How to run a 100 Club fundraiser (and run it online)

The 100 Club is one of the oldest tricks in the community-club book — and one of the best. It's simple to explain, cheap to run, and it quietly brings in money every month without anyone organising a trivia night. Here's how it works, why the maths stacks up, and how to run one online so there's nothing to count by hand.

What a 100 Club actually is

The idea is right there in the name. You sell 100 numbered squares — the numbers 1 through 100 — to members, families and supporters. Each person buys one or more numbers for a set price. Then, on a regular schedule (most clubs run it monthly), you hold a draw. One of those 100 numbers comes up, and whoever holds it wins a prize.

The clever bit is where the money goes. A set cut of the pool becomes the prize, and the rest stays with the club as fundraising income. It feels less like a fundraiser and more like a little monthly flutter among mates, which is exactly why people keep renewing.

The maths — and why it works

This is where the 100 Club earns its keep. Say each square costs $10 a month and all 100 sell. That's $1,000 collected. Pay out half the pool to winners — say a $300 first prize, a $150 second and a $50 third, for $500 in total — and the club banks $500 clean, every month. Over a year that's $6,000 from a fundraiser that takes minutes to run.

You can set the split however suits your club: a bigger prize to pull more members in, or a leaner one to keep more for the club. The numbers above are just an example — adjust the price, the number of winners and the split to fit your membership.

How to set one up

You don't need much to get going:

• Pick your price and prize split. A round number per square makes it easy to explain. Decide how much of each month's pool goes to winners.
• Decide the draw schedule. Monthly is the sweet spot — frequent enough to stay exciting, rare enough that the prize feels worth winning.
• Sell the 100 numbers. Let members choose a lucky number — a birthday, a jersey number, a date that means something. People get attached to "their" number, which is half the reason they renew.
• Run the draw and pay the winner. Draw openly, announce the result, and get the prize to the winner promptly. Visible, fair draws keep people coming back.

Running it on paper vs online

Plenty of clubs still run a 100 Club the old way: a laminated grid on the wall, a tin of cash, a volunteer chasing tenners, and a hand-written ledger. It works — right up until the bookkeeper goes on holiday, a square's been "sold" twice, or the cash doesn't quite reconcile. Online fixes all of that. Members pick and pay for their numbers themselves, the board updates live so nothing's double-sold, and the records keep themselves.

Keeping it fair — and compliant

Here's the important bit, so let's be straight about it. A 100 Club is a form of raffle or lottery, and in Australia the rules, permits and reporting requirements for community and charitable gaming vary by state and territory. Some draws need a permit or licence; some have conditions around who can enter, how prizes are handled and how results are recorded.

Before you launch, check your own state or territory's requirements and make sure your 100 Club is set up to meet them. This article is general guidance to help you get started, not legal advice — your state's gaming or fair-trading regulator is the source of truth.

Fairness matters just as much as paperwork. Members should be able to trust the draw is genuinely random and every number had an equal shot — far easier to prove when the draw is transparent and every ticket is on the record.

How ClubApp helps

ClubApp runs online raffles — including recurring 100 Club style draws — so you can set one up once and let it tick over. Members buy their numbered squares in-app on a lucky-numbers board, where taken squares lock live so nothing's ever sold twice, and they pay by card on the spot. No tin, no chasing, no double-ups.

The draw itself is done transparently on the server with a published seed, so the result is verifiable rather than taken on faith, and winners are notified instantly. Every ticket is recorded automatically, so there's no cash to count and your treasurer has a clean record of who held what and who won.

To help you stay within the rules, ClubApp also includes minor and major raffle classification, licence-number fields, and age and residency controls — the kind of settings your state's requirements may ask for. You still check your own obligations, but the tooling is there. See the raffles feature for the full picture, and Club Cash if you'd like members topping up a balance to buy their squares.

Common questions

What is a 100 Club?
A 100 Club is a simple recurring raffle. You sell 100 numbered squares to members and supporters, hold a regular draw, and one or more of those numbers wins a share of the pool. A set portion of the money collected is paid out as the prize, and the rest stays with the club as fundraising income.

How does a 100 Club make money for the club?
You keep the difference between what you collect and what you pay out as prizes. If every square is sold each month and you return roughly half the pool to winners, the remaining half is clean, predictable income the club can count on month after month — without running a new event each time.

Is a 100 Club legal in Australia?
A 100 Club is a form of raffle or lottery, and the rules, permits and reporting requirements vary by state and territory. Before you start, check your state or territory's requirements for community and charitable gaming. This is general guidance, not legal advice.

Can you run a 100 Club online?
Yes. ClubApp runs online raffles including recurring 100 Club style draws. Members buy their numbered squares in-app on a lucky-numbers board, pay by card, and the draw is done transparently on the server with a published seed. Winners are notified instantly and every ticket is recorded, so there is no cash to count.