Fundraising
Bingo Fundraising
Bingo is found all over the UK and is one of the most popular forms of raising funds for non-profit purposes that there is. You will find bingo fund raisers at schools, churches and other charities. Bingo fund raisers traditionally do well because the advertisements for them generate excitement and everyone likes the opportunity to win something. There are no age limits as both young and old can participate. Sometimes the events can be sponsored by local companies who donate prizes to be won, in exchange for a little "free" advertising.
Not only is fundraising using bingo a profitable activity, but it is also easy to organise and set up. For example, here is all the equipment that is needed (purchase the Bingo Set to the right from a UK based online shop):
Game cards. These are made of paper and have pre-printed numbers on them. They are cheap to buy and are disposed of after the event. Note that those in the picture to the right are for the US version of bingo.- The Bingo Balls. These can be real balls numbered from 1-90, or just discs with the numbers written on them, depending upon how much you want to pay for the equipment.
- The Bingo Cage and Blower. A more professional event will have a cage into which the balls are placed to be randomised. The most expensive equipment has a blower, that blows the balls into the air, thus randomising their order. Cheaper versions have a cage with a handle that is manually turned. The cheapest equipment of all is a bag into which the numbered discs are placed, which is hand shaken to randomise the numbers before they are pulled out one by one and called. Note that however cheap or expensive your equipment, this does not really affect the enjoyment of the game.
- Masterboard and Rack. Once the numbers are called, the balls or discs are placed on a rack so that when a claim is made, the numbers on the card can be checked off against those on the rack to confirm a valid claim.
- Electronic Equipment. In this computer age, electronic equipment for a professional set up is not that expensive to acquire. Electronic equipment will typically provide a stream of randomly generated numbers, and display these numbers on a lightboard so that players can see all the numbers that have already been called.
A charity bingo night is also quite easy to run in terms of the number of people required to run it. You will need:
- A person to sell the tickets and collect the money
- A bingo caller
- One or more people to check the winning claims. These people are called "runners and spotters".
At a small event, it would be possible for one person to do all of the above tasks.