COLUMBIA, SC (Press Release) – South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammond announced today that the South Carolina legislature had ratified a constitutional amendment to allow nonprofit organizations to conduct raffles in the state of South Carolina. Voters approved the constitutional amendment during the general election in November 2014. Nonprofit organizations will be able to conduct raffles beginning on April 4, 2015, or thirty days following ratification of the amendment.
Under the South Carolina Code of Laws §33-57-120(A), only qualified nonprofit organizations are eligible to conduct raffles. These include certain tax-exempt organizations and classes, departments, or organizations of educational institutions. In addition, in order to conduct a raffle, a nonprofit organization must have a religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purpose, or be operated for the purpose of supporting amateur sports or the prevention of cruelty to children or animals. Finally, the nonprofit organization must be in compliance with the South Carolina Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act.
Generally, in order to conduct a raffle, a nonprofit organization must file an annual raffle registration form with the Secretary of State’s Division of Public Charities. If an organization only conducts “exempt” raffles, however, it is not required to file a raffle registration. “Exempt” raffles are different from “nonexempt” raffles in terms of prize limits, raffle participants, and frequency of raffle events. For example, a raffle which offers a noncash prize or prizes that have been donated to the nonprofit organization, and the total value of the prizes do not exceed $500.00, is considered to be “exempt.” The other type of “exempt” raffle is a “fifty-fifty” raffle in which tickets are sold only to members of the nonprofit organization and their guests, and the total proceeds of the raffle event do not exceed $950.00. Finally, a nonprofit organization may only hold one “exempt” raffle every seven days.
If a nonprofit organization files a raffle registration form, then it will be eligible to conduct up to four “nonexempt” raffles each year. Prizes offered in a “nonexempt” raffle cannot exceed the fair market value of $40,000.00 for an individual prize, or $250,000.00 for all prizes offered in a single raffle event. A registered organization may conduct both “exempt” and “nonexempt” raffles.
South Carolina law requires that, except for fifty-fifty raffles, no less than 90 percent of the net receipts from a raffle must be used for the charitable purpose of the nonprofit organization. Furthermore, registered organizations must file an annual raffle financial report with the Secretary of State 4 ½ months after the end of their fiscal year.
The annual raffle registration form and annual raffle financial report form are available on the Secretary of State’s website at
, under Forms and Fees. Nonprofit organizations that intend to conduct raffles may download and submit the annual raffle registration form at this time; however, registrations will not be valid until April 3, 2015, when the law governing raffles goes into effect.
