A trivia night is a strong community fundraiser for a small AU charity, club or P&C, and it can raise modest money if you run it tight.
- Sell tickets online in advance and set table-of-8 plus individual-seat ticket types at least four weeks out.
- Zeffy's in-person payment app is not available in Australia, so plan card-on-the-night separately (QR code self-serve, or a general payment terminal).
- Ticket price is not a tax-deductible donation. A separate "add a donation" line is, but only if your organisation is DGR-endorsed.
- If your charity is GST-registered, ticket revenue carries GST obligations that Zeffy does not currently handle automatically.
- Skip the raffle. Raffles are state-regulated minor gaming and Zeffy does not offer them in Australia. Use a silent auction, games of skill or higher-value ticket tiers instead.
A trivia night is one of the most reliable community fundraisers in Australia. Footy clubs, P&C committees, community organisations and small charities run them every year because the format is familiar, the costs are manageable, and people actually turn up. The potential is real, but so are the traps: card payments on the night need a separate plan, ticket revenue is not a tax-deductible donation, and the classic add-on revenue idea (a raffle) is regulated as state-based gaming and is not something Zeffy supports in Australia.
This guide gives you a practical run-sheet so you know exactly what to do before, during and after the night.
In this article:
Decide if a trivia night is the right fundraiser for your cause
A trivia night is a community and awareness event first. The money is secondary, and that ordering matters when you are deciding whether to run one.
The format works well when your audience already knows your organisation, when you have a volunteer or two who will put in genuine time on logistics, and when your venue cost is zero or close to zero (a footy club's function room, a school hall, an RSL). It works less well when your audience is geographically dispersed, when you have no reliable quiz master, or when your only available venue charges commercial hire rates.
Ticket revenue can easily be swallowed by costs if the numbers are tight. An honest planning conversation before you commit saves a lot of regret in week three of organising.
The other thing worth naming: attendees at a trivia night don't always convert to ongoing supporters. They enjoy the night and go home. The event creates awareness and community warmth, and that has real value. But the follow-up after the night matters more than the night itself when it comes to building a base of regular givers. Keep that in mind as you plan.
Set a realistic target
Before you book a venue, write a number on a piece of paper. Not a wish, a target you can actually reach given the size of your audience and the likely costs.
Here is one shape of the maths, offered as an illustrative example, not a sector benchmark:
Say you sell 12 tables of 8 at $25 a seat. That is $2,400 in ticket revenue. A silent auction of six donated items averaging $80 each adds $480. An "add a donation" option at checkout at $10 per booking adds another $960. Subtract $600 for venue hire and $300 for prizes and printing, and you clear roughly $2,940 for your cause.
Your numbers will differ. The exercise is to write down your assumptions and check whether the outcome is worth the effort before you start selling.
One Australian not-for-profit told us they had been paying A$1,000 to A$2,000 a year in processing fees on their previous 2.5% platform setup. For a small volunteer-run organisation, that is a real budget line, not a rounding error. Running ticketing through a free platform matters when your margin is already thin.
Pick a venue and a date that suit your community
The venue decision shapes everything else: the room capacity sets your maximum ticket number, the available date sets your promotional runway, and the hire cost either eats your margin or frees it up.
Strong venue options for an AU trivia night include a footy club function room, a surf club, an RSL, a school hall, a pub's private function room, or a community centre. In most cases, an existing relationship with the venue (your club already uses the room, the school lets the P&C use the hall) means the hire is free or heavily discounted. That is the single biggest lever on your net result.
A few practical rules:
- Book at least eight weeks out to give yourself a full promotional window.
- Avoid the last two weeks of June (EOFY giving season is worth protecting for online donations, not diluting with a ticketed event).
- Tuesday to Thursday evenings in autumn tend to have the best attendance for community events. Friday nights compete with existing social plans.
- Confirm the venue's AV setup. A microphone and a projector are the minimum for a smooth night.
Line up a quiz master and write the rounds
The quiz master is the single biggest variable in whether people have a good time. A good quiz master keeps the energy up, handles disputes with warmth, and moves the evening along. A flat quiz master is the fastest way to kill repeat attendance.
Options for an AU community event:
- A confident volunteer from within your own community. Give them a full script and a tech run-through on the day.
- A local radio presenter, teacher, or community figure who owes you a favour.
- A professional quiz-night operator. Several operate in every major AU city, and some offer a charity discount.
On round design, a mix works best: general knowledge, a picture round, a music round, and one local-interest round (about your suburb, your school, your sport). Aim for six to eight rounds of ten questions each, with a halftime break for food, drinks and the silent auction browsing window.
Write the answer sheet as a simple PDF. Print one per table. This is also where your logo, your cause story and your website go.
Sell tickets online before the night
Pre-sold online tickets are the cleanest part of the whole operation. You know your numbers in advance, you collect payment before the night, and you spend less time chasing cash at the door.
Set up two ticket types: an individual seat and a table of 8. Price the table slightly lower per head than eight individual seats to encourage team bookings. Add an "add a donation" option at checkout for the team captain who wants to top up when they book.
Zeffy's event ticketing is free for the charity. Your supporters can buy their seats and add a donation in the same transaction, and your total raised is visible in real time.
Open pre-sales at least four weeks before the night. Two weeks is not enough promotional runway for a community event where team captains need to coordinate eight people's schedules.
The other reason to push hard on pre-sales: if you price walk-in tickets $5 to $10 higher than pre-sold, you create a real incentive to book early and you reduce the cash-handling headache on the night.
Plan how you'll take money on the night (and what Zeffy does and doesn't do here)
Every trivia night has walk-ins, late-comers and top-up sales. Planning for that in advance is the difference between a smooth night and a chaotic one.
The honest answer here: Zeffy's in-person payment app is not currently available in Australia. Do not plan around tapping to pay with Zeffy on the night.
Here is what works instead:
QR code self-serve. Print or display a QR code on every table that links directly to your online ticket page. Walk-ins scan it, buy their seat on their phone, and you have a clean digital record. This is the lowest-friction option and it avoids cash handling entirely for most late arrivals.
A general payment terminal. If you need to take card payments on the night for extras (a top-up donation, a lucky-door ticket), use a general AU payment terminal such as Square, Tyro, or your bank's merchant device. Run that separately from your Zeffy ticketing. Reconcile the two at the end of the night.
Cash float. If you accept cash, use a two-person handling rule, keep a written tally, and bank it the following morning. Do not leave the float unattended. Most events are moving away from cash entirely, and for a community trivia night that is usually fine.
Add extra revenue rounds without running a raffle
The classic trivia-night add-on is a raffle. We are not going to walk you through one, for two reasons. First, raffles are minor gaming regulated separately in every state and territory. The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) handles raffle permits in VIC; the NSW Government and Queensland's Office of Fair Trading each have their own rules and thresholds. Second, Zeffy does not offer raffles or lotteries in Australia, so this is not a surface we can support you on.
The good news is that there are strong alternatives that fit naturally into a trivia-night format:
Silent auction. A handful of donated items (restaurant vouchers, experience packages, locally donated goods) open for bidding from the moment guests arrive, closing at the end of halftime. Mobile bidding on your guests' phones keeps the energy up. Contact local businesses a few weeks in advance for donations. You'll be surprised how often a simple ask works.
Games of skill. Heads-and-tails, a jackpot question for a small buy-in, or a best-dressed-table competition are not regulated as gambling in most states because the outcome depends on skill or is token-value. Check the rules in your state before running any game with a prize; when in doubt, Justice Connect Not-for-profit Law has free resources.
Higher-value ticket tiers. A VIP table that includes reserved seating near the front, team name printed on the answer sheet, and a first round of drinks moves revenue into the pre-sold ticket line before the night begins. It also rewards your biggest supporters.
"Add a donation" at checkout. Team captains booking a table of 8 are already engaged enough to give a little more. A $10 or $20 donation option at the point of checkout adds up quickly and requires no extra effort on the night.
Handle GST, receipts and DGR properly
This is where the real complexity sits for an AU event, and it is worth spending five minutes getting clear before you sell a single ticket.
Ticket price is not a tax-deductible donation. When someone buys a $30 seat at your trivia night and gets an evening of entertainment, food and drinks in exchange, that is a purchase. The ATO is clear: no deduction is available where a material benefit is received in return. Do not tell your supporters their ticket is tax-deductible, because it is not.
A separate donation is tax-deductible, if you are DGR-endorsed and the gift is $2 or more. If your organisation holds DGR endorsement from the ATO and you add a separate "add a donation" option to your ticket form, those donations can be receipted with your ABN and a DGR statement (ATO DGR endorsement). Donors check their DGR eligibility on ABN Lookup. Only around 41.5% of ACNC-registered charities hold DGR endorsement (ACNC DGR fact sheet), so check your own status on the ACNC Charity Register before making any promise to supporters.
If your organisation is not DGR-endorsed, you can still run a trivia night and collect ticket revenue. You just cannot issue tax-deductible receipts for donations. Do not imply otherwise.
GST on ticket revenue is a real consideration. If your charity is registered for GST, ticket revenue carries GST obligations. A GST-registered organisation must issue a tax invoice showing the price and the GST component separately. Zeffy does not currently generate GST tax invoices for event tickets in Australia. If your charity is GST-registered, either handle GST invoicing outside your ticketing platform or check how your setup handles this before you sell. The ATO's not-for-profit hub is the right place to confirm your obligations; this guide cannot substitute for that.
Fundraising authority. If your trivia night is part of a broader program that raises meaningful money for a charitable purpose, you may need a fundraising authority in your state. In NSW, an authority is required if your fundraising appeal raises more than $15,000 in a financial year. From 1 April 2026, ACNC-registered charities are automatically deemed to hold a NSW fundraising authority, removing the need for a separate application (NSW Government charitable fundraising; ACNC NSW fundraising). Other states and territories have their own thresholds. Justice Connect Not-for-profit Law runs a free compliance walk-through if you want a full picture.
Promote the night to your supporters
Your promotional window opens the moment you have a ticket link. Four weeks is the minimum for a community event; six weeks is better for a table-of-8 format where team captains need to round up eight people.
Email is your highest-return channel. A plain-text email to your existing supporters with the ticket link outperforms anything else you will do. Email your supporters through a platform that keeps your list in one place so you can follow up after the night.
Community channels. Facebook groups for your suburb, school or club. Instagram stories with the ticket link in bio. A notice at your next in-person meeting. A WhatsApp message from each committee member to ten people they know personally. Word-of-mouth still fills most AU community trivia nights.
Sponsor or business partners. If a local business has donated an auction item, ask them to promote the night to their own customer list. A joint post is easy and extends your reach without extra cost.
The urgency nudge. Two weeks out, send a second email to people who opened the first one but did not book. Subject line: "Still a few tables left." Simple, direct, works.
Follow up after the night (this is where the real fundraising happens)
Attendees do not always convert to ongoing supporters. The night is community and awareness. The follow-up is where the relationship deepens.
Send a thank-you email within 48 hours. Share the total raised and one specific story of what it funds. "We raised $X. That covers Y for the next Z months." Specificity beats generalities every time.
Then invite one or two people from each table into a monthly-giving conversation. Not a hard sell. A single sentence: "If you'd like to support us year-round, becoming a regular giver means we can plan ahead. Here's how." Link to your donation page.
Keep track of who came, who gave extra at checkout, and who opened your follow-up email. That is the beginning of a supporter base. Donor management tools help you keep that information in one place so next year's trivia night starts from a warmer audience.
If your goal is to build more fundraising events into the year, the community fundraising ideas for clubs guide has more formats that work in an AU context.
A short trivia night run sheet you can copy
Six weeks out
- Book the venue and confirm the date.
- Recruit or contract a quiz master.
- Open ticket sales online.
- Begin approaching local businesses for silent-auction donations.
Four weeks out
- Send the first email to your supporter list with the ticket link.
- Post to your community social channels.
- Confirm your AV setup with the venue.
Two weeks out
- Follow up with people who opened your first email but did not book.
- Confirm your team numbers and prepare seating.
- Print answer sheets, table signs and any signage.
Day before
- Confirm the quiz master has everything they need.
- Set up any display QR codes for on-the-night purchases.
- Prepare your cash float if you are accepting cash (two-person rule).
Night of
- Arrive early to set up seating, AV and silent-auction table.
- Welcome guests, brief the quiz master.
- Run halftime as the active period for silent-auction bidding, drinks and socialising.
- Close the auction before the final round.
- Announce results and the total raised at the end of the night.
Within 48 hours after
- Send thank-you emails to all attendees.
- Share the total raised and what it funds.
- Begin follow-up conversations about regular giving.
Running a trivia night for your cause does not need to be complicated. Sell tickets online, plan your on-the-night payment options honestly, handle GST and DGR correctly, and put as much energy into the follow-up as you put into the night itself. Zeffy is free for Australian not-for-profits, with no platform fees and no transaction fees on donations.
Frequently asked questions
Are trivia night ticket sales tax-deductible for our supporters?
No. When a supporter pays for a ticket and receives entertainment in return, that is a purchase, not a donation. The ATO does not allow a deduction where a material benefit is received. You can offer a separate "add a donation" option at checkout; those donations are tax-deductible for the supporter if your organisation is DGR-endorsed by the ATO and the gift is $2 or more. Check your DGR status on ABN Lookup before making any promises.
Can I run a raffle at our trivia night?
You can, but Zeffy will not be able to help you manage it. Zeffy does not offer raffles or lotteries in Australia. Raffles are also regulated as minor gaming separately in every state and territory, each with their own permit requirements and thresholds. The VGCCC covers Victoria; the NSW Government and Queensland OFT cover their own states. Consider a silent auction or games of skill instead if you want to keep things simpler.
How do I take card payments on the night if people haven't pre-booked?
Zeffy's in-person payment app is not currently available in Australia. The simplest option is to display a QR code on each table that links to your online ticket page, so walk-ins buy their seat on their phone. If you need a physical card terminal for extras, use a general AU payment device (Square, Tyro, or your bank's merchant terminal) and reconcile that separately from your Zeffy ticketing at the end of the night.
Does our charity need to worry about GST on ticket sales?
If your charity is registered for GST, yes. Ticket revenue is subject to GST, and you are required to issue a tax invoice showing the price and the GST component separately. Zeffy does not currently generate GST tax invoices for event tickets in Australia. If your charity is GST-registered, check with the ATO about your obligations and handle GST invoicing outside Zeffy until this is supported.
How many weeks in advance should we start selling tickets?
At least four weeks, and six is better. A trivia night typically relies on teams of eight, so the team captain needs time to recruit seven other people, align on a date, and complete the booking. Open sales as soon as you have a confirmed venue and date, and send a reminder two weeks out to anyone who opened your first email but did not book.
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