How do I decide what to charge per ticket?

Work backwards from your supporters, not your goal. A price that needs 400 buyers from a mailing list of 200 people is the wrong price no matter how good the target looks. Try a few prices in the table above and pick the first one whose buyer count is a number you could actually reach — then check the prize is worth that much to them.

Should I count the prize as a cost?

Only if you are paying for it. A donated prize costs you nothing and should be left out. If you bought the prize, or you are covering printing, licensing or venue costs out of the proceeds, put the total in "costs to cover" so the calculator raises enough to clear them and still hit your goal.

What counts as a participant on Rafflebase?

A participant is a person, not a ticket. Someone who buys ten tickets is one participant with ten entries, and their odds are ten times better. That is why this calculator reports both numbers — the free tier is capped at 100 participants, and how many tickets each of them buys does not change that.

Does a higher ticket price always raise more?

No. Past a certain point a higher price just means fewer buyers, and fewer buyers means less money and a smaller crowd at the draw. Most small fundraisers do better selling more tickets cheaply than fewer expensively, because the people who buy are the people who show up.

Is this calculator free?

Yes, and it needs no account. Running the raffle itself is free too, for up to 100 participants — a one-time $25 per raffle removes the cap and adds CSV export, multiple winners, redraws, payment reminders and new signup alerts.

Fundraising calculator

How many tickets do you need to sell?

A raffle fundraising calculator works backwards from the amount you want to raise to the number of tickets you need to sell and the number of people who need to buy them. Those are two different figures: one supporter buying five tickets counts as five entries but only one participant.

Set your target, your ticket price and anything the raffle has to pay for. The calculator works backwards to the number of tickets — and the number of people — you need. Nothing is sent anywhere; the maths runs in your browser.

Your raffle

Fundraising goal

What you want to clear after costs.

Costs to cover

Prize, printing, licence fees. Leave at 0 if the prize was donated.

Ticket price

Tickets per person

How many you expect a typical supporter to buy.

Tickets to sell

500

People needed 250

Total to raise $5,000

250 participants is past the free cap of 100. The one-time $25 upgrade removes it.

At other ticket prices

Pick the first row whose people count you could actually reach.

Price	Tickets	People
$2	2,500	1,250
$5	1,000	500
$10	500	250
$20	250	125
$25	200	100
$50	100	50
$100	50	25

The detail

Why the number of people matters more than the number of tickets

The sum itself is short. Add what you want to clear to whatever the raffle has to pay for, and that is your gross target. Divide it by your ticket price and you have the number of tickets. Divide that by however many tickets a typical supporter buys and you have the number of people you need to reach.

It is the last figure that decides whether a plan is realistic. A $5,000 goal at $10 a ticket needs 500 tickets, which sounds manageable until you notice that at two tickets each it means finding 250 buyers. If your mailing list has 200 people on it, the price is wrong — not the goal.

Raising the ticket price fixes the buyer count faster than anything else, because both figures move at once: at $25 a ticket the same $5,000 needs 200 tickets and 100 buyers. The limit is what your supporters will actually pay for a chance at the prize, which is why the table above is worth reading downwards before you commit to a number.

The buyer count is also the figure Rafflebase bills on. The free tier is capped at 100 participants, not 100 entries, so a raffle where a hundred people buy ten tickets each is still free to run.

Where to go from here

Questions

Pricing a raffle, specifically

How do I decide what to charge per ticket?: Work backwards from your supporters, not your goal. A price that needs 400 buyers from a mailing list of 200 people is the wrong price no matter how good the target looks. Try a few prices in the table above and pick the first one whose buyer count is a number you could actually reach — then check the prize is worth that much to them.
Should I count the prize as a cost?: Only if you are paying for it. A donated prize costs you nothing and should be left out. If you bought the prize, or you are covering printing, licensing or venue costs out of the proceeds, put the total in "costs to cover" so the calculator raises enough to clear them and still hit your goal.
What counts as a participant on Rafflebase?: A participant is a person, not a ticket. Someone who buys ten tickets is one participant with ten entries, and their odds are ten times better. That is why this calculator reports both numbers — the free tier is capped at 100 participants, and how many tickets each of them buys does not change that.
Does a higher ticket price always raise more?: No. Past a certain point a higher price just means fewer buyers, and fewer buyers means less money and a smaller crowd at the draw. Most small fundraisers do better selling more tickets cheaply than fewer expensively, because the people who buy are the people who show up.
Is this calculator free?: Yes, and it needs no account. Running the raffle itself is free too, for up to 100 participants — a one-time $25 per raffle removes the cap and adds CSV export, multiple winners, redraws, payment reminders and new signup alerts.

More tools

How many tickets do you need to sell?

Your raffle

At other ticket prices

Why the number of people matters more than the number of tickets

Where to go from here

Rafflebase for fundraising

Run a 50/50 raffle

Pricing a raffle, specifically

While you are planning

Raffle ticket price calculator

Random name picker

50/50 raffle calculator

Now run the raffle