We’re always very happy for our games to be used to raise money for charity. While we have commercial licences available for people who want to run our games commercially, if you want to run one for charity, here’s what you have to do:
- Choose a game. We suggest that you pick one of our larger games such as Murder at Sea, Casino Fatale or Hollywood Lies. That way you can maximise the number of guests you invite and therefore how much money you raise.
- Get in touch with us, letting us know how you want to use our game for charity (ie, to play, or to use as a prize. We’ll add your event to our site.
- Advertise and run your game. All we ask is that you mention our name in your publicity.
- If you put photographs of your event on your website, send us a link as we’d love to see them! (And we’ll link to them as well.)
- And that’s it!
If you’re not sure whether one of our games will work for you, then download our free version of Way out West. You’ll get a good idea of how our games work and whether they are suitable for your fundraising event. (The free version of Way out West probably won’t be big enough for you though.) This is what Vicki, one of customers did:
“Thank you for allowing us to read Way out West. Our non-profit is wanting to host a game like yours but since I have never attended one and have NO IDEA how they work, I was thrilled to be able to actually read and understand the mechanics of running such a game. I have put this off for years because I could not discover how it is actually organized and carried out. Now I know and we will be choosing one of your games for our fund-raiser in September. SO EXCITED!! Thank you!!”
Here are a few suggestions for raising money with our games:
- Take plenty of time: While your friends may forgive you the odd mistake, when you have paying guests then you need to take a bit more care. So make sure that you thoroughly understand the game (and maybe try out the mechanics first). You’ll probably also want one or two co-hosts to make sure the evening goes smoothly.
- Finger food or sit-down dinner: We always recommend finger food for our games, because it allows your guests to eat while continuing to mingle and play the game. However, for a charity event you might want to create a special meal – in which case we suggest that you schedule plenty of time for the meal and the game.
- Raise as much money as you can: Some of our games include opportunities to raise a bit of extra money within the game. For example, in Hollywood Lies the players can use money to increase the likelihood of their movie winning. You could allow the players to use real-life money (to charity of course) to increase the chances of their movie winning! (We wouldn’t normally recommend doing this – but it’s in a good cause!)
- Have plenty of prizes: End the evening on a high by awarding plenty of prizes – best costume, most outrageous accent, best actor, funniest moment…
When you’ve hosted your event, please tell us about it, either here or on Facebook.