Get the word out about your fundraiser with fliers and postcards. Consider having volunteers distribute them to local businesses and communities.

You can also hire a professional bingo caller to keep the night moving. You may need to pay them a small fee but it will make your event much more fun and engaging!

Banners

If you’re planning on a fundraising event for your community group, consider using banners to help promote the occasion. If possible, create sponsorship levels that give local businesses the opportunity to advertise their logo on your event’s banners or t-shirts and offer additional benefits like free rounds of bingo and a chance to speak at the event.

Once your guest list is finalized, send out invitations to potential participants a few weeks before the big day. Place your booking forms in pupils’ book bags or email them to parents, and post reminders on social media. Ensure that all players have plenty of bingo books and dabbers by ordering in bulk.

Use food to add an element of fun to your game, such as red and green M&M’s or Hershey’s Kisses for a festive touch at a Christmas themed bingo gathering. Or, make delicious cupcakes in your favorite flavor and decorate them with bingo toppers for a one-of-a-kind treat!

Disposable Plasticware

Whether you host your event at a community center, an outdoor venue or in a home, disposable plasticware can make post-party cleanup a breeze. Products like paper cups, plates, plastic cutlery and napkins are inexpensive and easy to find, and their single-use design helps minimize waste.

To increase your fundraising potential, consider offering a prize for each round of bingo, such as candy bars or Frank Sinatra CDs. Or, as LINCS did for their virtual event, award a gift card.

Next, determine how many participants you can accommodate and your target goal amount. This will help you determine the venue and food/drink selections. Also, decide if your event will be in-person or virtual. If in-person, you can use an online ticketing tool like Donorbox to create a branded fundraising event page and sell tickets with an integrated donation form. You can also spread the word about your event with a QR code or text-to-give link – both of which are provided with every Donorbox campaign.

Food & Drinks

To help your guests stay hydrated and fueled, provide a range of foods and drinks. Easy-to-eat snacks like cheese and crackers or bowls of crisps are always a hit, while a spread of homemade delights can really make an impression. Cheese-stuffed sausage rolls, loaded potato skins, and a range of fresh dips are crowd-pleasers that you can whip up in no time at all.

Prizes are a must to keep participants engaged and excited from game to game. Think beyond cash prizes and give away things like gift cards, deluxe baskets, and even experiences such as concert tickets or weekend getaways.

To ensure your event runs smoothly, it’s a good idea to hire a professional bingo caller to manage the night. Choosing someone with experience in entertaining a crowd will help the evening feel more special and intensify the excitement for all your guests. In addition, it will prevent the caller from getting lost in the noise and confusion of the crowd.

Prizes

A Bingo night fundraiser won’t make your organisation a fortune but it is a fun and relatively easy event to put together. It’s a sociable evening that will see people gathered together with friends to share light bites, thrilling bidding and of course, BINGO! Whilst a ‘full house’ is obviously the main prize for winning the game, you can give out other prizes as well. These can include the first player to mark a straight line across their card or to complete all four corners of the board.

A good Bingo Caller is crucial to the success of the night. They should be able to be boisterous and good-natured whilst also being able to be authoritative and ensure that players follow the rules. A caller will be shuffling tiles or using a machine to pull out numbers, which they will then place onto a grid for checking. They will also be responsible for the distribution of the prizes throughout the evening.