Fundraising Trivia Nights

Guidelines for Successful Fundraising Trivia Nights

TriviaOz! has conducted literally thousands of trivia nights over the past 15 years. We have put together this list of suggestions to assist you in planning and conducting your event with a minimum of fuss and to maximise your social and financial outcomes.

Your TriviaOz! Quizmaster

In entrusting TriviaOz! to conduct your trivia event, you have contracted the best trivia organisation in Victoria. Your quizmaster is an entertainer, a fundraiser and a trivia buff with lots of experience in a whole variety of scenarios. Support him in letting him do his job, and you will be delighted with the results. Consult with him on your outcomes and watch how successfully he will help you achieve them.

1. Budget

Have realistic expectations on your financial returns for your event. Given a reasonably responsive audience, modest costs and an attractive set of prizes, our experience at TriviaOz! tells us that you can expect the following results:

  80 players - $10-15 per head clear profit
100 players - $10-20
150 players - $10-25
200 players - $10-30

We have often achieved more.

2. Organisation

Have a committee by all means but ensure that the leader is a good communicator and organiser, with a final say. Feel free to confer with TriviaOz! to take advantage of our experience. There's no need to re-invent the wheel.

3. Venue

Work out how many people you are expecting on the night and book a venue to suit. 100 players is a typical size audience. Better to have a slightly larger room than anticipated to allow for extra numbers, comfort, etc. There are many suitable venues available including school halls, sports clubrooms, pubs and function centres. If you need any suggestions, contact TriviaOz!.
Don't go overboard with decorations. They are expensive and take up a lot of time to put up and take down. Better you put your money and energy into profits and organising more teams and prizes.

4. How Much To Charge

$15 per head is the going rate. This is on a BYO everything basis, with you only having to provide very basic supper items such as tea/coffee and a packet of biscuits. You might care to provide a pre-payment incentive of say $100 prepaid for tables of 10. This idea works well for many reasons, the main one being that players will have more disposable income on the night for fundraisers if they haven't had to pay at the door.

5. Promotion

a) Design, produce and distribute an attractive poster-style document to let everyone know that the night is on. TriviaOz! will gladly supply you with a free poster master for your use. Put them in newsletters (repeatedly), on notice boards, on the back of toilet doors (seriously! - think about it), etc.
b) Allow a six-week period for successful advertising. Any longer- people tend not to plan that far in advance, any shorter - people might already have something in their diary.
c) Concentrate on your own community. You are most unlikely to attract players from "outside". Don't waste resources on chasing strangers, rather encourage "friends" to recruit their own tables. 10 "friends" with 9 other friends = 100 players!

6. Prizes

Don't stress over prizes. Obviously, the more prizes you get, the better the value you can provide to your audience and hopefully the more funds we can extract from them, but a socially and financially successful trivia night does not depend on having hundreds of expensive prizes. We recently ran a trivia night for a sports club and turned a slab of cans and a bottle of Scotch into a $4000 profit.

You will be amazed at the generosity of many organisations. Simply approach targeted organisations with "an opportunity to promote their goods/services to an appreciative, attentive and supportive audience", rather than go to them begging for donations. Personal contact works best, with telephone and mail being good backups. Approach as many targets as you like but make sure you include members of your own organisation's community, as well as suppliers to it. Many of the major tourist attractions and city fringe hotels provide free passes and accommodation packages to worthy organisations such as yours as good public relations and advertising. Local franchises of major chains - fast-food, electrical retailers, etc are also usually very generous.

The following is a list of prizes required to run a standard-format TriviaOz! fundraising trivia night. It's a guide only.

a) Winning Table.
Keep it modest. A hamper of goodies that they can split up at the end of the night is good, as is a bottle of wine and/or a box of chocolates for each player at the winning table. Expensive prizes encourage cheating and can be better utilised for fundraising anyway. You can also have lesser prizes for other tables - last, best-dressed/decorated, 2nd/3rd, etc.

b) Raffle.
We have a unique raffle method that ensures a 90% response rate at $5 per person. Work out your audience number, multiply that by $5, calculate 90% of that figure and allocate prizes with a total RRP of that final figure. Have at least three prizes, but you can have as many as you like.

c) True or False / Four Corners.
The major fundraisers of the night, they require significant prizes. Hampers are again good, as are accommodation packages and electrical goodies (DVD players are all the rage). Value of the prize for each of these activities should be a minimum of $200.

d) Nearest The Pin
A GOOD bottle of spirits - Johnny Walker, Jim Beam, etc. The bigger the bottle, the better. Generally we recommend that you don't buy any prizes at all, but if you can't get it sponsored, then do buy it. You will be amazed at how competitive (and generous!) the boys get in trying to beat their mates at this game.

e) Other Games
Your quizmaster will require at least 6 minor prizes for the free games he runs during the evening. Wine/chocolates/vouchers are fine.

f) Artist At Work Auction

Joe Zappulla paints 2 fully framed paintings that are auctioned off at the end of the night.  Read more..

Options
a) Live Auction. 3-5 highly and widely desirable items such as sports memorabilia, slaves, murals painted by class group, balloon flights, theatre/accommodation packages, etc.
b) Silent Auction. Minimum 10 items of good value with specialist appeal. Car services, will service, jewellery, kids' toy hampers, etc are typical items.
c) Door Prize/s
d) Lucky Seat prize/s
e) Lucky $100 note
f) Lucky straws/balloons

See Fundraising Night Program

See RaceNight - Fundraising

See Artist At Work - Portrait Auction

See Allsports Memorabilia - silent auctions