FundSvcs Community

For many years at (and leading up to) our institution's annual scholarship fundraising gala, we sold a limited number of $100 raffle tickets for a car that was donated by a local dealership, and that raised $75,000 or so each year for our general scholarship fund. We no longer have a car donation, and we're thinking this year of raffling off the opportunity to name a scholarship. As with the car, money from the purchase of raffle tickets would be designated to our general scholarship fund, and from that fund, Financial Aid would award one $10,000 need-based scholarship in the name of the raffle winner (e.g., John Taylor Scholarship, Taylor Family Scholarship, etc.). The winner would receive an annual report just like every other named scholarship donor (and hopefully be inspired to continue funding that named scholarship in the future). While the purchase of raffle tickets for a car was not tax deductible, would it be considered a charitable gift in this case? I really don't see this one-time naming opportunity as providing any kind of "financial or economic benefit" to the donor, so my instinct is we could count those as donations. Do we need to not call this a "raffle?" Thoughts? Has anyone ever done something like this before?