Bonus prizes
Extra prizes that join the draw once your ticket sales reach an amount you set.
A bonus prize is a prize that only joins the draw once your raffle's paid ticket sales reach an amount you set. It sits on your raffle page from day one, locked, showing what it takes to unlock it. When sales get there, it unlocks and is drawn alongside your other prizes. If sales close before then, it's taken out of the draw.
It gives your supporters a goal they can see, and gives you something new to post about in the quiet middle of a raffle. It's also a low-risk way to add prizes you're not sure you can justify yet: if sales reach them they're drawn, and if not, nothing is lost.
This is optional, and every raffle still needs at least one guaranteed prize. (Bonus prizes aren't available on 50/50 raffles, where the prizes come from the cash-pot splits.)
Set one up
On the Prizes step, add a prize as usual, or open an existing one with the pencil.
In the prize window, fill in Unlocks at ($ in ticket sales) with a whole-dollar amount. Leave it blank and the prize is guaranteed, as it always has been. The field's note sums it up: "Optional. Leave blank for a guaranteed prize. A bonus prize joins the draw once paid ticket sales reach this amount. Online sales, offline sales you record and logged paper sales all count. If sales close before then, it is removed from the draw."
Back in your prize list, the Draw column tags each bonus prize with its amount, for example Bonus · $400. Once it unlocks, the tag changes to Bonus · unlocked.
Press Save & Continue at the bottom of the step. As with any prize, nothing is saved until you do.
Here's the kind of raffle bonus prizes were built for: a meat tray raffle where every $400 in sales adds another tray.
| Prize | Unlocks at |
|---|---|
| $100 meat tray | Guaranteed (left blank) |
| $100 meat tray | $400 |
| $100 meat tray | $800 |
| $100 meat tray | $1,200 |
📷 Screenshot: prize-modal-bonus-unlock.png
The prize window with Unlocks at ($ in ticket sales) filled in, and the prize list behind it showing a Bonus · $400 tag in the Draw column. Hand me the file named prize-modal-bonus-unlock.png and I'll place it at /img/prize-modal-bonus-unlock.png.
What counts toward the amount
Every paid sale counts: online sales, offline sales you record in the Ticket Booth, and paper sales you log on a hybrid raffle. A few details worth knowing:
- It's what buyers actually paid. A discounted ticket pack counts at its pack price, not at the single-ticket price.
- Paper sales count when you log them, not when the stub changes hands. If you're close to an unlock, logging the day's paper sales promptly is what tips it over.
- Cancelled and refunded orders don't count toward the total.
- An unlock is for keeps. Once a bonus prize has unlocked, cancelling or refunding an order later never locks it again. Your supporters were told it unlocked, so it stays in the draw.
RaffleLink doesn't send an email when a bonus prize unlocks. If you want your supporters to know (and it's a great reason to post), tell them yourself.
The rules
- At least one prize must be guaranteed. A raffle can't be made entirely of bonus prizes (or of bonus and early bird prizes). Otherwise saving is blocked with: "Add at least one guaranteed main draw prize. Bonus prizes only join the draw once ticket sales reach their unlock amount."
- Amounts go up as you go down the list. Your first bonus prize has the lowest unlock amount, the next one higher, and so on. If two are out of order you'll see "Bonus prize unlock amounts must increase down the prize list…", naming the position that's out of step. (If you use Sort by value in QLD, VIC or WA, check your bonus prizes are still in rising order afterwards.)
- A bonus prize can't also be an early bird prize. Early bird prizes are drawn before sales finish, so there's no way to know in time whether they'd have unlocked: "A prize cannot be both an early bird prize and a bonus prize: early bird prizes are drawn before sales finish."
- Every bonus prize must be reachable. The unlock amount can't be more than your raffle would take if every ticket sold at your single ticket price (ticket capacity × ticket price). RaffleLink checks this when you save your prizes, once your capacity and price are set, and again when you activate. If one is out of reach you'll see something like "…unlocks at $6,000 in ticket sales, but this raffle can only take $5,000 at full price. Lower the unlock amount or raise the ticket capacity."
Selling discounted packs? Leave some headroom
The reachability check uses the full single-ticket price. If you sell packs at a discount, even a complete sell-out takes in less than that, so a bonus prize set right at the top of the range may never unlock.
What your ticket buyers see
On your raffle page, locked bonus prizes sit in their own Bonus Prizes section below the prizes already in the draw, under the note "Each bonus prize joins the draw once ticket sales reach its unlock amount. Bonus prizes still locked when sales close are not drawn." Each one carries an Unlocks at $800 in ticket sales tag, and a small progress track shows how many have unlocked so far, such as 1 of 3 unlocked.
When a bonus prize unlocks, it moves up into the main prize list with a Bonus prize unlocked badge.
A few things stay deliberately quiet:
- Your prize total only counts prizes in the draw today. The total on your raffle page and in raffle listings leaves locked bonus prizes out, so you're never advertising a pool you haven't reached.
- The progress track counts prizes, not dollars. Your raffle page still never shows how much you've raised. Bear in mind, though, that an unlocked bonus prize does tell the world your sales have passed its amount, so set your amounts with that in mind if you'd rather keep your totals to yourself.
- The event screen leaves locked bonus prizes off. A bonus prize joins the prize showcase and the prize pool on the big screen once it unlocks.
📷 Screenshot: raffle-page-bonus-prizes.png
A public raffle page showing the Bonus Prizes section: two locked prizes with their Unlocks at… tags and the 1 of 3 unlocked track, and an unlocked bonus prize in the main list with its Bonus prize unlocked badge. Hand me the file named raffle-page-bonus-prizes.png and I'll place it at /img/raffle-page-bonus-prizes.png.
When sales close
When your raffle closes, for whatever reason (the end date, the draw time, a sell-out, or you choosing Close now), RaffleLink counts the final sale first, then takes any bonus prize that's still locked out of the raffle. That happens before the draw, so the draw only ever sees prizes that are genuinely in it.
- Unlocked bonus prizes are drawn like any other prize, in the order you listed them. Nothing about running the draw changes.
- A sponsor linked to a removed prize isn't lost. They stay on your raffle as a sponsor; only the Sponsored Prize link to that prize goes.
- Reopening doesn't bring removed prizes back. If you reopen a closed raffle and want them back, add them again on the Prizes step.
Changing bonus prizes once you're live
You can add a bonus prize to a live raffle, or change an unlock amount, the same way you'd change any prize. It's a prize change, so it follows the normal edit-and-notify flow and your ticket buyers are told.
- Already past the amount? If your sales have already reached the amount you set, the prize unlocks straight away.
- Changing the amount starts it over. Change the unlock amount on a prize that's already unlocked and it's checked again against your sales, so raising it above what you've sold locks it again. Editing the title, description or picture leaves it unlocked.
- Running the same raffle again? When you duplicate a raffle, its bonus prizes come across with their unlock amounts, all locked again for the new round. Any bonus prize that was removed when the old raffle closed is gone, so it won't be copied: check your prize list and add it back if you want the full ladder.
Bonus prizes and your state's rules
RaffleLink's compliance checks count a bonus prize toward your prize pool as long as your raffle can reach it, which the reachability rule above guarantees. So when you plan, assume they all unlock. That cuts both ways:
- It can help. State rules that tie how much you can sell to the size of your prize pool see your bonus prizes too. In the meat tray example, the guaranteed tray plus three bonus trays is a $400 prize pool, which under Queensland's 5× rule supports up to $2,000 of tickets. Counting only the guaranteed tray would have capped the raffle at $500.
- It can tip you into a permit. Because bonus prizes count, adding them can lift your prize pool past a permit threshold in one of your states. The Prizes and Compliance steps flag it as you go, the same as for any prize.
Next: Tickets and pricing.