Jewelry Box Fundraiser

Everybody loves jewelry, or has someone in their life that does!

Jewelry Boxes are a quick and easy fundraiser raffle with a twist.  It is generally easy to organize at your event too, if you can line up a good sponsor beforehand.  Hence they are great additions to more upscale events like galas and cocktail parties with special donors.

How Does it Work?

Identical jewelry boxes are wrapped — the most popular is a light blue box with a white ribbon — and stacked on display at the event. Guests can purchase a jewelry box with a chance to win. How the game is structured will depend on whether you have one elegant and expensive piece of jewelry or a number of pieces donated by a jewelry store or artist.

For a single high-value piece, put the jewelry on display and surround it with wrapped jewelry boxes. One of the boxes will be stuffed with a winner’s ticket. It’s important to manage the delivery of boxes in this scenario so the winner doesn’t open their box before you have sold all of the boxes. Determine a set number of boxes and price per box, by the amount of money you would like to raise for the item.

Everybody loves jewelry, or has someone in their life that does! Jewelry Boxes are a quick and easy fundraiser with a touch of mystery—a great addition to more upscale events like galas and cocktail parties with special donors.

For a larger number of jewelry items, wrap each in a box and create a display about the types, values, and artist — allowing everyone to know they will be winning some type of jewelry with their purchase. In this scenario, guests purchase a box and display it on their dinner table (or carry it around the event in their pocket) until later in the night, when they are asked to open their boxes to reveal the winner.

If boxes are left over before the opening hour, you can have your auctioneer auction them to the highest bidder in a set or sets.

Once all boxes are sold, have your auctioneer ask people to open up their boxes and reveal the winner or winners!

Variations on the Jewelry Box Fundraiser

For a single high-value piece, stuff every box with some sort of jewelry of varying worth — even costume jewelry, plastic kids rings or mood rings! Everyone will be a winner that way and at least get a good laugh out of their purchase.

Holly’s Advice

• If a jewelry store donates the item, ask if they will donate the boxes as well. Offer to add a store coupon in each of the boxes as a sponsor benefit.
• To ensure everyone opens their boxes at the same time, let guests purchase a blinky ring to represent participation. At a specific point in your event, ask all participants to hold up their blinky rings and have volunteers delivery the gift boxes.
• If you are worried that your audience will open up the boxes ahead of time, consider putting numbers in the boxes instead of winner and loser notes. Then ask a board member or special donor to pull a number from a hat at the end of the event. The box that matches the number wins the prize.

Some Personal Insight from Holly

What woman doesn’t love a new piece of jewelry? We did a jewelry pull with necklaces made by a local artist. Each of the pieces was totally unique! For $100, you had the opportunity to select a blind box and get a jewelry item valued between $75 – $200. I would recommend sticking to necklaces and bracelets. Earrings are much harder to match preference and rings get tough with sizing.

This article is part of our 26 Proven Revenue Enhancers for Your Fundraiser eBook available as a free download. If you looking for new revenue enhancing ideas and how to incorporate them into your event—this easy-to-use lookbook is for you.