1. Decide where and when to host your quiz night
Choose a quiz night venue
First things first: find a venue for your quiz. Some venues may allow you to hire their space for free, or at a reduced rate, when you mention it’s for charity. Pubs are a good place to start, as many already host quiz nights. Other ideal venues include local community centres, sports halls and church halls. Some schools also hire out space during evenings and weekends.
Consider how many people are likely to attend your quiz. Is there enough room to fit everyone in? Also think about how much room will be needed for equipment on the night, including food tables and speakers.
Choose a date for your quiz
When scheduling a quiz night, make sure the event date doesn’t clash with any major sports or cultural events.
Here are some top tips for promoting your quiz night:
- Make the most of your social network: ask friends, family and colleagues to get involved and help spread the word about your event.
- Harness social media: you could set up a Facebook event page and let us know how your fundraising is going with regular updates. Remember to tag us so we can see what you’re up to and say thank you! Instagram’s another quick, easy way to share your event details and online fundraising page.
- Share your event at work: you could stick quiz night posters up around your workplace and promote your quiz on the staff intranet channel.
- Approach local businesses: ask shops, cafes, restaurants and hair salons in your local community if you can stick posters on their windows and display boards.
- Reach out to local media: try asking your local newspaper and radio station to help promote your quiz night even more widely.
Get more tips on promoting a fundraiser.
3. Set questions for your quiz night
Not sure how to create your quiz? Here are some top tips on setting questions:
- Be inclusive: try having a mix of easy and hard questions so that everyone can get involved.
- Give each round a theme: for example, general knowledge, TV and movies, music, sport, popular culture, current affairs, history and geography.
- Mix things up: try using different styles of questions, such as picture rounds, riddles, anagrams, ‘name the song’, ‘guess the logo’ and ‘guess the celebrity baby photo’. You could also have a red-themed round where you ask questions about BHF and all things red!
4. Decide on prizes for your quiz night
Here are top tips on sourcing prizes for your quiz:
- Start by asking friends and family if they’re happy to donate a prize or know anyone who might be.
- Ask local businesses, including shops, salons, pubs and restaurants, for prize donations. It could be a physical prize, a voucher or experience, such as a cooking class or hair treatment.
- Start sourcing your prizes early: it could take a few weeks to secure prize donations from local businesses.
5. Sell tickets to your quiz
Before selling tickets, you’ll need to set an entry fee, such as £5 or £10 per person. You could also give people the option to donate extra if they like.
Consider also setting up an online fundraising page so people can pay ahead of or during the quiz.
6. Raise awareness of BHF
To help raise awareness of our lifesaving work, consider planning a moment during the evening to say a few words about heart disease and BHF. This is a great way to help people understand the difference their support makes. Or, if you have the technology, play one of our YouTube videos.
You could include a heart-themed question round to help link your quiz night back to BHF. You can browse our research section for some inspiration and amazing facts.
7. Boost your donations
Here are some top tips on boosting donations for your quiz night:
- Consider Matched Giving: ask everyone who’s helping you run the quiz if they work for a company that offers Matched Giving. Encourage them to apply if they do.
- Why not add a raffle to your night? You could host it during the quiz break or at the end to drum up more donations!
- Sell nibbles or drinks: if you do, make sure you clearly label any allergens on your products. Head over to the Food Standards Agency for further advice.
- Place donation tins around the venue.
8. Keep your quiz night safe and legal
It’s important to check what licences will be required for your quiz night. For example, selling alcohol and playing music both require a licence.
Any fundraising you do for BHF must be run in a safe and legal way. Please follow our keeping it legal guidance for fundraising.
After your quiz night
After your quiz, count, record and send us the money you raise as soon as you can. It’s a good idea to share responsibility for this among more than 1 person, and to prepare in advance by getting some money bags from the bank.
Remember to follow up with guests, sponsors and volunteers to thank them and let them know how much was raised to help fund lifesaving research.
