A fundraising quiz is really three documents: a run sheet with timings, a round plan, and a scoring sheet. Everything else — the bunting, the themed table names, the playlist — is decoration. Get those three right and the night runs itself.
What follows is the template, not the pep talk. It fits a two-hour slot (TheQuizmasters): eight rounds of eight questions, two breaks, and a marking window built into the schedule so nobody sits waiting while someone adds up.
Plan the gaps first. Most fundraiser quizzes make the bulk of their money from extras rather than entry fees alone (TheQuizmasters), which means the raffle, the jokers and the heads-and-tails deserve more thought than the ticket price does.
All of it works with pen and paper, a projector and a laptop, or an online quiz platform. Pick whichever suits your venue, your crowd and the person doing the marking.
The run sheet: a two-hour fundraiser, minute by minute
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 7:00 | Doors. Teams buy answer sheets, order drinks, argue over a name. Budget the full half hour — it always overruns. |
| 7:30 | Welcome and rules, three minutes: team size cap, no phones (TheQuizmasters), how ties are broken, what the money is for. Say the cause once, properly, then stop. |
| 7:35–8:05 | Rounds 1–3. Sheets swapped between neighbouring tables and marked at the end of each round (TheQuizmasters). |
| 8:05–8:25 | Break one. Raffle strips sold, heads and tails played, answers and scores read out after round 3 (TheQuizmasters). |
| 8:25–8:55 | Rounds 4–6. Picture round handed out at the start so teams can chip away at it. |
| 8:55–9:10 | Break two. Raffle drawn, running scores read. |
| 9:10–9:35 | Rounds 7–8 plus the wager, then final marking by the host table. |
| 9:35–9:45 | Results, prizes, thank-yous, total raised if you can count it in time. |
Breaks land while sheets are being scored, which is the right moment for them (TheQuizmasters). If your crowd drifts, tighten them: ten minutes is a sensible ceiling for an official break (triviapacks.com).
Put a name against every line — host, marker, float and raffle seller, tech. Four people is the minimum. Two will get through it, but they won't enjoy it.
Work out the money before you write a single question
Start from the target, not the ticket. "We want £600" divided by an honest guess at attendance gives you the per-head number you need. Guess low: forty people who turn up beat eighty who said they might.
Write the costs down before you price anything: venue hire or minimum spend, prizes, printing, PA hire, and any licence or permit you need to run a raffle.
Then cut them. Ask for prizes rather than buying them — local businesses will often donate in exchange for a mention between rounds. A free venue beats a cheap one; pubs and clubs will frequently waive hire for a quiet midweek night because you fill the bar.
Per team or per head? £20 a team of up to six fills tables and makes people recruit. £5 a head is fairer on pairs and far easier to count on the door.
The rule of thumb: tickets cover costs, extras make the profit. As a sanity check, a well-run night with 100 players can raise $1,000 or more (TheQuizmasters).
One cash tin, one named person on it, counted in pairs at the end, total written on the run sheet.
The round template: eight rounds of eight questions
Eight rounds of eight is 64 questions: roughly ninety minutes of play once you allow for marking, which is about as much as a paying crowd will sit still for. Move faster than you think you need to — drag it out and you lose people for good (triviapacks.com).
| Round | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warm-up general knowledge, deliberately easy | "Which planet is closest to the Sun?" |
| 2 | Music: eight 30-second intros, a point for artist and a point for title | — |
| 3 | Local knowledge: streets, statues, dead shop names, opening years | "What stood on the site of the retail park before 1998?" |
| 4 | Picture round, handed out on paper to work on during the break | Logos, landmarks, faces |
| 5 | Connections: eight answers sharing a hidden link, bonus point for the link | "Starbucks is named after a character in which novel?" (TheQuizmasters) |
| 6 | The cause round: eight questions about your charity, school or club | — |
| 7 | Numbers and dates, closest wins | "In what year did the first Glastonbury festival take place?" |
| 8 | Wager: teams stake up to 10 points on each of the last two questions | — |
Don't play music while people are still thinking, especially in round 2 (triviapacks.com).
Mix easy and hard inside every round rather than back-loading the difficulty. Round 6 is the best fundraising ask you'll make all evening — people give more after eight questions about what the money does than after any speech.
If writing 64 questions from scratch isn't happening, Trivialism's bank runs to over 40,000 human-written questions across around 90 topics and three difficulty levels; build rounds 1, 2, 5, 7 from that and hand-write your local and cause rounds.
Answer sheets, marking and the tie-break
One sheet per round, not one per night. Teams write answers down rather than calling them out, and walk the sheet to the scoring table at the end of each round (TheQuizmasters). Collect as you go or you'll be adding up 64 lines at half nine.
Sheet layout: team name box at the top, round number, eight numbered lines, a score box, a marker's initials box. Tell teams to use the same team name every round (TheQuizmasters).
Swap sheets between neighbouring tables for rounds 1–5, then mark in-house for the last rounds so the leaders can't see the gap. Keep a master scoreboard on a flipchart or spreadsheet and read out the top three only until the final reveal.
Three rules, said out loud at 7:30: spelling doesn't count unless it changes the answer; disputes go to the host between rounds, never mid-round; the host's decision is final.
Tie-break: one closest-wins question, written beforehand and sealed — "How many steps are there in the Eiffel Tower?"
Where the money actually comes from
Pick three of these, not seven. Beyond three the night starts to feel like a shakedown.
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Jokers — £2. A card that doubles a team's score on any one round they choose. Cheap, popular, and it adds tactics.
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Heads and tails — £2 a go. Everyone stands, host flips a coin, hands on head or backside. Two minutes, one prize, reliably profitable.
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Raffle. Donated prizes, strips sold during round 1 and break one. Don't read out every winning number — post prizes and numbers on a screen, or have people write their table number on the ticket so you can walk it over (triviapacks.com). Spread draws through the night, or run them after the quiz winner.
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Answer insurance — £1 each, or ten for £10 (triviapacks.com). Price them higher and people feel fleeced and simply don't buy.
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Silent auction on one good donated item (TheQuizmasters): bid sheet by the door, closes at break two.
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Bar or food share. Agree a percentage or a flat donation with the venue in advance, in writing.
Sell none of it from the registration desk — that table is for registration only, or the queue never moves (triviapacks.com).
Hosting it: the script beats that matter
Read every question twice, slowly. Offer one more repeat at the end of the round, not on demand mid-round.
Say the round title and the scoring rule before question one, every single time. "Round five, connections, one point each and a bonus for the link."
Never explain an answer for more than fifteen seconds. The room will ask if it wants the story.
Bank a filler for the marking gaps: the joker sale, the raffle pitch, a thank-you to the prize donors.
Keep the cause light — one clear ask at the start, one short thank-you at the end. Round six does the rest.
Test the PA and projector properly beforehand, with a real song and a real slide, and keep a printed fallback (triviapacks.com). Venue wifi is a coin flip.
After the night: counting up and setting the next date
Count the cash in pairs before anyone leaves, bank it the next working day, and record income by line — tickets, raffle, jokers, sponsorship — so next time you plan the profitable bits properly.
Announce the total within 48 hours, with photos and the prize donors named.
Write two sentences of notes while it's fresh: which round dragged, which questions caused arguments, how long marking took. File the question set with the date so you never repeat a round to the same crowd.
Book the next date before you leave. Weekends suit fundraisers (TheQuizmasters); quarterly is sustainable for volunteers. Make it a fixture and a league with seasons and standings gives the run a story — easy enough to trial when you host a free live quiz on Trivialism.
Frequently asked questions
How much should we charge per team for a fundraising quiz?
Work backwards from your target rather than copying someone else's price. A team ticket of around £20 for up to six fills tables and makes people recruit friends; £5 a head is fairer on pairs and quicker to count on the door. Either way, treat tickets as cost cover — most fundraiser quizzes make the bulk of their money from extras rather than entry fees (TheQuizmasters).
How many people do you need to run a trivia night fundraiser?
Four is the realistic minimum: a host, a dedicated scorer, someone on the door and float, and a runner selling raffle strips and jokers. Appoint the scorer properly — someone should be marking sheets after each round and keeping the running total (TheQuizmasters). Keep the registration table for registration only, or the queue never moves (triviapacks.com). Two people can do it; they won't enjoy it.
Do we need a licence to run a raffle at our quiz night?
Possibly — rules on raffles and lotteries vary by country and even by local authority, so check with your licensing or gambling regulator before you print a single ticket. Ask specifically about selling tickets only on the night, prize limits, and whether cash prizes change anything. Your venue may already hold a permit. Sort it early; it's a paperwork job, not a last-minute one.
How do you stop teams cheating with their phones?
Say it at the top of the night, lightly, and mean it: phones away unless you're selling them as a paid cheat (TheQuizmasters). Teams write answers on the sheet and walk it to the scoring table rather than calling anything out. Local, cause-specific and picture rounds are harder to search anyway. If you host online through something like Trivialism, one phone per team stays on the room code and the rest go face down.
What's a realistic amount to raise from a trivia night?
Anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand, depending on attendance, pricing and add-ons (TheQuizmasters). As a benchmark, a well-run night with 100 players can bring in $1,000 or more. The variable isn't the ticket price — it's the extras, which is where most fundraiser quizzes make their profit. Forty guests and a good raffle beats eighty guests and nothing to buy.