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Tipsy Tombola


I’m going to blow my own trumpet here and declare myself as a tombola expert. If you have a selection of crappy prizes that you want to palm off on others in the name of charity, I’m your girl. I know exactly the ratio of non-winning to winning tickets that you need and how to work out how much your tombola will raise. I can’t give you a formula for this – it’s all in my head. I need to have the cloakroom tickets in my hands. I’m the cloakroom ticket whisperer.


 Of course, this comes from years of experience. And I also learned very early on that if you are in a public arena, you’re best off not offering an alcoholic prize.  If you’re at an Old Tyme Teadance go ahead and ply the over 60s with gin and whisky – that demographic are mad for it. But if there are going to be children present – don’t do it. It means that you can’t sell tickets to kids and the under 10s love a tombola so you’re cutting off your main market. Best off pandering to this age group with prizes of sweets and plastic tat because they’ll keep coming back for another go.

This simple theory can be illustrated nicely with an incident that took place at Wootton Fitzpaine in 1965. The village school headmistress and her husband organised a jumble sale and bingo session in the village hall. One of the stalls was giving away prizes of miniature bottles of spirits. Reports soon followed that young boys were swigging away at these bottles outside of the hall.  One nine year old is reported to have said:
“I had some gin and it tasted horrible”


While another goody-two-shoes added
“I saw some boys drinking whisky and rum but I gave mine to my mother.”

The headmistress’ husband naively responded:
“I only handed them over on the definite assurance that they were intended for parents.” Bless him. “I shall make certain that this does not happen again” he concluded.

You see, there’s more to this tombola lark than you’d think.

Instagram: @Woodswarechinaservinghatch

Click here to download my thoughts on the fundraising methods of Lilian Baylis

Are you a fundraiser in a provincial town or village - read Anna Peel's musings on the subject

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