Inexpensive Carnival Night Ideas / Family Fun Night Ideas!

It seems like we never have enough money to do all the things we want, or need to do. We might need to send a high school sports team to a competition far away, build a new hall for a community group, quickly raise funds for a needy family, or to help a whole community after a natural disaster.

On any day, at anytime, all over the world people are raising money! This report is jam packed with tips and ideas that can add a little zing to your efforts. Ideas, activities and games that will have people literally throwing money towards your fundraising efforts!
 

Before I launch into the activities, a quick word about evening and dinner events. More and more organizations are resorting to these events as a great source for generating extra funds. With a little creativity, these events can be transformed into successful money makers.

Here, I discuss the three most common ways to collect funds:

• To begin, a fee may be charged at the door. This would help cover the cost of the prizes being given away.
• A second route would be to charge a fee for each game or contest. For this, assign a cashier at each table.
• The third, and most popular, is both. Charge a small nominal fee at the entrance, and again for each pay per play. Remind everyone it is a fundraiser, and I doubt there will be any resistance.

I hope you will find a few surprises in here, and wish you the best in your fundraising efforts. For more information, or if I can help ensure the success of your event by adding a touch of magic or entertainment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Cody S. Fisher

Motivational School Shows

512-832-0283

IDEAS and ACTIVITIES

Karaoke Fill Up!

Organize participants into two teams. Taking turns, each team thinks of a song that is famous, or one which quite a few people should know. The questioning team (team A) gives a cue to the first member of the answering team (team B). Each member is required to complete the song from where the last person left off. When finished, team B begins by giving a cue to team A, and the process is repeated.

The team that gets the best 2 out of 3 is the winner, and each member gets a prize.

Find the Nose!

Keep an entry fee for this one, though at a nominal value. The volume of visitors will bring in the revenue! Draw a huge face, eyes, nose and lips on a piece of paper and tape it to the wall in a corner of the room. Ask all the participants to stand one side of the room. Turn by turn, blindfold each person, and give him/her a colored pen or crayon. Each participant is told to put a dot inside the nose.

The one who succeeds in putting a dot closest to the center gets a prize.

The Cake Weight!

   Contact a local bakery and ask if they are willing to donate cakes, or sell them at a reduced cost for your event. The sponsor will get publicity, while you make money through the participation fee. A win-win. Ask all the participants to stand in a row. Place a cake in the hands of the first person. Instruct him/her to quickly pass on the cake to the next person, and so on, until the end of the row is reached. Repeat the process with a second cake. Each person now guesses the weight of each cake and writes their guess on a slip of paper.

The participant who is closest to the actual weight without going over gets a prize. In fact, the cakes themselves could be the prize!

The Door Prize!

A clever approach to charging the entry or pay per play fee is to make it an uneven number! For example, don't charge $10 as most people would just hand you a $10 bill. Charge slightly more or slightly less. Be prepared with lots of change, and you will find you are handing money back at the entry point that’s then going to be used for buying raffle tickets, etc. This one strategy can dramatically increase the amount you raise!

 
5 Minute Balloon Mania!

You’ll need several large packages of balloons for this activity. Ask everyone to stand in a row. Give a set amount of deflated balloons to all the participants. When you say “Go”, everyone starts inflating and tying the balloons. At the end of five minutes, say “Stop”, and count the number of balloons inflated by each person.

The one with the highest number gets a prize.

Pull your hair out!

This one will have all your participants tugging at their hair quite willingly for a prize! All the participants assemble in a row. Give a set number of colored rubber bands to each of them. When you say “Start”, the participants start putting rubber bands in their hair, making small ponytails all over. Make sure that the rubber band is at the roots, near the scalp and not just hanging loosely.

At the end of 5 minutes, the person with the maximum number of rubber bands in their hair is the winner.

Say it Reverse!

This one can be quite interesting provided you have a big enough room and a microphone. Turn by turn, each person steps forward and counts backwards from 100 to 1. Alternatively, you can ask the participants to recite the alphabet backwards. Jot down the time of each person who completed this successfully.

The one with the least amount of time gets the prize!

The Silent Auction!

Donated items are displayed nicely at one end of the room, and a sheet of paper is provided for each item to write down bids. Towards the end of the night, the results are announced and the money and goods are exchanged. You can also add a bit of excitement by providing commentary and where the bargains are throughout the night.
 
Balls in Basket!

This activity should ideally be carried out in a big room or a hall. You’ll need a large number of tennis balls for this one. In one end of the room, place a series of baskets in a row. Please note, the baskets should be on a slightly raised platform. All the participants need to stand in a row opposite of the baskets. One by one, each participant bounces a ball into the basket. There are 10 chances in all.

The person who succeeds in putting the most balls inside the basket is the winner.

The Elbow Trick!

You’ll need a handful of fruit (oranges, pears or apples), one bowl, and a jar for this one. Place the fruit in the bowl on a table, and place the jar next to it. Ask the participants to come to the table in turns. Each participant has to pick up each fruit from the bowl with his/her elbows and drop them into the jar without using their hands.

The participant who succeeds in transferring the most fruit from the bowl to the jar in one minute gets a prize.
 
Mathematical Twister!

For this activity, you will need to prepare a list beforehand with random math questions. Have all the participants stand in a row. Read a question from your list to the first participant (example: 15 X 8 = ?), and give him / her only two seconds to answer. Moving to the next participant, ask the next question on your list, and so on, until the last participant gets a question. Repeat the whole process 5 times.

The participant who gives the maximum number of correct answers gets the prize.

Celebrity Mix!

For this great fundraiser, obtain posters or pictures of famous celebrities. Cut them up, and piece them together in a different order, much like a puzzle. The participants will have to identify the celebrities.

The one who identifies the most wins!

Flick a Coin!

It might be a good idea to approach a discount store to sponsor the prizes for this one. Arrange all the prizes in a neat row on the floor. Set up a throw line a distance away. People stand behind the line, and throw the coin, aiming at one of the prizes.

The person whose coin lands on the prize takes away the item.

Spot the Music!

For this you will need a CD player and some popular CDs. Gather your participants on one side of the room, and keep the player on a table on the other side. Play one song at a time and ask the participants to guess the singer and title. Once someone thinks they know the song, have them yell “STOP”, and stop the player.

The one who guesses all the songs right gets a prize (I recommend using 3 to 5).

The Bead Count!

For this one you will need a big transparent jar with a lid, and a bag full of different colored beads. Ask all your participants to gather on one side and hand them each a blank slip. Now stock the jar with the different colored beads in various proportions. Ensure some are clearly more in number than others. Once you’ve done this, display the jar in front of the whole group for a brief duration, say 2 minutes. Now ask each person to write down the amount of beads in the jar.

The participant who is closest to the correct number gets the prize.

The Standard Raffle!

Raffles are one of the most popular types of fundraisers; with people purchasing as many tickets as they wish. My suggestion is to either package a number of smaller donations together to create a bigger prize. An alternative approach is to offer a number of prizes for the same raffle.

Look Around!

Prepare a list of questions regarding the event. Have one prize per question. Some questions could be: the number of stalls in restroom, the number of people who work for the company, number of bags of popcorn sold within one hour, etc. Ask the questions out loud to the group, and instruct people to raise their hand.

The one giving the most accurate answer gets the prize.

Dumb Charades!

Make a list of movies which the general public is familiar with, and arrange for small prizes to be given to all the members of the winning team. Gather your participants and divide them into 2 teams (A and B). Invite one member of team A to pick a movie of his/her choice. They have to enact the name of the movie using gestures and facial expressions, without actually speaking. Give team B a time of 3 minutes to guess the name of the movie. Repeat the process by inviting a member of team B to pick a name.

The team which makes the correct guess in the least amount of time gets a prize.

Ring a Prize!

Place an array of prizes on a slightly raised platform in the activity area. Your participants stand behind a rope, and flip a ring, encircling the item they want to win. The ring needs to encircle the item without hitting it so that it doesn’t topple over.

If the rings lands over the prize, it’s theirs!
 

The 50 / 50 Raffle!

Easy and simple enough, the 50 / 50 Raffle is an excellent and sure fire way to raise funds. Separate raffle tickets are sold for this fundraiser. All of the money collected from the sales is totaled up, and one winning ticket is drawn at the end.

The winner gets half of the prize pool, while you get to keep the other half as your earning!
 
The Money Plant!

Get a small tree or a leafy shrub in a nice pot for this one. Also get some Lottery Scratch Off cards (within your budget). Punch small holes in the cards and tie them up in the branches of the tree with a nice ribbon. Charge a small fee for this activity. Invite the participants to ‘pluck’ a Scratch card.

If it’s a winner, so are they. Just be sure you have enough Scratch cards to refill the tree as needed.

The T-Shirt Jacket!

You’ll need plenty of T-shirts ranging in sizes. Invite several participants to come forward and blindly select several T-shirts from a box. The challenge is to wear as many T-shirts as possible over each other in a span of 3 minutes.

The person who is wearing the most T-shirts gets the prize.

Eliminate the Corners!

The Four corners of the room are marked Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs. People move to whichever corner they wish. The organizer draws a playing card from a shuffled deck. Whichever suit is selected, that corner is eliminated and the players return to their seats.

Repeat the whole process until you have one winner.

Fly Over!

This is a fun activity. Contestants “Buy” a sheet of colored paper and build a paper plane. Once every one has done so, they stand behind a marked line and throw their planes one by one. This is great for school halls, especially if there is a raised stage to act as a launch pad.

The plane that gets the furthest, wins a prize.

Spoon Feeding!

Get some spoons, a bucket full of water (you can also use a tap with running water), measuring glasses and a table for the glasses. Gather your participants in a corner. On one side of the room place the empty measuring glasses on the table, and on the other side, the spoons and bucket of water. Now invite the first person to the table with a spoon. When you say “go”, the participant fills the spoon with water and drops it into the measuring glass. The rule is they can not to drop any of the water! Each person is given a maximum time of 3 minutes. Measure the amount of water put in the glasses.

The one whose amount is the highest gets a prize.

Entertain And Earn!

You will need to get a bit enterprising for this one. Contact individuals who perform unique entertainment, such as a juggler, magician, fire-eater, or mime. Arrange for an informal stage show, and charge an entry fee to your event, which also includes their fee.