Tesla Raffle Finito

Win a Tesla! Build your own Tesla (up to $195,000 value includes taxes).

Second prize of $10,000
Third Prize of $5000

Maximum 4000 tickets sold at $250 each.

https://carbonraffle.org/#we-have-your-back

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Obviously some profit is built in for whoever is running the raffle. But you could buy tickets equal to the full $200k prize value, and still have less than a 25% chance of winning anything. That’s ridiculously bad value, and very profitable for the organizer.

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It’s a non-profit, the value proposition is that you’re funding the organization not that you get a decent expected return on your ticket.

That raises a good point though. For the money you’re giving away, isn’t it better to make a deductible charitable contribution than to participate in a raffle?

I think it’d be better for your money to simply donate rather than do a raffle if your marginal tax rate is higher than the after-tax expected value of the raffle.

Here assuming all tickets are sold which seems likely or close enough for expected value calculation, after-tax expected value is (best scenario) $5k/4000 + $10k/3999 + $137k/3998 = $38. 38/250 = 15.2%. So if your marginal tax rate is 22% or above and you’re itemizing, you’re statistically better off just donating money to that charitable organization and taking the deduction than participating in the raffle (where you cannot take the deduction).

I can’t argue with your logic. Before doing either, you should check out their 990. They don’t have enough revenue to be rated by Charity Navigator.

CXC’s mission “is to provide research, education, and advocacy to move us towards a low-carbon economy through market-based mechanisms”

I didn’t win.

I didn’t mean to imply they were a charity. They’re supposed to be non-profit, and file a 990. They fall below Charity Navigator’s income minimums to be rated, but they are listed.

:disappointed: There’s always next year.

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