The Trivia Wizard is an easy way to create a customized trivia game for your group of friends, for a pub quiz or fundraiser. I’ve even created a short video to show you how the Trivia Wizard lets you customize the game: Watch the Video

The process of building your customized trivia game is easy, quick, and inexpensive. You simply follow the prompts through the Trivia Wizard selecting the options as you go. You can exit or go back at any time.

Review and Change Questions

The game is played in four rounds with 8-20 questions each, depending on the length of game that you choose. The Trivia Wizard will display a screen with all the questions for the given round. Then you can choose to get a new question, change categories or insert your own question.

Is a particular question too easy or too difficult? Not a topic that your group likes? Click Swap Question and the Wizard will automatically give you a new question for that slot.

Not fond of a particular category? Choose Change Category to get a new question from a different category.

Like to add a specific topic or question? Choose Insert Your Own Question.

Themed Categories and Games

Would you like to have an entire category devoted to Music? How about specialized categories like Authors, Football, or Movies of the 1980’s? You can choose the categories and questions your group will enjoy the most.

With the custom category options you could even have an entire trivia night devoted to one category to fit with a themed event!

Watch a Video That Shows Exactly How the Game is Customized

Try the Trivia Wizard for free and see how it works:

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After four years of casting their lines into uncharted waters, Missionfish founders Sean Milliken and Clam Lorenz landed a whopper in 2003. Or maybe it landed them.

Either way, the “Giving Works” partnership between Missionfish and eBay has transformed both organizations.

“They said they liked what we were doing,” Lorenz said in a recent telephone interview, “and that they were trying to find ways to get more into philanthropy.”

At the time, Missionfish was experiencing modest success running its own charity auctions on-line, using in-kind contributions to non-profits as bait.

How Missionfish Began

“That was why we started this,” Lorenz said. “Sean and I were working for the Boys & Girls clubs in Atlanta, and we were always being offered things like a truckload of basketballs or furniture, or other stuff we already had or couldn’t use. It occurred to us that there was some potential in this.”

So Missionfish began as a for-profit company with the goal of moving in-kind (or, as First Book executive Chandler Arnold calls them, “unkind”) donations out of storage closets and warehouses and into the hands of willing buyers. They soon found themselves slightly ahead of the curve.

“We had a couple of long and lean years,” Lorenz said, “but it probably worked to our advantage. We stayed small, we didn’t overrun our capacity, and we were able to focus very minutely on what people really needed.”

In 2002, Milliken and Lorenz switched their status to non-profit and slipped beneath the umbrella of the Point of Light Foundation.

“They give us the space to work,” Lorenz said, “and all the support we need. But we also have autonomy. It’s a nice arrangement.”

Soon after moving from Atlanta to Washington, Missionfish started its “Lunch With a Leader” on-line auction, reeling in such high-profile individuals as Laura Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Petty, Pattie Labelle, Rosalyn Carter and Warren Buffet.

“Warren Buffets auctions off a lunch for eight,” Lorenz said. “The last time, it went for $600,000.”

The identification with celebrities made Missionfish itself more visible — and e-Bay came calling.

Partnering with eBay

“All of a sudden,” Lorenz said, “we had the opportunity of reaching 85 million potential buyers.”

That number has now more than doubled, and Missionfish has been able to retool itself to adapt to eBay’s brisk pace.

“We work with over 8,500 organizations now,” Lorenz said, “and last year we raised $30 million for non-profits.”

But that’s only a beginning, since Milliken and Lorenz are well aware that eBay as a whole has done $40 billion worth of business since its inception.

“We only have a staff of 17,” Lorenz said, “because we’re trying to keep costs down. It gets interesting sometimes.”

Here’s how the Missionfish Website explains the origin of the organization’s name: “The ‘Fish’ in our name borrows from an analogy by Share Our Strength founder Bill Shore. Rather than ‘giving fish’ to keep an organization running, or even ‘teaching them to fish’ for themselves, he says that what’s needed is to build ‘fisheries’ that can sustain a nonprofit’s work in a significant, ongoing way. We believe that MissionFish can be a Fishery –
producing unrestricted, consistent revenue for any nonprofit, allowing them to do more good.”

The Child Welfare League of America apparently agrees. The group hooked up with Missionfish in the early spring of 2004 and arranged for an online charity auction during National Child Abuse Prevention Month that April. According to the CWLA Website:

“The results of the auction were astounding. We accomplished all of our goals: to garner financial support for the Children’s Memorial Flag initiative, to raise awareness about the need to eliminate violence against children, and to broaden support for the League and its 1,000 child-serving member agencies.”

And they became Missionfish regulars.

Sellers who want to donate a percentage of their eBay sale to a non-profit can find an appropriate recipient in the Missionfish/Giving Works database. The seller then registers with Missionfish and designates what percentage
they want to contribute. Once the sale is completed, the seller gives Missionfish a donation of $3 plus 2.9 percent of the remaining profit (minimum donation, $10).

“These items are posted on eBay with the Giving Works logo,” Lorenz said, “and a non-profit can ask not to be connected with an item that might be inapproriate for its mission. For example, PETA probably wouldn’t want to receive money from the sale of a mink coat, and the American Cancer Society wouldn’t want to profit from the sale of a carton of cigarettes.”

Non-profits can also sell directly on eBay through Missionfish for free.

“Registering for this is relatively painless,” Lorenz said. “We need proof that your organization is a non-profit — generally, the 501c3 letter is sufficient, or we have other ways of verifying. We also make sure that whatever money is raised goes to the organization’s bank account and not to an individual’s bank account.

“Then we flip the switch and you’re in the database.”

While some other groups may use the Internet and eBay in non-profit fundraising, Missionfish’s connection with eBay is by far the most extensive.

“I keep thinking about that $40 billion that’s been spent on eBay,” Lorenz said. “One percent of that is $40 million. You can help a lot of people with that.”

Get more information about Missionfish.

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With the tremendous popularity of PBS’s television show Antiques Roadshow, not-for-profit organizations are turning to the antiques appraisal as a fundraising event.

The events have been successful in their communities, with many people turning out to see if they have valuable antiques or simply lovable curiosities in their homes. The antiques appraisal fundraising events are so popular that some people have been turned away at the door!

The Logan County Genealogical & Historical Society Research Center in Lincoln, IL held an appraisal day in June. People waited for hours to have their items examined by experts. The event was so successful that people continued to arrive all afternoon even though the event ended at 3:00 p.m.. They finally had to lock the doors and just complete the appraisals for those inside. It was the largest fund-raiser the Society has ever held, but certainly not the last. The Society planned another appraisal day for later in November. They raised $750.

The Allendale Historical Society of Allendale, Michigan held their first antiques appraisal day in April. One certified appraiser, Ms. Joan Bunn brought books and magnifying glasses to read manufacturing marks and artist’s names. The event was a tremendous success and Bunn wound up staying three hours longer than expected, the society had to turn away people who wanted appraisals. They raised $600.

How Antiques Appraisal Fundraisers Work

An antiques appraisal is an event where people pay admission to attend the event. An expert looks at their item and tells them a bit about its history and approximately how much it is worth.

It is an informative and interesting event that appeals to collectors, historians and community members. Just about everyone has at least one family treasure they would love to learn more about if given the chance to do so. Most people also enjoy not only learning about their item they brought for the day, but in seeing just what wonderful treasures other people have brought, and hearing the stories that go with these treasures.

At an event such as an antiques appraisal, it is important to have experts to appraise the antiques and collectibles. A fund-raising organization can find antiques appraisers by visiting local antique stores and also checking with the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America, or The National Antique & Art Dealers Association of America to find qualified appraisers for their event.

People pay an admission price to attend an antiques appraisal and this is the primary way to raise money at this type of event. Some organizations also combine this event with an antiques auction. An antiques auction can raise money, especially if you have people who love antiques attending an antiques-themed event! Consider having an appraiser tell the history (story) of each piece (or write it down if it is a silent auction) and then give an appraisal amount.

This type of fund-raiser could work for literally any organization - from a small not-for-profit to a larger one. Antiques appraisals have been done by community groups, animal shelters, political groups, women’s organizations and garden clubs just to give some examples. Creating a group of volunteers that will work on this event together is key to its success. A fund-raising event such as this would ideally need a group of ten volunteers to create the antiques appraisal itself, and probably more to help out the day of the event.

Success Strategies for an Antiques Day

To increase ticket sales - consider paying attention to ensuring that you have enough appraisers to look at antiques at the event. The more volunteer (or paid) appraisers you have for the day means the more appraisals you will be able to conduct at one time. As mentioned, some people have been turned away at events that have been so popular – it would be a shame for this to happen. Having more than one appraiser could be the key to getting more appraisals done at your event.

Also keep in mind that publicity is important for good ticket sales. Start publicizing the event as early as you can, ideally six months in advance, but certainly by three months ahead of time. Send press releases to your community newspapers, magazines, radio stations and community cable television stations.

Create a spreadsheet of all the media contacts you have sent a press release to and call them a week after sending the press release to be sure they have received it. Consider creating a postcard to mail to members of your community, as postcards can be inexpensive to mail and to create. Research collectors associations, such as those who collect dolls or trains or toys or china – you may be able to send information to the local chapter’s president to pass along to their members.

If people in your area are highly interested in art and antiques, an antiques appraisal fundraiser could be a good match for your organization. And you never know someone could discover that their attic storage yields a priceless treasure indeed.

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