the appeal.
- You sell tickets during an event — usually a game, tournament, or gathering — for a set price (often something like $5 for one, $20 for five).
- Every dollar goes into a single pot. You track the running total as sales come in.
- At a set time — typically the end of the third quarter, between games, or at intermission — you stop selling and draw a winning ticket.
- The pot is split in half. The winner takes one half; your organization keeps the other.
That's it. Because the prize scales with sales, you're never on the hook for a fixed payout. A slow night means a smaller pot and a smaller prize, but your organization always keeps its half. A big crowd means a bigger pot, a more exciting prize, and more for your programs.
A note on rules and legality
Raffles are a form of gaming, and most states regulate them. Many require a nonprofit to register or hold a license before selling raffle tickets, and some restrict who can sell, how proceeds must be used, or whether tickets can be sold online versus only in person. Check your state's charitable gaming rules before you run one. This is not legal advice — it's a reminder that a five-minute check with your state's gaming or attorney general's office is part of doing this right. The good news: 50/50s are one of the most commonly permitted raffle formats for community organizations.
The case for paper tickets
Paper isn't wrong. For decades it's been the default, and it has real advantages worth naming honestly.
- No technology required. A roll of double tickets and a cash box work in a parking lot with no signal.
- Familiar. Everyone understands tearing a ticket in half and dropping one stub in a bucket.
- Low upfront cost. A roll of tickets costs a few dollars.
Where paper falls apart is everything that happens around the sale.
The hidden costs of paper
Reconciliation is a guessing game. At the end of the night, you count the cash and hope it matches the tickets sold. But cash gets miscounted, a volunteer makes change wrong, a few bills end up in the wrong pocket, and there's no independent record of what should be there. The gap between "cash counted" and "cash collected" is exactly where trust quietly erodes in a volunteer organization.
Your reach stops at arm's length. Paper tickets only sell to people physically standing in front of the seller, holding cash. The grandparent watching from home, the parent who only brought a card, the alumnus who'd happily chip in — none of them can participate.
The draw is manual and disputable. Someone has to physically mix the stubs and pull one. If a number is misread or a stub is illegible, you've got an awkward moment in front of a crowd.
Cash handling is a liability. A box of cash moving from a table to a car to a bank deposit, often counted by one person with no second set of eyes, is a governance risk. It's also a target.
The case for digital 50/50
A digital 50/50 keeps the same simple game and fixes the operational seams around it. Buyers pay by card or phone, the system tracks the pot in real time, and tickets are issued electronically.
Reconciliation is automatic. Every ticket sold is a recorded transaction tied to a buyer and a timestamp. The pot total is the sum of those transactions — not a hand count that might be off by $40. When the night ends, your records already balance.
Your reach extends past the bleachers. If your state permits online raffle sales, a shareable link lets families pull in relatives and friends who aren't at the game. The away grandparent and the card-only parent are now buyers. More participants means a bigger pot, which means a more exciting prize, which drives even more sales — a loop paper can't start.
The math is faster and bigger. Most buyers don't carry cash, and the ones who do are limited by what's in their wallet. A card reader removes the ceiling. "Five for $20" is an easy upsell when nobody's counting out bills.
The draw is clean and credible. A digital system can select the winner with no human handling of stubs and no disputes about whose number came up.
Cash risk drops to near zero. Less cash on the table means less to count, less to lose, and less to deposit.
This is the kind of thing HometownLift is built to handle — a digital 50/50 runs alongside your other revenue streams in one dashboard, so the pot, the buyers, and the payout all live in the same place as your dues, sponsors, and concessions instead of in a separate app you have to reconcile by hand.
Where digital needs a plan
Be honest about the trade-offs:
- You need connectivity. A dead zone in the gym is a problem. Scout your signal ahead of time, and have a phone-hotspot backup.
- There's a processing fee. Card payments cost something. Look for a setup where the small fee can be carried by the buyer at checkout rather than skimmed off your half of the pot — that's the difference between keeping most of your proceeds and donating a slice to a processor.
- Some buyers still want paper. Keep a small cash option available for the holdouts, and record those sales into the same system so your totals stay unified.
Running a 50/50 at a game: a step-by-step playbook
Here's a concrete plan you can hand to a volunteer.
Before the event
- Confirm you're legal. Verify your state's raffle rules and that any required registration is in place.
- Set your pricing tiers. A single price plus a discounted bundle (e.g., $5 each or $20 for five) reliably lifts the average sale.
- Decide the draw time and announce it. "Winner drawn at the end of the third quarter" creates urgency and a natural last-call surge.
- Pick your sellers. Two to four people with phones or a tablet, stationed where foot traffic concentrates — the entrance, the concession line, the bleacher aisles.
- Prepare signage. A clear sign with the price, the pot-grows-as-you-buy concept, the draw time, and a QR code if you're selling digitally.
During the event
- Work the lines. The concession and entrance lines are captive audiences. That's where the sales are.
- Call out the pot. Periodically announce the running total over the PA: "The pot's at $340 and growing — get your tickets before the third quarter!" A visible, rising number is the single best sales tool you have.
- Make the last call loud. Right before you stop selling, announce it twice. The final surge is often the biggest.
The draw and after
- Stop sales and lock the total. With a digital system, the pot is final the moment you close sales.
- Draw and announce the winner clearly, with the winning number and the prize amount.
- Pay out promptly and according to your rules. Document who won and how the payout was made.
- Record the result. Your organization's half should land in your books with the same clarity as every other transaction — total raised, payout, net to programs.
So which should you choose?
If you're running a one-off in a remote field with no signal and a handful of cash-carrying regulars, a paper roll is fine. For nearly everyone else, digital wins on the three things that actually matter: you raise more (bigger reach, no cash ceiling), you keep more (buyer-paid fees, no skim), and the numbers reconcile themselves (every sale recorded, no hand-count gaps).
The 50/50 is one of the easiest fundraisers to start and one of the easiest to run sloppily. Treat it like the operational task it is — with clean records and broad reach — and it becomes a dependable line item rather than a once-a-season scramble.
If you want to see what a digital 50/50 looks like running alongside the rest of your operations, tell us about your organization and request access.