On March 31, 2006 the Business & Professional Women club of Wichita Falls, TX gathered for a night of food, fun and friendly competition. The funds raised for this event went to support our club’s college scholarship fund.
A Fun Night Out
Most couples like to dine out on the weekend, so why not do so with friends and for a good cause? It was a casual evening and an easy event for club members to bring friends and spouses to.
We reserved the party room at a Ruby Tequila’s Mexican restaurant, and around 35 people attended on the night of the event. The ticket price of $15 per person included a fajita buffet, tea or soft drink and admission to the trivia game.
Team Competition
When dinner was winding down, we began the trivia game. It’s played in teams of two and singles were matched with teammates. There were four rounds of questions with a winning team declared at the end of each round. The game is available with 15 or 8 questions per round and we chose the 8 question style.
Team members work together to come up with an answer and everyone writes it down on an answer sheet. Two heads are usually better than one, but some of these were really difficult questions! 🙂
At the end of each round teams switched sheets with another team and “graded” them as the correct answers were called. A round winner was then declared and prizes were awarded.
Gary Lucus teamed up with his sister-in-law Shirley Gray (right) who really is a trivia queen!
Each team could only win a prize for one round, so Gary and Shirley had to share some of the glory with everyone else!
Though no one was surprised when they were named the grand prize winners at the end of the night.
Prizes
During the weeks prior to the trivia night our fundraising committee gathered prizes from area merchants. We sent out some letters of request, but did most of the asking in person. All of the prizes were gift certificates and most were for restaurants. In most cases there was $20 in prizes for each round made of up two $10 gift cards, so each team member could have their own prize. Then the grand prize was a little bit higher in value.
Fundraising
The funds raised from this event came from three sources:
1. Ticket sales – The event tickets were marked up from the price of the food charged by the restaurant. Since this was a small event, we didn’t print tickets but just took down RSVPs a week before the dinner.
2. Raffle – We held a raffle of two donated gift baskets. Everyone who came to the event got a free raffle ticket and they could purchase additional tickets for $1 each. We actually didn’t give away the baskets until a few weeks later at another event. This gave us time to sell more tickets.
3. Sponsors – We solicited sponsors for several weeks prior to the event. Our goal was to have at least four sponsors, one for each round. Each sponsor received a business card size ad on the program and their name announced at the event in exchange for the $50 sponsorship.
Event Planning Tips
Here’s a few Trivia Night planning tips based upon our experience.
1. We did a few practice trivia games prior to the event night, one at a regular club meeting. This helped us get familiar with how the game is played and generated excitement about the upcoming event.
2. Holding the event at a restaurant meant no cooking and no cleaning!
3. Having sponsors was one key to making this fundraiser a success. Next year we may add other sponsorship options and side fundraisers too.
The trivia night was one of the easiest and most enjoyable fundraising events our club has done in recent years. In fact we’re already planning another one for this fall!
