Canada edition. This guide is written for volunteer-run clubs in Canada. Where rules differ — grants, tax, incorporation, safeguarding — follow the Canada-specific pointers below or check with your national body.
A good trivia night is the perfect club fundraiser: cheap to stage, genuinely fun, open to every generation, and capable of clearing several thousand in a single evening once you stack the revenue streams properly. It's also the fundraiser most likely to become an annual institution — plenty of clubs have a trivia night that members plan their calendars around.
The difference between a flat quiz in a cold hall and a legendary night comes down to three things: a host with energy, rounds with variety, and an organiser with a run sheet. This guide gives you the formats, the minute-by-minute run sheet, the full revenue picture, and the checklist.
The fundamentals
Venue. Your clubroom if it fits tables of 8–10 comfortably; otherwise a school hall, community centre, or a local pub or community club function room (often free if the bar takings stay with the venue — do that maths before accepting; the bar is usually your biggest single revenue stream).
Timing. Saturday night, 7:00pm doors for a 7:30pm start, done by 10:30pm. Mid-season works; avoid finals, school holidays and long weekends.
Tables and tickets. Sell by table of 8–10 rather than individual seats — teams recruit themselves, and a captain who's bought a table fills it for you.
Price at $15–$30 a head depending on your community and what's included.
Sell tickets online in advance through your club's events page — pre-sales tell you your catering numbers, take the door-cash chaos away, and committed money doesn't evaporate on a rainy night.
The host. The single biggest variable. You want warmth, pace, and a thick skin — a member who can hold a room, a local radio voice, or a teacher who quiets crowds for a living. Give them the run sheet and the freedom to be funny.
Question sources. Write your own (two people, two evenings), buy a pre-written quiz pack, or hire a professional trivia company (they bring questions, host and scoring for a fee or a per-head rate). First-time organisers: a bought pack with your own club-themed round added is the sweet spot of effort and quality.
Round formats that keep the room alive
Eight rounds of ten general-knowledge questions is a slow death. Mix formats so every table has a moment where they're good at this:
- General knowledge — the backbone; two or three of these, difficulty pitched so average teams get 6/10.
- Music round — play 10 song intros, name artist and title. Do decades ("name the year one-hit wonder") for cross-generation appeal.
- Picture round — printed sheet per table (faces, logos with names removed, close-up photos of everyday objects, baby photos of your committee). Doubles as the "work at your own pace" round while food is served.
- The club round — questions about your own club's history, legends and infamous moments. This is the round people talk about later; mine your honour board and your longest-serving members for material.
- True or false / heads-and-tails — everyone stands; hands on head for true, hands on hips for false; wrong answers sit. Last person standing wins a prize. Zero marking, maximum noise.
- Themed rounds — local area history, "name that sport rule", movies, food and drink. Ask your sponsors: a "Smith's Hardware DIY round" is a sponsorship product (see revenue table).
- The wager round — final round; teams bet up to 10 of their points on their own performance. Blows the leaderboard open so the last round matters to everyone.
- Physical interludes — between rounds: paper-plane distance contest, longest putt into a cup, trivia host trivia. Two minutes each, keeps energy up after the main course.
Scoring: two non-playing scorers with a spreadsheet, swap sheets between neighbouring tables for marking, and publish the leaderboard after every second round — visible scores are what make the room competitive.
The revenue streams table
Ticket sales are the floor, not the ceiling. Well-run trivia nights make half or more of their profit inside the room:
| Revenue stream | How it works | Typical take (150 guests) |
|---|---|---|
| Table tickets | $20–$25/head, sold online in advance | $3,000–$3,750 |
| Bar | Club-run bar (licensed premises or with the required permit) or venue deal | $800–$2,000 (if yours) |
| Games between rounds | Heads/tails at $5 entry, coin toss lines, "buy a clue" cards at $2–$5 | $400–$900 |
| Raffle | Tickets sold all night, drawn late (see the compliance note below) | $500–$1,500 |
| Silent auction | 5–15 donated items, bid sheets on a side table, closed after the wager round | $500–$2,500 |
| Round sponsorship | Local businesses "present" a round for $100–$250 + a prize | $500–$1,500 |
| Food | Included in ticket (simplest), or sold separately / BYO platters | varies |
Costs are modest — venue (often free), question pack or host, printing, prizes (aim for 100% donated), decorations — so a 150-person night stacking four or five of these streams commonly clears well over double the ticket take alone. Prizes and auction items should be asked for, not bought: a structured letter to your sponsor list and local businesses in the month before the night, with public thank-yous on the night and on your club's news page after.
General information only. Raffles, games of chance and alcohol service at fundraisers are regulated, the rules differ by province and often by municipality, and this article isn't legal advice. Raffles typically need a lottery licence from your provincial or municipal licensing authority even at modest prize values — check the current rules before selling a single ticket. The same applies to alcohol — an unlicensed venue will usually need a special occasion permit.
For bigger recurring games of chance — 100 clubs, sweeps, ongoing lotteries — read our dedicated guide to 100 club fundraisers before you start.
The run sheet
Print this, adapt the times, and give a copy to the host, the scorers and the bar.
| Time | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 4:00pm | Venue setup: tables of 8–10, stage/PA check, picture rounds and pens on tables, auction table dressed, leaderboard ready | Setup crew (4) |
| 6:30pm | Volunteer briefing: roles, raffle float, auction close time, emergency exits | Organiser |
| 7:00pm | Doors open; welcome desk checks teams off the pre-sale list; raffle sellers circulate; bar opens | Door ×2, sellers ×2 |
| 7:30pm | Host opens: welcome, thank sponsors, the cause ("tonight funds the new junior kits"), rules | Host |
| 7:40pm | Rounds 1–2 (general knowledge, music) | Host + scorers |
| 8:15pm | Game break: heads and tails (small cash entry) • leaderboard update | Host |
| 8:25pm | Rounds 3–4 (picture round with food service, club round) | Host + scorers |
| 9:00pm | Main break: food out, silent auction push, raffle last calls | All |
| 9:20pm | Rounds 5–6 (sponsor round, true/false stand-up) | Host |
| 9:50pm | Wager round • auction closes at start of round | Host + scorers |
| 10:05pm | Raffle draw while final scores tally | Host + organiser |
| 10:15pm | Winners: trophy to first, wooden spoon to last (with the best prize under it — old trick, always lands) • final thank-yous, plug the next club event | Host |
| 10:30pm | Guests out; count cash with two people; quick debrief note | Organiser + treasurer |
The quiz night fundraiser checklist
Six to eight weeks out
- Lock date, venue, host and question source
- Set ticket price and open online sales on the club events page
- Send the donation-request letter to sponsors and local businesses (prizes, auction items, round sponsorships)
- Check raffle and alcohol permit requirements with your local regulator (see the compliance note above)
Two to three weeks out
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Chase table captains — personal asks fill tables, posters don't
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Confirm questions, music playlist and picture rounds; test the PA
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Recruit the night crew: 2 door, 2 scorers, 2 raffle sellers, bar crew, 4 setup/pack-down — a proper roster with named shifts beats a group chat
-
Print: answer sheets, picture rounds, bid sheets, run sheets, sponsor signage
Final week
- Publish "final tables" push to members via email and the club website
- Confirm catering numbers from pre-sales; brief the host on names to thank
- Collect auction items and prizes; write the auction item descriptions
- Float for bar and raffle; card reader charged
On the night — run the run sheet. After — bank takings, publish the result and photos on your news page ("the quiz night just funded the new junior kit!"), thank every donor by name, and file the debrief note where next year's organiser will find it. That figure also becomes evidence of community fundraising capacity next time you write a grant application.
Ideas that lift a good night to a great one
- Theme the whole night — decades night, sports legends, "back to school" — and give a prize for best-dressed table.
- Team names on the leaderboard from the moment doors open; teams that have named themselves are already having fun.
- A joker round — each team nominates one round pre-game where their points double.
- Kids' table or early kids' session for family clubs; parents stay later when children are catered for.
- Photograph everything — next year's tickets sell on this year's photos.
- Book next year's date before you pack up. Announce it from the stage while the room is warm.
Frequently asked questions
How much money can a club trivia night raise?
A 100–150 person night typically clears $2,000–$5,000, and well-established nights with strong auctions and sponsor rounds go well beyond that.
The lever is stacking revenue streams — tickets, raffle, silent auction, games between rounds, round sponsorships and (where you keep it) the bar — while keeping costs near zero by having prizes and auction items donated rather than bought.
How many rounds should a trivia night have?
Six to eight rounds of about ten questions, mixed in format — general knowledge, music, a picture round, a club-history round, a stand-up game and a final wager round — with two breaks for food, raffle selling and the auction. That runs about three hours door to door. Variety matters more than quantity: every table should hit at least one round they're brilliant at.
Do we need a permit to run a raffle at a quiz night?
Possibly — it depends on where you are and usually on the total prize value. Many jurisdictions exempt small raffles drawn on the night at a club function, with permits or registration required above a threshold. Check your local regulator's rules (see the compliance note in this article) before selling tickets, and read our 100 club fundraiser guide if you're considering ongoing games of chance. The same caution applies to serving alcohol at an unlicensed venue.
How far in advance should we plan a quiz night fundraiser?
Six to eight weeks is comfortable for a first-time night: enough runway to lock the venue and host, sell tables through captains, and collect donated prizes. Established annual nights need less, because the date is expected and the sponsor letters are a template. Whatever the lead time, open online ticket sales immediately — pre-sold tables are the single best predictor of a full room.
Sell your trivia tickets where your members already are: the ClubHelix events page handles online tickets, RSVPs and reminders in one place. Then round out the fundraising calendar with a 100 club and a grant application backed by the season's results.
