Fundraising games for charity events that raise real money

Fundraising games are one of the most underused tools at a charity gala. Most planners put all their energy into the live auction and treat games as filler between courses. Run properly, a fundraising game can bring in money in five minutes flat, and set the tone for everything that follows.

I have run fundraising games at galas and dinners across the UK, Europe, and the US, and I have a clear favourite. This is what actually works, and why.

Why do fundraising games raise money?

Fundraising games raise money because they make giving feel like fun rather than an ask. When a room is enjoying itself, people give more freely, and that is backed by more than instinct.

A controlled experiment found that positive emotions causally increase charitable giving, and pointed directly to enjoyable events, including games and auctions, as a reliable way to create them. It lines up with why people say they give in the first place. The Charities Aid Foundation found that most UK donors give for emotional reasons, because they care about the cause, not because they were handed a donation form.

A good game does two things at once. It raises money in the moment, and it warms the room for the auction and pledge that follow later in the night.

Heads or tails: my go-to fundraising game

If I had to pick one fundraising game for almost any gala, it would be heads or tails. It is quick, it gets nearly everyone playing, and it gives the room an early sign that the night is going to raise real money.

Speed is the first reason I rate it. At a gala dinner, time disappears faster than organisers expect, and you are rarely more than five to ten minutes in and out of a heads or tails game. That matters when your running order has a live auction, a pledge, speeches, and entertainment all fighting for the same evening.

Participation is the second reason. In a room of 200 guests, I can expect somewhere between 90 and 95 percent of people to play. That is a completely different shape of fundraising to a raffle or a big-ticket auction lot, where only a portion of the room ever takes part. Heads or tails gets a small amount of money from almost everyone in the building.

The third reason is what it does early in the night. Getting a strong number of donations in within the first few minutes gives the event committee an instant, visible sign that the fundraising is working. That morale lift carries through the rest of the evening, for the organisers as much as the guests.

You can run several games at a fundraiser to keep guests entertained. But if I am picking the one game that earns its place on the running order every time, it is heads or tails.

The mechanics are simple by design, which is exactly why it works. Every guest stands, calls heads or tails on a coin toss, pays a small stake to stay in, and sits down when they lose. A few rounds later you have a small group of finalists, a prize for the winner, and a room that just gave money without feeling asked. Nobody needs the rules explained twice, which is the real test of whether a fundraising game belongs in your running order at all.

Which fundraising games work best at a charity event?

The best fundraising games for a charity event are quick, easy to understand, and open to as many guests as possible. Complexity kills a fundraising game. If people need it explained twice, you have already lost the room’s attention.

Beyond heads or tails, the games I see work consistently are:

• A casino night segment, run as non-commercial equal-chance gaming, for a longer entertainment stretch
• A quiz night format, better suited to a standalone fundraiser than a slot inside a gala
• A raffle, sold and drawn on the night
• Higher or lower, a fast card-guessing game that works well as a warm-up before the live auction
• A wine wall or similar mystery-prize game, good for a drinks-reception window before guests are seated

Choose based on your running order. A quick game belongs in the gaps. A longer format like a quiz or casino night usually needs its own dedicated slot, or works better as a standalone fundraiser rather than squeezed into a gala evening.

Think about who is in the room, too. A corporate table full of colleagues who do not know each other well will play a quick, low-pressure game more readily than a slower one that asks them to commit for twenty minutes. A community fundraiser with regulars who know each other tends to have more patience for a longer quiz or casino format, because the social side of the game is part of the draw.

What auction game ideas work alongside the main auction?

The strongest auction game ideas feed energy into the live auction rather than competing with it. A short game just before the auction starts can warm the room and get people reaching for their paddles before the first lot is even called.

A buy-a-key game, where guests pay for a chance to open a mystery box or unlock a prize, works well in the reception before dinner. Higher or lower on a hidden number is another good pre-auction warm-up. Some clients also like a short pledge-adjacent game where guests can add a top-up donation tied to the live pledge later in the night.

Keep any auction-adjacent game short. Its job is to build appetite for the main event, not to become the main event itself.

How many games should you run at one event?

Run one or two games at a single event, not a full programme of them. A gala evening has a fixed amount of time and attention, and every extra activity you add competes with the auction, the pledge, and the meal itself for that time.

Pick the one or two games that suit your room and your running order, run them with real energy, and give the rest of the evening the space it needs.

Who should run the game on the night?

Whoever runs the game needs to be able to hold the room, not just explain the rules. A quiet or nervous host loses a heads or tails game within the first round, because the energy that keeps guests standing, playing, and paying depends entirely on presence.

This is where a fundraising game and a live auction share the same requirement. Both need someone who can read a room of strangers, keep the pace moving, and make the game feel like the best five minutes of the evening rather than an interruption to it. I run games from the stage using the same skills I use to hold a room during the live auction, so the energy never drops between the two.

Do you need a licence to run games at a charity event?

Most fundraising games at a UK charity event do not need a licence, but only if you stay inside the rules for that type of game. Get this wrong and what should be a fun five minutes becomes a compliance headache.

A raffle at your event usually counts as an incidental lottery, which does not need a licence provided it is non-commercial, tickets are sold and the draw takes place at the event itself, no more than £100 of proceeds goes on expenses, and no more than £500 goes on prizes.

Casino nights, race nights, and similar games generally count as equal chance gaming, which can also run without a licence as long as none of the proceeds go to private gain and prizes are set in advance rather than tied to how much is staked. The Fundraising Regulator has further guidance on running raffles and lotteries properly.

None of this needs to slow your planning down. It just needs checking once, ahead of the night, rather than assumed.

Make your games raise money, not just fill time

A fundraising game earns its slot on the running order when someone plans it properly and runs it with energy, not when it is bolted on as filler. That is true of every game I run, from heads or tails through to a full casino night segment.

My fundraising games service is designed around exactly this: interactive activities that boost donations and create a genuinely memorable moment in the evening, not a pause between the parts that matter. I offer a free fundraising consultation to talk through which games actually suit your event and your room.

If you want to talk it through, email hello@thecharityauctioneer.uk or call 07596 851647.