How to put on a quiz
Get your friends, family or colleagues together and have some fun raising money with a quiz. Here’s our step by step guide for a great event sure to bring out everyone’s competitive side.
- Choose a date and venue – Make sure it’s far enough in advance so more people can come and a venue big enough for all your guests. Often pubs will reserve a space for you on one of their quieter nights and then you have the plus of not having to worry about any food and drink. If not, charge for food and drink at home and raise even more for Maggie’s
- Invite everyone – This sounds obvious but make sure you give everyone plenty of time so they aren’t double booked. Don’t forget to send reminders through calls, texts, emails or social media
- Pick your questions and a Question Master – It’s worth spending some time on this, make sure you have variety to the rounds to keep people interested. You can have music rounds with snippets of tracks, ‘guess who’ rounds with photos of people or even sculpture rounds where teams have to make something from straws…the choice is yours! If you don’t have time to create your own questions we have a pre-made quiz from Culture Crawl here. And very importantly recruit a charming compère to host your quiz. They need to keep the questions flowing and people engaged.
- Fundraising (…the most important part!) – How will you raise money and help people with cancer? Will you charge each team £10 to enter? Hold a raffle alongside the quiz? Have collection tins at your event? Or all of the above? Think about how much you’d like to raise and the number of tickets you’ll need to sell to reach your target. Don’t forget to tell people why you’ve decided to raise money for Maggie’s as your personal story will resonate. Please let us know if you need any materials or support and we’ll do all we can to help.
- Prizes – it’s always good to offer prizes for the overall winner. Often local companies will donate vouchers for their business; maybe 50% of their bill at a restaurant, a £50 bar tab or a free facial? Ask around to see what people will donate and worst case scenario you can offer up some prize money from the pot.
How to put on a fashion show
Create an evening of glitz and glamour on the catwalk and sell tickets to create a fun-filled fundraising event:
- Choose a date and venue – hotels and golf clubs are often great venues as they have everything you’ll need in house, including catering facilities and audio-visual equipment. If not, you could use the Town Hall but remember you may need to provide food and drink, alongside any lighting and sound systems. Make sure the date you choose is far enough in advance for you to prepare and ensure your friends and family are available.
- Find models – who will own the catwalk? Do you have friends and family who can step in and look fabulous? Could your models all be inspiring people affected by cancer?
- Find clothes – do people have their own glamorous outfits they can wear or do you need some donations from a local shop. Maybe you can source some great value garments from a charity shop or set up a partnership with a clothes store. hairdressers and make up artists will often donate their time to help style models on the night.
- Invite everyone and sell tickets – tell all your friends and family that you need their support to help this incredible charity and why you’ve decided to raise money for Maggie’s. Definitely make sure all the models get their friends and families to come too. Pick a ticket price based on what you think is fair and what they get in return. Will there be food, a complementary drink or live entertainment? Make sure you sell enough tickets to cover your costs and hit your fundraising target.
- Catwalks – do you want to have someone describe the clothes as the models come down the catwalk? Or could these be themed catwalks set to music instead, where the models choreograph their own moves? The choice is yours.
- Fundraising on the night – can you do anything on the night to help raise more? Raffles and silent auctions are a great way to increase your fundraising and you can often get prizes donated from local companies.
How to put on a sports tournament
Whatever the sport or level of ability, a tournament is a great way to get lots of people together, stay active and raise money for Maggie’s.
- Pick a sport! – Whether it’s an extremely competitive game of rounders’ or a friendly kick about in the park, there’s loads of fun to be had by all. Some sports need more space and equipment whereas some just need a ball so think about what will excite people and the effort needed to create a safe tournament.
- Find an appropriate venue and time – The venue obviously depends on the sport but think about the space you’ll need and any specialist facilities. You don’t want people waiting around so try to find the space to have a few matches happening at the same time to keep people engaged. This doesn’t necessarily need to be extravagant, the local park could fit your needs. Weekends will probably work best for friends and family but after work is a great time for colleagues
- Invite everyone and sell tickets – Sell tickets per team or individual (depending on the sport) and don’t forget to send reminders through calls, texts, emails or social media. Maybe each family or department in the office can put a team together?
- Tournament format and rules – Round robin is a good way to start a tournament to make sure people don’t have to go home after one match. Have four or eight groups with equal number of teams in each group, making sure everyone in the group plays each other at least once before the knockout stage. Decide before the tournament starts how many teams from each group will progress to the knockout stages. Two from each is fairly standard with the winners from one group playing the runners up from another. Continue with quarter finals, semi finals and a final and you’ll have your winner! Decide and share all the rules before you start so that there’s no confusion later on.
- Fundraising and prizes – See if you can get any prizes donated for the winners. A signed football shirt or membership at the local sport club perhaps? Any additional items can be auctioned off on the day! And if it’s an all day event it’s worth thinking about selling some food and drink to keep people’s energy levels up. If your tournament is at a sports club, maybe they can donate a percentage of the profits?