VSO's raffle winner bought ticket online

Howard Lake | 8 October 2002 | News

Hazel Sopp from Cambridge entered the draw online via a pop-up box on VSO’s homepage.

The winner of the £2,500 first prize in the VSO Summer Raffle 2002 entered the draw online via the VSO Web site. This was the first year that VSO, the international development charity that works through volunteers, had offered online ticket purchasing for its raffle.

Hazel generously donated £500 of her prize back to VSO.

The raffle raised £46,000 through the sale of paper raffle tickets, and £3,065 via the Internet on a secure online raffle platform provided by Charity Technology Trust.

Hazel explained: “I was browsing VSO’s Web site when I came across a pop-up box for the raffle and thought why not to have a go and support this new fundraising initiative. When I heard that I had won, I couldn’t believe it.”

Marina Barnes, Head of Community Fundraising at VSO, said: “More than 1,000 people came from the pop-up alone, which was an excellent response for the first year. We are looking forward to building on this in subsequent raffles, offering more prizes to players and hopefully increasing the amount of money raised.”

The raffle was promoted through www.vso.org.uk, supporter magazines, paper raffle tickets, www.charityraffles.org.uk and through Charity Technology Trust network of media partners, UK gay.com portal and My Offers.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.