The best fundraising games keep guests entertained while creating more opportunities to raise money. Whether you’re planning a school fundraiser, church event or community festival, choosing a variety of games helps appeal to different ages and interests while encouraging participation throughout the event.
But which fundraising games work best? The answer depends on your audience and fundraising goals. From classic carnival games to interactive competitions, offering a mix of attractions gives guests more ways to have fun while supporting your cause.
Here are some of the best fundraising games and activities to consider for your next event.
Carnival Games and Rides
Carnival games are among the most popular fundraising attractions because they are easy to set up, appeal to all ages and generate revenue through ticket sales. The trick here is finding a group of exciting carnival games for fundraisers that will appeal to every age and interest. Fortunately, you have many great carnival game choices. There are a number of options to explore in this area:
- Hiring a company to provide the games for you.
- Doing your own research online and finding some fun ideas to craft at home. Lots of Victorian carnival games, for example, are super easy to source and fund.
- Collating a list of volunteers to help run the rides to raise more money.
Carnival Food Booths
Speaking of carnivals, this is another sure way to create a method of raising money for your fundraiser. In addition to carnival games, you can also rent carnival food options such as cotton candy, Snow Cones, and popcorn machines. Everyone gets hungry, so raising money through food purchases is a smart way to go, especially with something as cost-effective as carnival food.
Dunk Tank
Dunk tanks work especially well at school carnivals, church festivals and community events because they encourage repeat participation. Guests often purchase multiple chances to dunk teachers, coaches, local personalities or volunteers.
The Banned Word Game
Before the start of your fundraiser, select a word or words that , if anyone says one of the banned words, they must put money into a jar. Make it a word that is almost impossible to not say at a fundraising party. Set up for this couldn’t be easier: one or two decorated jars and a list of banned words posted where everyone can see them. Give each guest a reminder of the banned word when they arrive so everyone can participate throughout the event.
An Old-Fashioned Bake Sale
A bake sale is a time-honored way to raise money for a charity, and selling baked goods is a staple of fairs and carnivals. To motivate the bakers in your area, create a contest and appoint a panel of judges to determine who brings the best baked good (you may want to limit it to cakes or pies). All the baked goods are then sold off to raise money for your cause, with the winner fetching the highest price, of course.
Racing For Charity
The idea here is to have people pay an entry fee to get into a race, with all the proceeds going to your fundraiser. The winner of the race can collect a prize (you’ll want to look into getting prizes donated – or maybe give away some of the tasty stuff from the bake sale). What to race? Well, you have plenty of choices, including obstacle courses, Zorb tracks and Wipeout (which is less a race than a “last man standing game,” but the concept still works).
Popular Thrill Rides & Obstacle Courses!
Have a Quiz Show
This also features a competition. Set up a quiz contest where each round features questions in different categories. Everyone gets a point for a correct answer with the winning individual (or team) with the most points after all the rounds are done. Tickets sales to play would raise the bulk of the money. You can also give players the chance to give a bit more to your cause by giving them one chance per round to pay to either ask someone in the crowd or call someone for help with an answer.
Dance Off
Dance offs are something that all ages can get involved with. Create the ultimate dance off by categorizing it into stages of genre, talent, and intention. Have people sponsor their favorite to win, use the price of ticket sales as a donation channel, and encourage people to submit to the cause throughout the event. There are lots of styles of dancing charity functions to pick from, including:
- Ballroom formal events.
- Disco dancing for all ages where ticket sales are the primary donation channel.
- An amateur professional show where people can purchase tickets to watch and donate as the evening goes on.
- Dancing until you drop to raise the most money. Use pledge strategies and see how long people can dance for!
- A timed event where attendees must dance for a set amount of time and ask for sponsorship to be paid if they complete the challenge.
All of these are good fun and entertaining, and they provide plenty of opportunity for fundraising. Advertising the occasion will be easy thanks to social media tools and don’t forget to ask local businesses if they’d like to be a sponsor too!
Talent Show
Talent shows are a fun way to bring the community together while raising money for a good cause. They encourage participation from volunteers of all ages and often attract a large audience eager to support local performers. You can generate donations through ticket sales or ask people to contribute towards their top pick act in the voting rounds. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much to organize either when you break it down strategically.
- Community centers, church halls and school auditoriums often make excellent venues because they provide plenty of space for performers and guests while keeping costs low.
- Promote the event on social media and invite community members to sign up. Encourage a variety of performances, remembering that the goal is to have fun while raising money for your cause.
- Create a short list for the event after the auditions and aim for as much variety as the pool allows. A mix of singing, dancing, comedy, magic, juggling and other performances helps keep the audience engaged throughout the event.
Murder Mystery Games
Murder mystery evenings are a niche fundraising idea that is bound to attract a lot of interest from potential donators. To make this cost-effective (the donations exceed the set-up cost), consider sponsoring a selection of smaller events. Hosts then carry out their own menu and themed evening and guests can contribute to the charity as they wish. These are the traditional way of throwing a murder mystery and leave the donation channel fairly open. The second option is to put on a murder mystery play style evening where guests pay for tickets and participate by solving clues as the game proceeds. Both of these options are great for fundraising and are highly entertaining too!
Using fundraising games makes charity events much more fun and gets everyone’s competitive juices flowing. Whether you are doing it for a school, charity or church, using carnival games and beyond for fundraisers helps make your guests happier and your fundraising coffers fuller.
