← All Articles · 2026-02-13

50/50 Raffles Explained: Rules, Setup, and Profit Potential

The 50/50 raffle is one of the simplest fundraiser formats in existence: ticket buyers contribute to a shared pot, half the pot goes to your cause, and half goes to a randomly drawn winner. Its simplicity is exactly why it remains popular at everything from youth sporting events to large galas.

How the Math Works

If 200 tickets sell at $5 each, the pot is $1,000. The winner takes $500, and your organization keeps $500 — a 50% margin with essentially no product cost, aside from printed tickets or a simple digital ticketing tool. Because there's no inventory and minimal setup cost, 50/50 raffles tend to have one of the highest profit margins of any fundraiser format relative to effort.

Setup Essentials

You'll need a way to sell and track tickets (numbered paper tickets work, though digital ticketing apps reduce the risk of lost stubs), a clear, visible drawing process so the result feels trustworthy, and — importantly — confirmation that a 50/50 raffle is permitted under your local gaming and raffle laws, since this format is regulated similarly to other games of chance in many jurisdictions.

What Drives Higher Sales

The size of the pot itself is part of the appeal — ticket sales tend to accelerate as the visible total grows, since a bigger prize attracts more buyers, which grows the prize further. Selling tickets throughout an existing event (a game, a dinner, a community gathering) rather than as a standalone effort tends to outperform a 50/50 raffle run in isolation, since it piggybacks on an audience that's already gathered.

Comparing It to Other Formats

A 50/50 raffle is best suited to smaller, faster fundraising needs rather than large capital goals, since the total pot is limited by how many tickets you can realistically sell in a single sitting. For larger goals, it often works best as one component of a bigger event rather than the sole fundraiser.

See how a 50/50 raffle stacks up against other raffle and event formats for your specific goal using our Fundraising Goal Calculator.