What are Tricky Tray Fundraisers? Your Complete Guide

4/10/2024

What is a Tricky Tray Auction and How Does it Work?

A tricky tray is like a combination of a silent auction and raffle. It’s also commonly referred to as a basket raffle, penny social, brown bag auction, Chinese auction, or basket social dark horse.

During a tricky tray fundraiser, organizers display a variety of prizes alongside containers like jars, baskets, envelopes, or hats. Then, instead of bidding in a traditional silent auction, participants drop tickets into their desired item’s associated container. 

How do you run a tricky tray fundraiser?

Typically, fundraiser attendees receive tickets as part of the event admission fee. For example, you might charge $20 for entry, which would include a sheet of tickets. As an alternative, you can sell additional tickets before your tricky tray either in person or through a virtual sales fundraiser. This brings us to the brilliant aspect of these fundraisers. 

Pro tip: Be sure to have the capacity to sell more sheet tickets on-site!

Can You Run Tricky Tray Fundraisers Online? 

Absolutely! In fact, a great way to increase the overall money raised for your cause is by adding a virtual element to your live fundraiser. Using a fundraising platform, you can create a raffle website populated with a variety of prizes. Virtual guests have the option to purchase raffle tickets for any prizes they wish to bid on in your tricky tray event. You can even set up bundled tickets at a reduced price. To make your online tricky tray more exciting, try including virtual-only prize baskets and displaying a fundraising thermometer!.

A few of the ways Eventgroove makes running an online raffle easy:

• Automatically tracks who has bid on what item
• Provides real-time data on money raised
• Enables simple, fast social sharing
• Offers peer-to-peer fundraising so supporters can sell tricky tray raffle tickets for your fundraiser
• Can automatically draw winners, or you can choose to draw them by hand

How to Raise More with Tricky Tray Events

As soon as attendees see your fantastic prizes, they’ll use up their penny auction tickets in a flash. To make the most of that, follow these steps:

• Be sure to have extra tricky tray tickets available for purchase onsite.
• Consider introducing colored sheet tickets (also known as Chinese auction tickets) that correlate with the type of prizes people are trying to win. For instance, let’s say you have prizes across various values. In this case, white tickets could be used to enter to win any item valued at $50 or less, while people would have to use red tickets for prizes worth $200-$300. To account for the higher-value prizes, a sheet of red tickets would sell for a bit more than white (say $15 instead of $5).

Pro tip: Although Venmo is convenient, a fundraising platform can process sales online or in person. In addition, it can track sales and donor data for you, making bookkeeping and gathering information much more manageable.

What Sort of Fundraisers are Ideal for Tricky Trays?

Tricky tray events are ideal for churches, schools, sports teams, or any organization that wants to encourage participation from everyone!  The reason for this is that tickets offer more bang for the buck and, as far as winning goes, provide better odds.

Here’s why—a standard tricky tray raffle ticket sheet has 25 individual tickets. Thus, participants have 25 opportunities to win one item or multiple prizes. By offering more chances to win at various prices, you’re making your fundraiser more accessible. Plus, like most games of chance, tricky trays are fun. They keep the excitement high and level the playing field for winning prizes. After all, entering to win multiple prizes increases the chances of having a winning number! Hold drawings and introduce new items throughout the penny social gift auction to create a day-of buzz. 

Ready to Add a Tricky Tray to Your Fundraiser? 

Eventgroove is your source for all things raffle! We offer quick order turnaround and a customer satisfaction guarantee. Order tricky tray tickets for your fundraiser now!