Ahead of the quiz

Find a venueIf you’re holding your quiz at work then a large room or canteen is ideal. Alternatively you could try asking local:

pubs, bars or restaurants

community centres

schools or places of worship. 

Or even host at home or out in the garden if you’ve enough space.If it is a big venue, or a noisy one, you might want to consider getting hold of a microphone. If the venue charges then it is worth telling them it is for charity as they may donate their space, or offer you it at a discounted rate.

Decide on entry fee.

We recommend that each team member pays £5 to take part, but you may want to set a different price to suit your audience’s pockets, or to cover the costs of the venue or any prizes.

Set a team-size limit

Obviously you want as many people there as possible, but you also want a healthy competition so consider setting a maximum team size. Six people is the number we’d recommend.

Arrange prizes

You’ll need prizes for the winners and runners-up, but whilst you could use the entry money to purchase prizes you don’t want to eat into the profits too much. If doing the quiz with work, you could ask your employer to donate prizes, or if you’re at a pub see if the landlord will do a round of drinks. Also, don’t be afraid to try asking local businesses (for example, restaurants, salons, gyms or retailers) for vouchers, freebies or experiences.

Spread the word

Of course you can’t have a quiz without contestants. We have posters available on our website, which you can download to advertise your quiz on noticeboards or in prominent locations. If your work place has an online internal communications try and post an announcement there. And don’t forget the power of social media – let people know through Facebook and Twitter too.

On the night

Questions

It’s always good to have a range of questions on different themes so everyone can get involved. Classic themes include:

general knowledge

history

geography

science and nature

music

sport

film, television and literature

in the news.

Try and include questions of varying degrees of difficulty as you don’t want to make it too hard. A round of true or false questions is always good to include too as anyone can take a guess at the answer.

Get some help

You may be organising the quiz, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it all alone. If you don’t fancy undertaking the role of quizmaster then see if you can find a confident public speaker to take it on. Also, you might want to get others to take on the role of scorers and maybe even photographer to keep a record of the night.

Keep tally

Remember to keep score, by marking after each round, or every second round if you prefer. To save time you can always get teams to swap their answer sheets with others to mark the scores so far.

Security

You don’t want to be handling too much money on the night, so if possible get teams to pay their entry fee in advance. If you do collect cash on the night do so with another person, likewise the counting up. Some venues may have a safe where you can leave the money over night- if that’s not an option then make sure you get home by vehicle rather than on foot.

After the event

Thank you

As well as thanking everyone for coming on the night it’s always good to send an extra thanks afterwards. A quick email or social media post the day after, thanking all for coming and letting them know how much they raised, always goes down well.

Paying the money in

You can pay your money in to Shelter by cheque or card payment, but we’re afraid we can’t accept cash.Cheques should be made payable to Shelter and sent to us, with a note about your event to: The Shelter Events team Shelter 88 Old Street London, EC1V 9HU.

For details of how to pay in your quiz money online or by card drop us an email on [email protected]