Zeffy Calls Itself Free. Your Raffle Results Tell a Different Story.
Here’s what actually happens when nonprofits use Zeffy for a raffle: a tip prompt appears between your supporter and the Buy button, presetting 17%, 20% or 22%, with 17% pre-selected and hard to remove, and 30–40% of your raffle sales quietly disappear. They still call that free.
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Is Zeffy Ever the Right Choice? Yes, Sometimes.
We’re going to be straight with you: if you’re running a small, simple donation campaign under a thousand dollars and you don’t need any raffle functionality, Zeffy is a reasonable tool for that job. We’re not here to talk it down across the board.
But the moment a real raffle is involved, with ticket pools, prize management, hybrid entries, or any of the formats we’ve covered here, the comparison changes entirely. Zeffy was built for donations. Chance2Win was built for raffles. That architectural difference shows up in your results.
The test we recommend: Before your next event, ask your platform vendor one question, “Can you run a basket raffle where each basket has its own ticket pool and its own independent drawing?” If the answer isn’t a clear yes with documentation showing how, you’re using a donation tool for a raffle job. See how basket raffles work on Chance2Win →
Modeled from normalized checkout completion data across tens of thousands of raffle transactions. Individual results vary by cause type and donor demographics.
Chance2Win vs Zeffy
Zeffy is genuinely $0 to your nonprofit, and that’s a real strength. The difference is what happens when you run an actual raffle. Zeffy is a general donation tool with a raffle option, so the draw and the winner follow-up land back on you. Chance2Win is built for raffles end to end.
| Factor | Zeffy | Chance2Win |
|---|---|---|
| Drawing the winner | Done outside the platform. Zeffy’s help center says it isn’t a licensed electronic raffle system with a drawing tool, so you draw with a separate random picker. | A fair random draw is built into your Raffle Website Manager. |
| Winner email | None. You export a report, find the winner in it, and contact them yourself. | Send a winner email in one click after the draw, with a message you can personalize. |
| Online plus cash in one pool | Not unified. | Yes. Online, cash, and check entries live in one drawing pool. |
| Regulated prizes (wine, bourbon, cigars, firearms) | Stripe based, so these categories aren’t supported. | Supported through Flux and Fortis (via Authorize.net). |
| Built for raffles | General donation and forms tool with a raffle option. | Purpose built: traditional, 50/50, basket, Queen of Hearts, and duck race. |
| Cost to your nonprofit | $0, funded by an optional donor tip prompt at checkout. | $0 on Zero Fee. Premium is a flat price from $329, with no percentage taken from ticket sales. |
| How checkout works for supporters | A pre-suggested tip is added at checkout, which the donor has to notice and decline. | On Zero Fee, one fixed supporter charge is shown before purchase. No tip prompt to undo. |
| Support | Email and chat. | US based phone support. |
When your raffle ends
The moment of truth for a raffle tool is drawing and reaching the winner.
Leave the platform to draw, export a CSV, find the winner, and email them yourself.
Draw in your dashboard, click Notify, and the winner gets an email.
Zeffy’s own help center states the raffle drawing must be done outside the platform and that Zeffy isn’t a licensed electronic raffle system with a drawing tool (verified August 2026). Zeffy is genuinely $0 to the nonprofit, so the honest advantage here is raffle capability, not cost. Verify all details before publishing.
Our Pricing, Straightforward by Design
We have two options and neither of them involves surprising your supporters with an unexpected charge at checkout. That’s a deliberate choice, and it’s reflected in conversion rates.
Zero Fee
A fixed 12% donor service charge is shown clearly before purchase, not revealed at checkout. Transparent, compliant in regulated states, and zero donor surprise.
Best for raffles under $10,000
- All raffle types supported
- Fixed 12% fee, shown upfront
- No tip prompt. No checkout friction.
- Basket raffles & tricky trays
- Queen of Hearts progressive jackpot
- Hybrid cash + check + online
- Phone support for live events
- Compliant with most state fixed-price requirements
Payments Processed through Flux Payments & Stripe
Premium Plan
A fixed software fee, not a percentage of what you raise. You pay one invoice. Your org keeps everything else. Cleanest possible checkout: supporters see only the ticket price.
Best for raffles over $10,000
- Everything in Zero Fee, plus:
- Cleanest checkout, ticket price only, no service charge shown
- $5k raised: $329 (6.6% effective)
- $10k raised: $459 (4.6% effective)
- +$329 per additional $10k raised
- $20k event: $788, 3.9% effective
- $100k event: $3,420, 3.4% effective
- You decide what supporters pay, enable a charge and it flows entirely to your org
Easily connects to Flux Payments, Stripe, Square, or Authorize.net & more
Why the Tip Prompt Costs More Than It Looks Like
When someone decides to buy raffle tickets, they’ve already made their decision. They know what they want to spend. They pull out their phone, find the link, pick their ticket bundle, and head to checkout.
The last thing they need is a prompt asking them to also tip a software platform they’ve never heard of. But that’s exactly what Zeffy puts between them and the Buy button, starting at 17%, pre-filled, requiring deliberate action to remove.
The Call We Get Every Spring Gala Season
The team behind Chance2Win has been answering the raffle hotline since 2005. This call comes in every season, and it’s exactly what real phone support means for your raffle.
“We had our basket raffle set up on a ‘free’ platform and everything looked fine until we went live Saturday night. Supporters were clicking through, picking baskets, and then just… not finishing. We thought it was a tech problem. One of our volunteers actually completed the checkout herself and called us: ‘There’s a thing asking me to tip them. I didn’t know what it was. I just closed the window.’ We lost count of how many people did the same thing. We raised about half of what we projected.”
PTO Fundraising Chair, Annual Spring Gala · Composite account based on calls received by Chance2Win support team
📞 A recent real example of why this matters: A Civil War reenactment organization sold raffle tickets on a Stripe-based platform for six weeks on a museum-quality antique rifle. No warning, their account was suspended mid-campaign. Chance2Win’s manual order entry imported every previous ticket purchase. The drawing ran with a complete pool. No supporter lost their entry. Full account on our Givebutter comparison page →
The switch to Chance2Win rarely happens because someone read a feature comparison. It happens because one event makes the gap impossible to ignore. If you’re reading this before that event, you’re already ahead. See how our online raffle website works →
What Chance2Win Does That Zeffy Simply Doesn’t
To be fair, Zeffy is a solid tool for straightforward donation campaigns. But the moment a real raffle is involved, here’s where the comparison gets uncomfortable for them, especially when it comes to a hybrid raffle website.
| Feature / Capability | Chance2Win | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Online raffle ticket sales | Full support | Supported |
| Checkout friction / tip prompt | Fixed fee, shown upfront12% service fee displayed before checkout | Variable tip prompt17-22%, pre-selected, active removal required |
| Basket raffles / tricky trays | Full supportSeparate pools, per-basket drawings, ticket splitting | Not supportedDonation-first architecture lacks per-basket pool logic |
| Queen of Hearts (progressive jackpot) | Full workflowJackpot logic, card management, weekly draws | Not supported |
| Duck races & ball drops | Pre-numbered pool managementAssigns, tracks, and reclaims numbers after refunds | Not supported |
| 50/50 raffles | Full support | PartialBasic ticket sale; limited raffle-specific logic |
| Hybrid events (cash + check + online) | Unified drawing poolCash & check entries merged with online, no spreadsheets | No native support |
| Multiple payment processors | Flux Payments, Stripe, Square, or Authorize.net & more | Stripe onlyStripe restricts firearms, alcohol, certain prize types |
| State charitable gaming compliance | Fixed disclosed fee meets most state requirements | Variable tip may create compliance riskReview your state’s fixed-price disclosure requirements |
| Phone support during live events | Real humans who understand raffles | No phone support |
| Cash & check ticket sales, drawing pool | Manual entry, any payment typeCash at the door, checks mailed in, all enter the same pool as digital purchases. One drawing, one audit trail. | No path for cash or check entriesCard-present Stripe Terminal ≠ cash. Cash buyers cannot enter Zeffy’s drawing pool. |
| Platform rescue / ticket import | Manual order entry, any sourceTickets sold elsewhere can be imported. Drawing pool stays complete through any migration. | No import mechanismLocked or restricted account means prior ticket sales are inaccessible. |
| Printable physical tickets | Blank and prefilled from admin | Not available |
| Audit-ready reporting & winner log | Full export, donor data, drawing records | Limited |
| Zero cost to organization | Zero Fee plan available | No invoice to orgRevenue from supporter tip prompt instead |
This comparison focuses on raffle fundraising capability. Both platforms handle simple donation campaigns reasonably well. The gap becomes significant the moment a real raffle is involved. Feature details subject to change, verify current capabilities before launch.
What Purpose-Built Raffle Infrastructure Actually Means
Every format below requires fundamentally different backend logic. A donation platform adapted for raffles handles one of them adequately. Chance2Win was built for all of them, from the ground up, twenty years ago.
Basket Raffles & Tricky Trays
Every basket is its own prize pool. Supporters spread tickets across multiple baskets. Each basket needs its own independent drawing. That’s three layers of infrastructure a standard raffle tool doesn’t have. Ask any PTO or church committee what format they rely on most, basket raffles come up every time.
Queen of Hearts
A growing jackpot, weekly drawings, supporters coming back each week for months. That requires progressive jackpot logic, continuous ticket sales, and proper card management. None of which a donation platform was built to handle. Queen of Hearts is one of the highest-revenue formats nonprofits run, which is exactly why we built it first.
Duck Races & Ball Drops
The winning duck or ball must trace cleanly to a specific, valid, sold ticket number. Any gap, duplicate, or unreturned number after a refund creates a result that’s hard to defend to a crowd. Chance2Win manages the full pre-numbered pool, assigns numbers, prevents gaps, returns them after refunds, and maintains clean winner traceability.
Traditional & Online Raffles
Standard single-prize raffle with online ticket sales, printable physical tickets, winner publishing, and livestream support. Both platforms handle this format, the difference is what happens at checkout and whether in-person cash and check sales can be unified into the same drawing pool.
50/50 Raffles
Half the pot to the winner, half to your organization. Simple in concept, but doing it right online, especially at live events with simultaneous in-person sales, requires accurate split calculation, real-time totals, and clean hybrid reconciliation. Chance2Win handles all three cleanly; Zeffy handles the basic version.
Online + In-Person Combined
Selling tickets online and at-the-door simultaneously, with cash and check accepted, all flowing into one drawing pool. No separate spreadsheets. No manual reconciliation the night of the event. This is hybrid fundraising done right. Zeffy handles online and card-present; it doesn’t manage cash and check ticket pool integration.
Built for Real Raffles. Not Generic Donation Tools.
We didn’t build a donation platform and add raffle functionality as a feature. We built the raffle software first, from scratch, before most of the tools you’re comparing us against even existed. Twenty years of real nonprofit events, real fundraising teams, and real raffle problems is a different kind of foundation.
Premium Rate Breakdown vs Zeffy’s Effective Cost
| Event Size (Funds Raised) | C2W Premium Fee | Effective Rate | Zeffy Tip Model (Cost of 30% abandonment) | You Keep More With C2W |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to $5,000 | $329 | 6.6% | ~$1,500 lost 30% abandonment on $5k |
C2W costs less + no abandonment |
| Up to $10,000 | $459 | 4.6% | ~$3,000 lost 30% abandonment on $10k |
$459 vs $3,000+ lost |
| Up to $20,000 | $788 | 3.9% | ~$6,000 lost 30% abandonment on $20k |
$788 vs $6,000+ lost |
| Up to $50,000 | $1,775 | 3.6% | ~$15,000 lost 30% abandonment on $50k |
$1,775 vs $15,000+ lost |
| Up to $100,000 | $3,420 | 3.4% | ~$30,000 lost 30% abandonment on $100k |
$3,420 vs $30,000+ lost |
C2W Premium: fixed fee paid by your organization. Zeffy: no platform fee invoice, the cost is abandonment, estimated at 30% of potential raffle ticket sales based on observed behavior when tip prompts start at 17%. Abandonment estimates are conservative; actual loss varies. Payment processing (2.9% + $0.30/transaction) applies on both platforms. C2W Zero Fee cost to org: $0, donor service charge is added to supporter total, not deducted from yours.
The Real Cost of Running a $20,000 Premium Raffle
Two costs apply on every Premium event: the software fee and credit card processing. Here’s the honest math on a $20,000 event with 400 tickets at $50 each.
$459 ($10k) + $329 (next $10k). Fixed price, regardless of ticket count or transaction volume.
$580 (2.9% of $20k) + $120 (400 txns × $0.30). Paid to your payment processor, not to Chance2Win.
$788 + $700 = $1,488, 7.44% of $20,000 raised
You Decide What Supporters Pay. Enable a Charge and It Goes Directly to You, Not to Chance2Win.
On a $20,000 Premium event, the total real cost, software plus credit card processing, is approximately $1,488, or 7.44%. You decide whether to build cost recovery into the ticket price by enabling a service charge. When you do: every dollar of it flows directly to your organization. Not to Chance2Win. It appears clearly before purchase, supporters see exactly what they’re paying before they commit.
Most organizations set the charge at 8%. On a $20,000 event that collects approximately $1,600, slightly more than the $1,488 in combined costs, so the event nets slightly above goal. At 8%, the charge sits below the 10% abandonment threshold where research shows essentially zero impact on buyer behavior. The goal nets. The costs are covered. Nothing comes off your raised total.
Smaller or newer organizations
Often enable the service charge. The 8% is fully disclosed before purchase, sits below the abandonment cliff, and means the event pays for itself. The organization nets its full goal.
Larger or experienced organizations
Typically don’t enable a charge. Payment processing and software are understood as the cost of running a fundraiser, same as printing, venue, and staffing. They absorb it directly and don’t add anything to the supporter’s price.
The service charge is entirely the organization’s decision, it does not appear by default. When enabled, it is disclosed to supporters before purchase, and every dollar flows to the organization. It is not Chance2Win’s fee. Chance2Win’s fee is the fixed software invoice above, fixed, charged once per event, completely separate.
The Original Online Raffle Website
We didn’t build a donation platform and add raffle functionality as a feature. We built the raffle software first, from scratch, before most of the tools you’re comparing us against even existed.
That means the entire architecture of what we built is designed around how raffles actually work: numbered ticket pools, per-prize drawing logic, hybrid entry reconciliation, progressive jackpots, and cash-and-check support built in from day one.
Twenty years of real nonprofit events, real fundraising teams, and real raffle problems is a different kind of foundation than a feature added to a donation tool two years ago. And when something unexpected happens during your live event on a Saturday night, you want a real person on the phone, not a support ticket queue.
By the Numbers
Raffle Mastery: The Complete Book to Running Profitable Nonprofit Raffles
120+ pages of real-world raffle strategy drawn from nearly 20 years of experience supporting thousands of nonprofit fundraisers. Ticket pricing psychology, bundle tactics, promotion strategies, compliance checkpoints, and the common mistakes that kill raffle revenue.
- Ticket pricing strategies that increase average order value
- Bundle psychology, why the right packages outperform discounts
- Hybrid event playbooks for in-person + online sales
- Common compliance mistakes and how to avoid them
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Zeffy actually free?
Does Zeffy’s tip model create compliance risk for raffle events?
Can Zeffy run basket raffles?
Can Zeffy run duck races or ball drops?
What’s the difference between Chance2Win’s two pricing plans?
Why does having multiple payment processors matter?
What is a hybrid raffle and does Chance2Win support it?
Can I actually reach someone by phone if something goes wrong during my event?
Related Guides & Resources
Everything you need to run a confident, compliant raffle, from platform choice through live event night.
Start With the Raffle Website That Was Built for It
Basket raffles, Queen of Hearts, duck races, ball drops, hybrid in-person and online sales, transparent pricing, multiple payment gateways, and real humans on the phone when you need them. It’s all here. It’s been here for 20 years.