How A Race Against Blindness Fundraisers Work: From Entry to Winner Day
Stories of Hope
Every A Race Against Blindness fundraiser works the same way: you enter for a chance to win, free or with a donation; an independent sweepstakes agency holds the entries and draws the winner after the closing date; we announce the winner live; and the winner collects the prize at no cost. Each fundraiser has its own Official Rules, its own dates and its own drawing. This page walks through all four steps, what happens to your money and your data along the way, and where to check each claim.
What is an A Race Against Blindness fundraiser?
It is a sweepstakes, not a raffle, and the difference is the whole reason it is legal in almost every state. In a raffle you buy a ticket and the ticket is your entry; because money is required, raffles are regulated as gambling and are illegal or tightly restricted in many places. In a sweepstakes, no purchase or donation is ever required to enter. Anyone eligible can enter for a chance to win without paying anything, and those free entries carry the same odds as every other entry.
That structure is what lets A Race Against Blindness, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 92-2174042), offer prizes like adventure vans, trucks and six-figure cash while staying inside federal and state law. Each fundraiser is a separate promotion with its own Official Rules, published before it opens and linked from its fundraiser page. The Official Rules are the contract: dates, eligibility, entry methods, odds, the prize, the cash alternative and how the winner is chosen are all written there. When this page and the Official Rules differ, the Official Rules win.
What donations do, then, is not buy a chance. They fund research, and the Official Rules assign entries to donations as a thank-you. Most of the people who enter choose to donate, which is why these fundraisers have paid for $6.1 million in research grants since 2024. But the free door is always open, and the next section starts there.
Step 1: How do I enter?
There are two ways in, and both are in the Official Rules of every fundraiser.
Enter free by mail. Hand-print your full name, mailing address, phone number, date of birth and email on a 3×5 card, put it in a standard envelope with a stamp, and mail it to the address in that fundraiser's Official Rules (for the current Entegra fundraiser: Race Against Blindness Sweepstakes #3, PO Box 194, Macedon, NY 14502-0194). Under the current rules each mailed card is worth 50 entries, the same as a $100 donation, and a card postmarked during a bonus period is worth more. Each card goes in its own envelope, it must be postmarked before the deadline in the rules, and you cannot use a service to mail in bulk. The rules say it in capitals: no purchase or payment of money is necessary to enter or win, and a purchase or payment will not improve the chances of winning. Mailed entries go to the administrator, and under the Official Rules neither the administrator nor A Race Against Blindness acknowledges or confirms mailed entries to entrants.
Enter by donating. On the fundraiser page, choose a donation amount and check out. Under the current rules a $25 donation records 10 entries, $100 records 50, and $1,000 records 1,000, with bonus periods that multiply entries by two to six times and bonus codes that add a few more. Donations are final and are not refunded. If you choose to donate, your donation funds sight-saving research; the entries are our thank-you.
Either way, you must be a legal resident of the United States (except Washington) or Canada, and 18 or older or the age of majority where you live. Online entries appear in your account within minutes; you can see every donation entry you hold on the Check Your Entries page by logging in with the email you used at checkout. If a donation entry is missing, the Help Center sorts it out with a person, not a bot.
Step 2: What happens to my entries, and who picks the winner?
Online entries are recorded in our Donor Portal, which the Official Rules name as the official record. Mailed entries go to the post office box of the administrator. When the fundraiser closes, usually at 11:59 pm Arizona time on the date printed on the fundraiser page, the pool is fixed. Nothing added after that counts.
The drawing is not ours to run. Every A Race Against Blindness fundraiser names American Sweepstakes & Promotion Co., Inc. as its independent administrator. The administrator conducts the random drawing, typically five to ten days after the close, and confirms that the person drawn is eligible: of age, resident where the rules allow, not connected to us or to the administrator, and not a past grand-prize winner. Its decisions are final. We are not in the room, we do not choose, and we do not know the name until the administrator gives it to us.
That separation is the single most important fact on this page.
Step 3: How is the winner announced?
Live, and before the winner knows. Once the administrator confirms the drawing, we go live on our social channels and call the winner on video while the audience watches. The surprise on the call is real; that is the first the winner hears of it. The Official Rules allow notification by phone, email or mail as well, and a potential winner has three business days to respond and seven days to return a signed affidavit of eligibility (or a declaration of compliance in Canada) to the administrator. If they do not, an alternate can be drawn.
After the call, the winner's first name, last initial, state or province and prize go on the Past Winners page, and the livestream stays up. Every winner we have ever drawn is there. If you want to test whether these fundraisers are real, pick a name on that page and watch the call; it is a better check than anything we could write here.
Step 4: What happens on winner day?
The winner chooses between the prize and the cash alternative printed in the Official Rules. For the current Entegra fundraiser that is the motorhome, the Polaris, the trailer and $100,000 cash, with an approximate retail value of $350,000, or a $200,000 cash award instead. For the Build Your Own Van fundraiser it is the Sprinter build with a $50,000 cash award, or $150,000 cash. Past winners have gone both ways, and the choice is theirs.
Vehicle winners come to us to collect. Under the rules the winner travels to the pickup location within 14 days of accepting the prize, and we cover airfare for one person and one night's hotel. Usually that is Gilbert, Arizona; for a custom van it is the builder's shop. We film the handover and put it on the winner's Fundraiser Story so the next entrant can see what a real win looks like. The winner never pays us anything: no fee, no deposit, no "processing." Anyone who asks for one is not us.
Two things the winner does owe. The first is taxes: prizes are income, the winner is responsible for all applicable taxes, and for U.S. winners we file an IRS Form 1099 for the value of the prize, which is why the affidavit asks for a Social Security number. Talk to a tax professional before you choose between the prize and the cash. The second is the ordinary cost of owning a vehicle: title, registration, insurance and getting it home.
Why does every fundraiser have its own rules, dates and drawing?
Because each one is a separate legal promotion, and the law treats it that way. A sweepstakes has a defined period, a defined prize, defined entry methods and one drawing. Bundling several prizes into one rolling campaign with one set of rules would blur all four, so each fundraiser gets its own Official Rules, published before it opens, with its own closing date and its own drawing by the administrator.
For you that means a few simple things. Entries belong to the fundraiser you entered; they do not roll over, and there is no subscription, membership or recurring charge to cancel. You can enter one fundraiser, several, or none, and entering one creates no obligation toward another. And when two or three fundraisers run at once, as they usually do, each produces its own winner on its own date. We run them concurrently because the research timeline does not wait and because a van, a truck and a cash prize draw different people; we never run them as one pool.
Where does the money go?
As of October 2026, A Race Against Blindness has paid out $6.1 million in research grants, $5.1 million of it to Axovia Therapeutics for the first gene-therapy clinical trial for Bardet-Biedl syndrome and $1 million to Foundation Fighting Blindness and the RD Fund for gene-agnostic therapies. The dated list is on our grant history, the audited picture is in the Form 990 on ProPublica, and since August 2026 new grants are awarded through a published Research Grants Program.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to donate to enter?
No. Every fundraiser has a free mail-in entry described in its Official Rules; under the current rules one mailed card is worth 50 entries, and no purchase or payment improves the chances of winning. If you choose to donate, your donation funds sight-saving research.
Who draws the winner?
American Sweepstakes & Promotion Co., Inc., an independent sweepstakes administrator named in every fundraiser's Official Rules, conducts the random drawing and confirms eligibility. A Race Against Blindness is not involved in the selection and announces the winner the administrator gives us, live.
Is there a subscription or recurring charge?
No. There is no membership or subscription and nothing to cancel. Each donation is a one-time transaction tied to one fundraiser, and donations are final.
Is my payment and personal information safe?
Payments are processed by our payment providers; A Race Against Blindness never sees or stores your full card number. We do not sell or share donor information with outside organizations. The administrator receives only what it needs to verify a winner. You can request your data or its deletion through the Help Center.
How will I know if I won?
You will get a live video call during our winner livestream, followed by notification by phone, email or mail as the Official Rules require. You will never be asked to pay anything to claim a prize; a message asking for a fee is not from us.
Can I win if I live outside the United States?
The fundraisers are open to legal residents of the United States (except Washington) and Canada who are 18 or older or the age of majority where they live. Canadian winners answer a skill-testing question, as Canadian law requires.
Where can I read the Official Rules?
Every fundraiser page links to its Official Rules, and the rules govern whenever they and this page differ.
No purchase or donation necessary. Void where prohibited. See Official Rules for details.