Can I take my costs out of the winner's half?

No. Once you advertise a 50/50 the winner's share is the winner's, and deducting printing or fees from it means paying out less than you promised. Costs come out of your half, which is why this calculator subtracts them there and shows the two figures separately.

Does the split have to be 50/50?

Not necessarily, though the name sets an expectation and changing it after tickets are sold is not an option. Some draws run 60/40 in the winner's favour to shift more tickets, and some run it the other way when the cause is the draw. Whatever you choose, put it on the ticket before you sell one.

How many tickets do we need to sell?

That depends on what you are trying to raise rather than on the split, so it is a different sum — the fundraising goal calculator works backwards from a target to a ticket count and a price.

Are 50/50 raffles legal where I am?

It varies, and more than most people expect: some places need a licence or registration before you sell a single ticket, some restrict who may run one, and a few do not permit them at all. Check with your own state or local authority before you start. We deliberately do not give a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction answer, because a stale one would be worse than none.

Can Rafflebase run the draw itself?

Yes, and free for up to 100 participants. You still collect the ticket money your own way — we do not take payments — but the entrant list, the draw and the public proof all live here, which is the part a 50/50 usually has no record of.

50/50 calculator

What does a 50/50 actually raise?

A 50/50 raffle is a drawing in which every ticket sold goes into a single pot, and the holder of the drawn ticket takes half of it. The other half is kept by the organizing group. Because the prize is a share of ticket sales rather than a donated item, nothing has to be bought up front and the payout grows with every ticket sold.

Half the pot to the winner, half to your cause — but the half you keep is the one your costs come out of. Set your price, your expected sales and your split, and see all three numbers at once.

Your raffle

Ticket price

Tickets sold

Winner's share

%

Fifty is the classic split. Some draws run 60/40 either way.

Your costs

Printing, licence fees, card charges. These come out of your half, never the winner's.

Total pot

$2,500

Winner takes $1,250

You keep $1,250

If you sell more

The same ticket price and split, at other volumes.

Sold	Winner	You keep
100	$250	$250
250	$625	$625
500	$1,250	$1,250
1,000	$2,500	$2,500
2,500	$6,250	$6,250
5,000	$12,500	$12,500

The detail

Where the money actually goes

The arithmetic is three steps. Multiply the ticket price by the number of tickets sold to get the pot. Take the winner's percentage of the pot — half, in a straight 50/50 — and that is the payout. Whatever remains is your side of the split, and it is that side your costs come out of.

Worked through: at $5 a ticket with 500 tickets sold, the pot is $2,500. The winner takes $1,250 and your organization is left with $1,250. If the raffle cost $180 in printing, licence fees and card charges, you clear $1,070 — and the winner still takes the full $1,250 they were promised.

That last part is what people get wrong. Once a raffle is advertised as a 50/50, the winner's half is the winner's: funding the printing out of it means paying less than the ticket said you would. The calculator above subtracts costs from the organizer's side only, which is why it reports the gross half and the net separately.

One number the split does not tell you is how many tickets you need to sell, because that depends on what you are trying to raise rather than on how the pot divides. The fundraising goal calculator works backwards from a target to a ticket count and a price.

Where to go from here

Questions

Splitting the pot, specifically

Can I take my costs out of the winner's half?: No. Once you advertise a 50/50 the winner's share is the winner's, and deducting printing or fees from it means paying out less than you promised. Costs come out of your half, which is why this calculator subtracts them there and shows the two figures separately.
Does the split have to be 50/50?: Not necessarily, though the name sets an expectation and changing it after tickets are sold is not an option. Some draws run 60/40 in the winner's favour to shift more tickets, and some run it the other way when the cause is the draw. Whatever you choose, put it on the ticket before you sell one.
How many tickets do we need to sell?: That depends on what you are trying to raise rather than on the split, so it is a different sum — the fundraising goal calculator works backwards from a target to a ticket count and a price.
Are 50/50 raffles legal where I am?: It varies, and more than most people expect: some places need a licence or registration before you sell a single ticket, some restrict who may run one, and a few do not permit them at all. Check with your own state or local authority before you start. We deliberately do not give a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction answer, because a stale one would be worse than none.
Can Rafflebase run the draw itself?: Yes, and free for up to 100 participants. You still collect the ticket money your own way — we do not take payments — but the entrant list, the draw and the public proof all live here, which is the part a 50/50 usually has no record of.

More tools

What does a 50/50 actually raise?

Your raffle

If you sell more

Where the money actually goes

Where to go from here

Run a 50/50 raffle on Rafflebase

Who runs 50/50 draws

Splitting the pot, specifically

While you are planning

Fundraising goal calculator

Raffle ticket price calculator

Random name picker

Now run the raffle