Acadiana Mega Raffle: Great odds for a great cause

What if your next Powerball ticket was eligible for 1,000 drawings?
The fact that a single $100 ticket in the Community Foundation of Acadiana’s Acadiana Mega Raffle is good for that many is hard to resist.
Think about it -- a single $100 chance purchased online at AcadianaMegaRaffle.com can win the $500,000 grand prize as well as any, or even all, theoretically, of the other prizes in drawings that begin July 18.
Every ticket, even those that have already won a boat, or a vehicle, or any of the host of prizes, goes back in the hopper for the next pull, creating a 1-in-30 chance winning with the single ticket. Obviously, the odds of winning increase with each ticket a person buys.
And the fact that it benefits a key player in the well-being of Acadiana is a bonus.
The Foundation has been a fairly low-profile piece in Acadiana philanthropy since it opened its doors in 2000 though it is recognized by the industry as a pacemaker in the field. Raymond Hebert, president and CEO, has been there every step of the way.
He reviewed the Foundation’s three-fold service provisions in an interview this week:
One, Community Foundation provides expert services for others.
Two, it provides trusted leadership to projects and partners “because they need the glue to make something happen.”
An example coming immediately to mind is Palmetto Island State Park, languishing in unfinished desolation south of Abbeville until CFA and community leaders raised $300,000 to get it opened and operating.
Another example is the tourism fund established after the BP disaster in the Gulf. Community Foundation of Acadiana serves as an objective broker, in conjunction with the lieutenant governor’s office, of those dollars.
Third, the Foundation is a “trusted steward of dollars, either immediately or through estate planning, for various projects and philanthropies.”
Since 2000, the Foundation has received $130 million in such dollars, and has disbursed $70 million per the contributors’ directives.
With those millions coming in and going out, why hold a raffle at all?
Hebert emphasizes that above mentioned funds are not the Foundation’s. They are only placed in the non-profit’s care for use as directed by the donors.
Read that sentence again, and note “non-profit.” Lots of financial service companies offer services comparable to some of what the Foundation does, but for the most part they offer them as a for-profit business.
Covering costs of meeting its service provisions, and the customary costs of any business, has been a year-to-year fund-raising effort for the Foundation.
The Mega Raffle will “provide dollars that will support the Foundation’s work”, Hebert said.
“We want to make giving easy and fun and provide a platform to enhance and expand philanthropy,” he noted
The primary service area is eight parishes, though the Foundation is not limited geographically.
“One of our goals is to increase philanthropy in each of the eight Acadiana parishes we serve,” Hebert said. Examples of that are already in place as evidenced by the establishment of the Iberia Parish Foundation and the St. Mary Parish Foundation, both affiliates of CFA.
The other six parishes are Evangeline, St. Landry, St. Martin, Lafayette, Vermilion and Acadia.
Drawings are on July 18, Aug. 15 and Sept. 12. The ticket supply won’t last long.