One of the common questions to us is “What can BCCF do for our choir?” – and this is something significant. We don’t have money to hand out, but we can help you access it through the Gaming Branch, with all the licensing and administrative stuff done for you. Choirs can do their own events, but through BCCF we can help you reach much further afield in your sales than you might be able to do alone.

Once again, we’re back on track with the Raffle, scheduling it for next spring, so that the timeline reverts to the one we used before Covid hit us in 2020. We are not limited to a Chorfest draw date, since the draw is electronic, and we don’t need to allow quite so much time to receive and process tickets, since most of the work is done online. Where we will diverge from “the old timeline” is that the contract deadline will be mid-fall, so we can do our sales earlier in the spring.

So the proposal is:

• Raffle contracts to be in by Saturday, November 2, 2024
• Application will be made to Gaming by Friday, November 8; a Class A licence requires 10 weeks notice
• Paper tickets out to choirs in the last weeks of January 2025
• Selling window: February 1 – April  26, 2025 (12 weeks)
• Online ticket sales close Saturday, April 26, 2025; any paper tickets must already be returned
• Draw: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
• First pay-out by end of April; final payout a.s.a.p, depending on choirs getting paperwork to the BCCF office

Click here to download the applicable PDF’s:

• A copy of this letter
• The terms & conditions
• The contract

Please take this letter to your choir board and ask them to give some thought to participating. This is a no-risk, low-labour venture – participating choirs take 60% of the gross, and from the remaining 40% BCCF does all the administration and funds the CASH PRIZES. In fact, this is more a fundraiser for choirs than for the BCCF!

We are going to repeat the formula from the past fall – tickets are $5 each, or you can buy a “deal” package of 5 ticket numbers for $20. If you opt for an all-electronic version, there is no handling cash or tickets; the choir coordinator’s job is just to remind participants to sell. For choirs that want it, paper tickets are available (with the concomitant extra work!) or you can opt for a hybrid model. We suggest that you initially decide what income you want to bring in, and work with me to put together a ticket combination that will do that. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you’ve not done the online raffle before, I can put you in touch with one of the choir coordinators, who can tell you how easy it can be!

I will look forward to hearing from you by Saturday, November 2, 2024.

Brigid Coult
Project Manager, BC Choral Federation
projectmanager[at]bcchoralfed.com