Thanks to Holderness School in beautiful Plymouth, NH for this creative faculty recognition and fundraising idea.  Instead of a live auction over Parent’s Weekend, the school held a raffle with twelve items.  Most of the raffle items were weekends at ski resorts, tickets to a Boston Red Sox game or lodging for graduation weekend.  Parents, students, faculty, trustees and friends could buy raffle tickets online and distribute them as they wished into the virtual raffle buckets.  The most popular item was a get-away weekend in Sugarbush, VT.  The catch was the winner had to select a member of the staff (at the time of purchasing the tickets) to receive the award.  For example, a parent purchases the tickets, put them in the Staff Get-Away prize, names there student’s History teacher as the recipient and should the parent win the History teacher receives the Faculty Get-Away package.  The house in Sugarbush sleeps 12 so the faculty member can invite friends and colleagues should they wish.


I think this is brilliant for a variety of reasons.  This particular raffle prize honors the staff and faculty.  The “winner” of raffle immediately passes the gift along to the teacher they named.  The faculty member gets an unexpected weekend vacation.  It builds a sense of community, much like a young child with a bunch of balloons walking along handing them out one at a time to strangers.  At the end of the event, the Get-Away raffle package received the most raffle tickets, meaning this item alone was a major revenue generator for the school.

How can you honor and reward your professional team in creative ways?  Can you create a scheme where the organization, donor and staff all win at the same time?  Does you reward program enhance your organization’s values?  Is it expected or unexpected?  What has been successful for you?