How to Make a Raffle Draw in Excel

Raffles are fun and effective ways to raise funds for various events and causes. With Excel’s powerful features, you can easily organize and manage a raffle. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process with simple examples.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Excel Worksheet

1. Open Microsoft Excel and start a new workbook.
2. Rename the default sheet to “Participants” by double-clicking on the sheet tab.
3. In the “Participants” sheet, create columns for important information like “Name,” “Email,” “Ticket Number,” and “Potential Winner’s Name.”

Step 2: Adding Participant Details

1. Begin by entering participant details into the respective columns. Each row represents a different participant.
2. To ensure a smooth raffle process, make sure to include all necessary information, such as names and contact details.
3. Assign a unique ticket number to each participant. You can either use a formula or enter the numbers manually.

Example: For instance, if you’re organizing a charity raffle with 20 participants, you’d enter their details like this:

Step 3: Preparing the Raffle Drawing Section

1. Create a new sheet by clicking the “+” button at the bottom of the workbook.
2. Rename the new sheet to “Raffle Drawing” or any name you prefer.
3. In this sheet, create columns to display the winning ticket numbers and the corresponding winners’ names.

Step 4: Randomly Selecting a Winner

1. In the “Winning Ticket Number” column of the “Raffle Drawing” sheet, use the formula: =RANDBETWEEN(2,COUNTA(‘Participants’!C:C))

    

   This formula generates a random number between 2 and the total number of participants. Adjust the column reference (‘Participants’!C:C) if your ticket numbers are in a different column.

2. In the “Winner’s Name” column, use the formula: =VLOOKUP(A2, ‘Participants’!$C$2:$D$21, 2, FALSE)

    

   • A2: This refers to the winning ticket number in the same row.
   • ‘Participants’!$C$2:$D$21: This is where Excel searches for the winning ticket number and retrieves the corresponding name. Adjust this range to match your columns.
   • 2: This tells Excel to get the value from the second column of the range, which contains participant names.
   • FALSE: This means we want an exact match.

Example: If the winning ticket number in cell A2 is 8, the VLOOKUP formula in cell B2 would be: =VLOOKUP(A2, ‘Participants’!$C$2:$D$21, 2, FALSE)