Learn Spanish (Latin America): Como necesitamos dinero, preferiría que hicieras la rifa. - Since we need money, I would prefer that you do the raffle.

The main verb in the sentence, preferiría (I would prefer), is in the conditional tense. When a conditional verb expresses a wish or preference and triggers a noun clause (using que), the following verb must be in the imperfect (past) subjunctive. That is why we use hicieras rather than the present subjunctive.

Why does the sentence start with Como instead of Porque to mean "Since" or "Because"?

In Spanish, when you start a sentence by giving the reason or cause, you almost always use Como. You generally cannot start a sentence with Porque unless you are directly answering a "Why?" question.

How do we get the form hicieras from the verb hacer?

To form the imperfect subjunctive, you always start with the "they" (ellos/ellas) form of the simple past tense (preterite). For hacer, that form is hicieron. You drop the -ron at the end and add the imperfect subjunctive endings. Since the speaker is talking to "you" (tú), you add the ending -ras to get hicieras.

Does hacer la rifa literally mean "to make the raffle"?