How can I run a fair giveaway and keep the winner draw transparent?

[Stephen54]

I’m trying to organize a small giveaway for our local community group, but I’m stuck on how to actually pick the winners fairly. I don’t want anyone to think it’s rigged if I just draw names from a hat, but the online random picker tools I’ve looked at seem either too complicated or not transparent enough.

[Grace69]

We did a live draw in the community room last month. Everyone who entered wrote their name on a slip, popped it in a clear bin, and we kept the camera rolling the whole time. After a quick shake, I drew one slip aloud and showed the name. We posted the video and a simple log of entries and winners so people could verify what happened.

[MarkZM]

I tried those online random pickers and it felt opaque. So we used a hybrid: we put a random seed on a whiteboard (visible to the camera) and then mapped that seed to a winner by number. The seed, the mapping, and the full entry list were shown on a livestream, and we kept a backup list in case of a tie.

[Chloe.M]

Would a livestream be enough to feel fair, or is there another fairness mechanism you'd trust?

[JerryJ]

We kept a public entry log and had a second person verify the winner. It helped a little, but I still felt anxious about edge cases, like someone entering late or duplicates.