Carnival Games
Organize a school carnival as a fund-raising event that appeals to children and adults. Hold carnivals in school gymnasiums or community centers and include a wide variety of games. Dunking booths, duck ponds, bean-bag tosses and cake walks are traditional carnival games that are easy to implement. Assign each class a specific game booth to operate and encourage parents to help operate the booth on the day of the carnival. Ask for donations from local community members to supply prizes for each carnival booth. Sell tickets to carnival-goers and set up an area for the sale of refreshments during the event. Consider having game consoles set up for children and adults to compete in multiplayer video games.
Bingo Night
Set up a bingo night to raise money for your next school program. Bingo can be played by all age groups. Buy or rent bingo equipment from your local party supply store and buy or print bingo cards for participants. Let participants buy bingo cards one at a time or in bulk so they can increase their chances of winning. Approach local business owners for donations to award as the prizes to bingo winners or use a portion of the proceeds raised to offer cash prizes. Bingo nights also offer the opportunity for a concession stand to provide even more revenue for your school fund-raising event.
Quiz Contest
Test the knowledge and skill of children and adults with a quiz contest. Organize questions at various knowledge levels. Consider finding quiz questions from assorted trivia games or trivia books found in the school library. Charge a fee to participants and organize them into teams. You can also let participants form teams and register as a group. Teams compete two at a time in an elimination format. When a team receives three wrong answers it's eliminated from the competition. Proceed with the elimination rounds until the two final teams compete. Local businesses can offer support with prizes for the winners of the contest or prize money can be awarded from the proceeds generated from the quiz contest.
Board Game Tournaments
Dust off the board games in the closet and use them for your next school fund-raiser. Popular board games can be selected based on the age group of participants. Hold multiple levels of the tournament to incorporate many people. Hold the tournament in a single- or double-elimination format. Provide prizes to division winners. Concessions and a cheering section add more fun.