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Planning your perfect pub quiz

Interested in holding a pub quiz to raise some funds but not sure how? Follow this simple step by step guide below and watch the £££ come rolling in!

1. Get a venue

You can try any local pub. Go in and speak to the manager in person. Make sure they know it’s for a fundraiser and get the room for free. You’ll be bringing in loads of customers who’ll probably buy a drink or two so they’ll get their monies worth in food and drinks.

ICS volunteers celebrating at a quiz night in a community hall
Not a pub fan? No worries! Be like this creative ICS volunteer and hold a quiz night in a local church hall, community centre or café.

2. Fix a date

Make sure both you and the pub are really clear on this, get it in writing. The earlier you start planning this event the more likely you are to find a date that suits you both and the more time you have to make sure everyone gets it in their diary and plan to come along.

3. Come up with Questions

A group of friends coming up with lots of questions
© Shutterstock

You can find lots of pub quiz questions online or make up your own. Get some friends to help you out - can someone come up with a geography round, someone else a music round, one a general knowledge etc?

In order to raise more money I came up with a joker card. Teams could pay to play it and double their points in whatever round they thought they'd do best in.
Nisha Patel
Y Care International volunteer gives her top tip

To make your quiz a little more interesting, try a music round where you play a clip of a song and people guess the title/ artist, or picture rounds where people solve picture puzzles or identify an object in a close up image. It can also be a nice touch to put in a round themed to your placement with questions like what is the capital city or what is the currency?

4. Money

Volunteers collection money with buckets
ICS volunteers collecting those all important funds!

Decide how you are going to charge. It’s usually a good idea to sell tickets in advance as well as on the door. Will you charge per person or per team? How many people can be in a team? This is up to you to decide but I’d suggest something like max 6 in a team with £10-15 per team or £3-5 per person.

5. Publicise your quiz

People will only come if they know it’s happening! Make a Facebook event and invite all your friends. Ask them to invite their friends too. Pub quizzes are also a great way to get money from people you wouldn’t ordinarily speak to. Make posters and put a few up in the pub (or other venue) where you’ll be holding the event, local shops, community centres etc. Send an email round work or get your parents to send an email around inviting people. It’s a good idea to invite people a couple of weeks in advance and then remind them again a few days before hand.

6. Extras

Enjoy it! I had a wonderful night, and it wasn't just because I raised a lot of money!
Nisha Patel
Y Care International volunteer

Think about what other things you can do on the night to raise a little more money. One of the best things for this is a raffle. Your fundraising support officer will send you a letter of authority which you can take with you round local shops to try and get a few raffle prizes. Maybe the pub where you’re holding the event could donate a nice bottle of something or a meal voucher to the raffle prize as well? Try and sell tickets for this between each quiz round.

volunteers enjoying a pub quiz
Quiz night hosted by Raleigh volunteer Aly Khan Rajan

Be as creative as you can with other ideas – sell cakes on the night/ hold an auction/ do fun challenges between each round. Get one person from every team to take part and pay a pound or two to do so. If you’re holding the quiz in a community hall rather than a pub you have the added bonus of selling drinks and snacks throughout the night to bring in some extra cash.

7. Enjoy it!

 

 

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ICS is funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which projects the UK as a force for good in the world, including reducing poverty and tackling global challenges.

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