This year’s Santa Barbara Dream Home Raffle, a critical annual fundraiser for the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), has been delayed due to the ongoing criminal investigation of one of the event’s vendors, museum representatives said this week.
Museum spokesperson Marjorie Large said the vendor had supplied the software used to conduct the raffle, but she declined to disclose the vendor’s name, the nature of the investigation, or the investigating agency, explaining only that the fundraiser is on hold “for several months” until the museum can independently build its own software program. “Because this vendor is under investigation for its work for a number of nonprofits, the museum is not in a position to comment at this time,” she said.
The Dream Home Raffle awards cash and prizes to participants, including a Santa Barbara area house (or $3 million in cash) to the top winner. Tickets are typically $150 apiece. Since it began in 2006, the event has raised over $6 million.
MCASB is also in the process of appointing a new executive director. Whoever is chosen “will assess the various revenue streams that support MCASB’s operations and the services provided to the public, including the raffle,” Large said.