Game-based kid fundraisers live or die on small transactions: £1 tombola plays, £5 trivia entries, £2 raffle tickets. Platform fees quietly eat into every penny raised.
- UK ticketing and raffle platforms typically charge 1.5% to 6.95% plus a per-ticket fee, and JustGiving's default ~17% donor tip prompt takes another slice of every donation.
- Raffles run legally in the UK as small society lotteries under the Gambling Act 2005, registered with your local council for £40.
- Direct donations from a sponsored run or fundraising page can be Gift Aid eligible; raffle tickets and event tickets cannot.
- Zeffy is free for charities and not-for-profits: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee. Ever. Every pound raised goes to the cause.
Game-based kid fundraisers live or die on small transactions. A £1 ring-toss play. A £5 trivia entry. A £2 raffle ticket. That is exactly the price point where most UK ticketing and raffle platforms quietly take 1.5% to 6.95% plus a per-ticket fee from every pound a child hustles to raise. Eventbrite UK charges around 6.95% + £0.59 per ticket; TicketSource passes a booking fee of around 10% to buyers; and JustGiving's default ~17% suggested tip prompt takes another slice of every donation. Zeffy is the only fundraising platform with no platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee. Ever. So a £1 carnival-game play nets the PTA £1, and every trivia-night ticket and raffle ticket goes to the cause instead of the processor.
Below: 46 fundraising ideas for kids organised the way PTA committees actually run them. Games first (carnival, trivia and board, raffle, outdoor, esports, virtual), then food fundraisers reframed as competition games, then a quick age-group cross-reference, then a six-step event setup checklist. Kids do the work. Adults coordinate.
Not every group running these events is a registered charity. Village halls, PFAs, Neighbourhood Watch groups, Scouts and Guides units, Cubs, Brownies, Rainbows, and unincorporated community associations all run kid-facing fundraisers. If you are not yet a registered charity, you can still run every idea on this list. However, Gift Aid and small-society-lottery registration require HMRC recognition or registered charity status with the Charity Commission.
In this article:
Best carnival and lawn games for kid fundraisers
Carnival booths are the most reliable revenue engine at a school fair or church festival because the unit economics are simple: small per-play fees, high volume, low overhead. Kids run the booths. Adults take payments. Here are six classics worth standing up.
1. Hook-a-Duck
Float numbered rubber ducks in a paddling pool. Players hook one with a wooden dowel. The number underneath wins a small prize tier (sweets, a sticker, a small soft toy). Materials: paddling pool, 30 to 50 ducks, plastic hooks. Common pricing pattern: a small per-play fee or a wristband for unlimited play. Best for ages 5 to 9.
2. Ring Toss
Three rings, one shot at a row of bottles or cones. Cheap to build, easy to volunteer-staff. Materials: 6 to 10 glass bottles or weighted cones, 3 plastic rings per play. Common pricing pattern: a small per-play fee for three throws. Best for ages 6 and over.
3. Target Golf
Putt a golf ball into a numbered target hole. A popular choice at events where older children and parents both play. Materials: putting mat or carpet square, target board with holes, golf balls and a putter. Common pricing pattern: a small fee per round of three putts. Best for ages 8 and over.
4. Balloon Darts
Pop balloons pinned to a corkboard with a numbered prize underneath. Loud, satisfying, draws a crowd. Materials: corkboard, balloons, 3 darts per play, supervised dart station. Common pricing pattern: a small per-play fee for three darts. Best for ages 10 and over with adult supervision.
5. Bean Bag Toss (Cornhole)
Standard bean bag toss boards. A bonus for many PTAs: they already own a set. Materials: 2 boards, 8 bean bags. Common pricing pattern: a small per-game fee for one round, or a team tournament with a per-team entry fee. Best for all ages.
6. Prize Wheel
A spin-the-wheel mechanic that converts almost everyone who walks past. Divide the wheel into 8 to 12 segments with prize tiers. Materials: prize wheel (rent or buy), prize tiers. Common pricing pattern: a small per-spin fee. Best for all ages.
At the booth, you do not need a separate card reader. With Tap to Pay on a volunteer's phone, you collect £1 to £2 game plays and wristband sales without a terminal, without a platform fee, and without a transaction fee. The full play fee lands with the cause.
Board game and trivia night fundraisers
Trivia and board game nights work because they draw adults in alongside children and they monetise cleanly through per-team or per-person entry fees. Plan for £5 to £10 per person or a bundled team rate.
7. Trivia Night
Five to seven rounds, ten questions each, themed by category: general knowledge, music, sport, films, school history, current events, and a kids-choose round. Teams of four to six. Charge a per-person entry fee or a flat per-team rate. Sell raffle tickets between rounds to lift revenue per attendee. Best for ages 12 and over (with parents on the team).
8. Bingo Fundraiser
Source prizes through local-business donations (gift cards, restaurant vouchers, salon services) so your prize cost is zero. Charge for bingo cards on entry. Run multiple rounds with escalating prize tiers. Bingo is a UK staple and plays well across all ages with adult support.
9. Board Game Tournament
Pick one game families know (Monopoly, Scrabble, Catan, Uno). Run a single-elimination bracket. Charge a per-player entry fee. Best for ages 8 and over.
10. Card Game Competition
Same mechanic as the board game tournament, but with Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon TCG, or Spades. Teen-heavy. Charge a per-player entry fee. Best for ages 10 and over.
11. Family Game Night
The simplest version: charge a per-family entry fee, set up tables stocked with board games, sell refreshments, and award a trophy to the winning family. Encourage families to run peer-to-peer sponsored fundraising pages in the weeks before the event to drive pre-event donations on top of the entry fee.
Use free event ticketing to collect entry fees online before the event so you know exactly how many tables to set up and how many pizzas to order. With Zeffy, ticket revenue is the cause's revenue.
Raffle and lottery games kids can run
Raffles are the single highest-leverage game-night add-on. A £2 ticket sale takes 15 seconds.
UK raffle law: what you need to know before you start. In the UK, charity raffles are lotteries under the Gambling Act 2005. If you sell tickets in advance to the public, you are running a small society lottery and must register with your local council: £40 for the first registration, £20 for annual renewal. A single lottery cannot exceed £20,000 in ticket sales; the annual aggregate across all your lotteries is capped at £250,000; at least 20% of proceeds must go to the cause; and the maximum single prize is £25,000. If tickets are sold only at the event and the draw takes place there too, no registration is needed (this is an incidental non-commercial lottery, the format used for most school-fete tombolas). Gift Aid does not apply to raffle ticket purchases because the buyer receives a chance to win, which counts as goods or services rather than a donation.
12. Teddy Bear Raffle (Tombola)
Collect donated teddy bears from community families and local gift shops. Name each bear. Pin one ticket to the bear and drop the matching ticket in a jar. Donors pull tickets and win the matching bear. A few blank tickets in the jar keep play going. Sell tickets online and at the door with Zeffy's free online raffle platform for UK charities: numbered tickets, automatic draws, online and in-person sales tracked in one dashboard.
13. 50/50 Draw
Sell numbered tickets during the event. At the end, draw one. The winner takes half the pot; the cause keeps the rest. The 50/50 (or split-the-pot) format is more common in North America than in the UK, so a quick explanation on signage helps: 'Half the ticket money goes to the winner, half to us.' If tickets are pre-sold, register with your local council as a small society lottery first. If sold and drawn entirely at the event, it qualifies as an incidental non-commercial lottery with no registration required.
14. Prize Wheel Raffle
A hybrid. Buyers purchase a ticket and spin a wheel for tiered prizes (small, medium, grand). Higher engagement than a flat raffle, similar revenue per ticket.
15. Scratch Card Fundraiser
Pre-printed scratch cards with small prizes (a free coffee from a donating local café, £5 off at a donating pizzeria, sweets). Sell at school pick-up, sports matches, and at local shops and supermarkets with permission.
16. Themed Basket Raffle
Three to six themed prize baskets (film night, sports fan, spa day, family game night). Each basket has its own ticket bowl. Supporters choose which basket to enter. Higher conversion than one giant raffle because people self-select what they actually want.
Prize sourcing is the lever. Walk into 10 local businesses with a one-page sponsorship sheet. Six will donate. Prize cost falls to near zero and the raffle becomes almost pure margin.
Active outdoor games and competitions
Outdoor competitions monetise through entry fees, pledges, or both. Pledges scale the best. A child who collects £1 per lap from ten relatives ends the day having raised far more than any entry fee could.
17. Obstacle Course
Age-appropriate stations (tyre run, balance beam, crawl tunnel, rope wall, water-sponge toss). Charge an entry fee per child. Layer sponsored pledges on top: supporters pledge per obstacle completed. Peer-to-peer sponsored fundraising pages are made for this. Each child gets their own page, shares it with family, and pledges roll in automatically.
18. Sponsored 5K and Colour Run
The flagship outdoor PTA fundraiser. Pick a date, plot a route, charge a registration fee. Add a colour-powder finish for an instant social-media moment. For PTAs and small charities running their own event (not a flagship race like the TCS London Marathon or Great Run series, which use the Enthuse platform), a free registration tool means every entry fee goes directly to the cause.
A PTA running a colour run through a free platform keeps every ticket sold: no per-ticket fee to deduct from the year's total. Pair a donation page alongside registration so family members who can't attend can still give. Those direct donations can be Gift Aid eligible if your organisation is HMRC-recognised and the donor is a UK taxpayer who signs a Gift Aid declaration.
19. Colour Obstacle Fun Run
A hybrid of the obstacle course and the colour run. The combined format works well for primary schools and youth groups. Run it on Zeffy's ticketing platform and every entry fee goes to your cause.
20. Sports Day
The UK primary-school staple. Sack race, egg-and-spoon race, three-legged race, relay, tug-of-war. Charge per-family admission. A summer fête, harvest fair, or Christmas fair held alongside sports day creates a natural second revenue stream from stalls and refreshments. Village halls and church halls are ideal venues when school grounds are unavailable.
21. Mini Olympics
Sack races, three-legged races, hula hoop contests, relay races, rounders. Assign children to country teams with mini flags. Medals or ribbons for top performers. Per-participant entry fee, refreshment-stand revenue from spectators.
22. Dodgeball Tournament
Children form teams of six and run a single-elimination bracket. Charge per team. Secure local corporate sponsorships for bibs and prize money in exchange for logo placement.
23. Scavenger Hunt
Pick a child-friendly theme. Plot a safe neighbourhood route. Write 10 to 15 clues. Run teams of four. Charge a per-team entry fee. Pair with a refreshment stand at the finish point for additional revenue.
24. Sports Camp
A one- or two-day skills camp run by older student-athletes or volunteer coaches. Football, basketball, rounders, netball: pick what your community plays. Charge a registration fee. End with a mini-tournament and award ceremony.
25. Talent Show
A talent show runs the same revenue mechanics as a tournament: ticketed audience, per-performer entry fee, refreshment sales, branded merchandise. Pre-sell tickets online through Zeffy's ticketing system so you know your numbers before the night.
26. Movie Night
Set up a large screen in a school field or community park (with permissions). Sell tickets and refreshments. The outdoor blankets-and-popcorn version works best from May through September.
Video game tournaments and esports fundraisers
Esports events reach the 12-to-18 audience who will not show up for a bake sale but will absolutely show up for a Mario Kart bracket. Zeffy handles registration, ticketing, and the donation layer. Pair it with external streaming and bracket tools.
27. Console Tournament (Mario Kart, FIFA, Super Smash Bros)
Bring three or four TVs and consoles into a school hall or community room. Run a single-elimination bracket. Charge a per-player entry fee. Award a small prize to the winner and put the rest to the cause.
28. PC Gaming Event
A bring-your-own-laptop tournament for games children already play. Same bracket mechanic as console. Same per-player entry fee. Sell refreshments alongside.
29. Streaming Fundraiser
Older children and teen volunteers stream gameplay on platforms such as Twitch and direct viewers to a peer-to-peer donation page. Pledge-per-win, pledge-per-kill, or flat donations during a multi-hour stream. Streaming platforms often work with a charity layer such as Tiltify for routing donations to UK charities. Check the current rules on whichever platform and any intermediate service your group uses before launch. Zeffy handles the registration and donation-page layer.
30. Minecraft Build Competition
Set a theme (medieval castle, dream school, underwater city), a time limit, and a judging panel of teachers and parents. Charge a per-participant entry fee; sell spectator tickets for the live judging event.
For all four formats, children can collect pledges per win or per round through peer-to-peer fundraising pages. Friends and family pledge £1 per match win. A child who wins 15 matches over a weekend tournament raises £15 from each pledger automatically.
Virtual and hybrid game options
Virtual game options matter when half the extended family lives at the other end of the country. They are also the cheapest events to run: no venue, no refreshments, no clear-up.
31. Online Trivia via Zoom
Same trivia format as the in-person night. Host on Zoom, run questions through tools like Kahoot, sell tickets online. Best for cross-country extended-family fundraisers and alumni events.
32. Virtual Bingo
Generate bingo cards online, host the draw on a video call, post prizes to winners. Or run it asynchronously across a week. Per-card ticket sales through online registration.
33. Online Scavenger Hunt
Send participants a list of items to photograph in their own home or neighbourhood (something blue, something with the school logo, a baked good). Submit photos to a shared album. Award prizes for fastest completion and most creative photos.
34. App-Based Game Challenge
Step-counter challenges, language-app streaks, maths-app leaderboards. Children pledge to hit a target (10,000 steps a day for a week, 100 Spanish lessons) and supporters pledge per milestone reached.
For all four formats, Zeffy is the registration and donation layer. It does not host streams or run trivia questions. Pair it with whichever virtual tool fits.
Food-based fundraising games
Food works best when a competition or vote is attached. A bake sale alone sells slowly. A bake sale with a best-decorated biscuit judging panel and a £2 voting fee suddenly has two revenue streams.
35. Cupcake Wars
Children bake and decorate cupcakes. Supporters pay a small voting fee per ballot. Divide by age group for fair competition. The child with the most votes wins. Charge a small per-participant baking entry fee on top.
36. Chilli Cook-off
Teams bring their best chilli. Charge a per-team entry fee. Sell tasting tickets to attendees, each good for one sample. Attendees vote for their favourite. Award prizes for the winning chilli, people's choice, and most creative recipe.
37. Biscuit Decorating Contest
Setup steps for a clean run:
- 1. Pick a venue (school gym, community park, village hall).
- 2. Promote a week in advance so families can plan.
- 3. Use event ticketing or online registration to pre-sell entries.
- 4. Create separate peer-to-peer campaigns for each child so supporters can donate to their favourite decorator.
- 5. Offer biscuits and decoration supplies for a small fee, or partner with a local bakery for in-kind donations.
- 6. Award prizes for best-decorated biscuits and for the child who raises the most.
38. Bake Sale (with a competition twist)
The classic bake sale, upgraded. Run a pancake breakfast or themed bake competition and pre-sell event tickets online. A PTA running a pancake breakfast through a free platform keeps the full ticket revenue: no per-ticket fee to deduct from the year's total.
39. Lemonade Stand
The easiest of the easy. Jars, glasses, lemonade ingredients (often donated by a local grocer). Let the children decorate the stall. Pair with another event for higher foot traffic. See more summer fundraising ideas that pair well with a lemonade stand.
Gift Aid and food fundraisers: direct donations from a sponsored run or peer-to-peer fundraising page can be Gift Aid eligible if your organisation is HMRC-recognised. Ticket sales, raffle entries, and payments for goods (cakes, cupcakes at a bake sale) are not Gift Aid eligible. So a colour-run donation page paired with sponsored pledges is the highest-Gift-Aid-yield format on this list.
Fundraising games by age group
A quick cross-reference. The full setup details for each game are in the category sections above; the lists below show which game fits which age.
Ages 5 to 7
- Hook-a-Duck: simple hand-eye coordination, no reading required.
- Ring Toss: easy mechanic, instant feedback.
- Prize Wheel: low skill, high engagement.
- Face Painting: ideal for the youngest at any school fair.
- Biscuit Decorating Contest: hands-on creative play.
Ages 8 to 12
- Trivia Night and Bingo: family-team format works well.
- Scavenger Hunt: pairs with a community event.
- Sports Day, Mini Olympics, Dodgeball Tournament: high energy, clear teams.
- Console Tournament (Mario Kart, FIFA): age-appropriate competitive gaming.
- Cupcake Wars and Chilli Cook-off: children cook with adult supervision.
Teens (13 and over)
- PC Gaming Events, Streaming Fundraisers, Minecraft Build Competitions: teen-native formats.
- Sponsored 5K and Colour Run: teens can run pledge campaigns themselves.
- Obstacle Course with pledge-per-obstacle: peer-to-peer sponsored fundraising fits this age cleanly.
- Kid-Friendly Escape Room: works for teen birthday-fundraiser hybrids.
- Virtual Trivia with extended family: teens can host on Zoom independently.
How to set up your fundraising game event
Every game-event setup runs on the same six-step backbone. Use this as your checklist.
1. Pick the venue
School gym, cafeteria, community park, church hall, or village hall. Confirm permissions, insurance requirements, and capacity. Outdoor events need a rain-date plan. Village halls and church halls are particularly well suited to evening trivia nights, bingo, and board game tournaments.
2. Source materials
Walk into 8 to 12 local businesses with a one-page sponsorship sheet. Ask for in-kind donations (prizes, food, supplies) in exchange for logo placement on signage. Most will say yes.
3. Coordinate volunteers
Two volunteers per booth, minimum. Assign a setup lead, a teardown lead, and a payments lead. Brief everyone the day before.
4. Set pricing
Small games: £1 to £2 per play, or a wristband for unlimited play. Tournaments: £5 to £10 per person or per team. Raffle tickets: £1 to £5 per ticket (subject to the £20,000 single-lottery cap if pre-sold). Mix unit-price games (high volume) with bundled wristbands (high total ticket value).
5. Collect payments cleanly
Pre-sell entries online with free event ticketing so you know attendance before the day. At the booth, accept card payments on a volunteer's phone with Tap to Pay: no separate card reader needed, no £50 SumUp or Zettle outlay just for a fête. UK village-hall and PTA organisers report that attendees increasingly do not carry cash to community events, so card-on-phone converts what would otherwise be lost donations. With Zeffy, there are no fees taken from each transaction.
6. Day-of logistics
Put clear signage at every booth showing the price. Set up a central information table. Have a volunteer with a megaphone calling out raffle draws and tournament brackets. Keep a first-aid kit to hand.
One more tip: pair carnival games with a silent auction of child-made art or themed hampers for a parallel revenue stream that runs all evening without any extra volunteer effort. For broader event planning, see our guide on school fundraising ideas.
The Zeffy difference for kid-run game fundraisers
Most UK ticketing and raffle platforms charge a per-ticket fee that quickly erodes small-transaction revenue. Eventbrite UK charges around 6.95% + £0.59 per ticket. TicketSource passes a booking fee of roughly 10% to buyers. On a £1 tombola play with a 6.95% + £0.59 fee, that combination eats 66p of every pound raised: two-thirds gone before the PTA sees anything. Across a 200-attendee game night with multiple small purchases per family, those costs quietly drain hundreds of pounds from the year's total.
Zeffy is 100% free for charities and not-for-profits. Always. Every pound a child raises from a ring-toss play, a trivia ticket, or a raffle entry goes directly to the cause. Trusted by 100,000+ charities and not-for-profits, with £2bn+ raised globally.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to register our raffle with anyone in the UK?
It depends on the format. If you sell raffle tickets in advance to the public before the event, you are running a small society lottery under the Gambling Act 2005 and must register with your local council. The initial registration fee is £40, with £20 for annual renewal. A single lottery cannot exceed £20,000 in ticket sales; annual aggregate across all your lotteries is capped at £250,000; at least 20% of proceeds must go to the cause; and the maximum single prize is £25,000. If you sell tickets only at the event and draw the winner there on the same occasion, that is an incidental non-commercial lottery and no registration is needed. This covers most school-fête tombolas and draw-at-the-end dinner raffles.
Can we claim Gift Aid on raffle tickets and event entry fees?
No. Gift Aid only applies to genuine donations where the donor receives nothing of monetary value in return. Raffle ticket purchases (the buyer receives a chance to win) and event entry fees (the buyer receives entry) are payments for goods or services, not donations. However, direct donations made through a peer-to-peer sponsored fundraising page or a donation form can be Gift Aid eligible if your organisation is HMRC-recognised and the donor is a UK taxpayer who signs a Gift Aid declaration. That means a colour run with a separate donation page is the highest-Gift-Aid-yield format on this list.
What is the best age group for game-based fundraisers?
Most carnival and lawn games work across all ages, with Hook-a-Duck and Prize Wheel accessible from age 5. Board game and trivia nights suit ages 8 and over in a family-team format. Esports and PC gaming events work best for ages 12 to 18. Sponsored outdoor events such as colour runs and obstacle courses are suitable for all school ages and allow older children to run their own pledge campaigns.
How do we price games and raffle tickets for a school fundraiser?
common UK pricing pattern: £1 to £2 per play for carnival-style games, or a wristband for unlimited play at £3 to £5. Tournament entry fees: £5 to £10 per person or per team. Raffle tickets: £1 to £5 each, or a bundle of five for £3 to £4. If you pre-sell raffle tickets, keep the single-lottery total under the £20,000 Gambling Act cap.
How do we collect payments at a school or youth-group event without a dedicated card reader?
Use a volunteer's smartphone with a tap-to-pay app. This avoids a separate card terminal purchase (SumUp and Zettle readers cost from around £30 to £50) and means attendees who do not carry cash can still pay. UK community fundraisers increasingly report that attendees arrive without cash, so card-on-phone is rapidly becoming the expected setup at fêtes, sports days, and game nights.
What UK platforms are typically used for charity event ticketing?
Eventbrite UK is widely used for events needing public discovery, but charges around 6.95% + £0.59 per ticket for paid events. Ticket Tailor charges a flat per-ticket fee (from around £0.22 to £0.60 per ticket), which suits events priced above £10. TicketSource charges the organiser nothing but passes a booking fee of around 10% to buyers. Zeffy charges nothing to the organiser or the cause: no per-ticket fee, no platform fee, no transaction fee.
How do we run a 50/50 draw in the UK?
50/50 draw (sometimes called a split-the-pot draw) works as follows: sell numbered tickets during or before the event, draw one ticket at the end, and the winner takes half the total pot while the cause keeps the other half. In the UK this format counts as a lottery. If tickets are sold only at the event and the draw takes place there, it is an incidental non-commercial lottery (no registration needed). If tickets are pre-sold, register with your local council as a small society lottery first. Add a brief explanation on your signage for those unfamiliar with the format.
.avif)
.webp)
