Head or Tails Fundraising Game

Posted by Katie Collins on 16 September 2022

Looking for the next best fundraising activity? It’s time to play Heads or Tails. It’s a great way to mix up fundraising, and it’s a quick activity! This means it’s perfect to add on to any large fundraising event or as a quick crowd engagement activity before the main event.

We’ve seen people play this game at talent shows, silent auctions, comedy nights and even discos. All you need to do is sell tickets to the Head or Tails game at the door of your event. This way you can make sure everyone has a ticket before you play. 

We’ve seen people buy tickets, wristbands, badges and stickers – anything to display participation. It will show people how many others are involved, but also encourage people to buy tickets. The fear of missing out is a big deal!

How to play the game

Do you want to know how it works? You’ll be glad to know it’s very simple and that literally anybody of any age can play. Get all your participants to stand up and collect their tickets (or whatever you’ve substituted in for them to show participation). Once all entries are collected it’s down to your host or emcee to announce the game.

They will then inform everyone of the following rules: A regular coin will be flipped and land on either heads or tails. The aim of the game is to guess how it will land correctly. If you are correct, you can advance to the next round, but if you guess wrong, you must sit back down as you are out of the game.

Participants will be asked to signify their choice of heads or tails before the coin is flipped. There are many ways to do this. One of the more common methods is for players to put their hands on their heads for heads, and on their rear end for tails. But we’ve seen people stand on either side of a room, or even hold hands up in the air or crouch down. It’s up to you, but we would suggest making it clear and difficult to cheat. For example, the right arm vs the left arm could easily be mistaken incorrectly by the judges.

Usually, the game will last less than 10 rounds no matter how large your participation numbers are. So make sure you don’t plan on this game filling an hour of your evening. The last person standing will be your winner, so the first step is planning a few details.

What you need to host Heads or Tails

Now that you know how the game works, it’s easy to realize that you don’t need many things. However, without these items, your game will flop – so pay attention.

Essential item number 1: A prize

How do you expect to sell tickets to an event if there is no prize? People aren’t going to play this game without a reward, so make it count. Make your game seem like it’s worth playing. You may decide that your prize will be an item already selected and promoted as the prize. However, we’ve noticed that this game works best with cash. 50% of the ticket sales is a great starting point. It shows people have the opportunity to win their money back and then some – very enticing and proven to be popular over and over again.

Essential items number 2: A ticket

We mentioned this earlier, but you need to make sure you are selling a ticket of some sort to identify your participants. While traditionally tickets are used, new tactics have involved items that demonstrate participation before the event. This helps to encourage others to buy tickets but also indicates how many people you have to beat in order to win the prize. If you host events regularly it may be financially beneficial to invest in some reusable wristbands for people to wear so that you can reduce costs for the next event. However, if this is a one-off, we’ve noticed that stickers are particularly inexpensive and can be customized easily.

Essential item number 3: Setting a price

Okay, so this isn’t an essential item, but it is an essential piece of information that needs to be decided. How much will you sell your tickets for? Remember, if you’re going to make cash the prize, you’ll need to factor this into the cost of a ticket. If you’re going to give away 50% of all sales, a $5 ticket probably isn’t going to create much profit.

Add a twist to your game and announce halfway through that players can buy their way back into the game – for a price. People have paid up to 5 times the price of a ticket to re-enter at a later date. It doesn’t guarantee that they’ll win. In fact, it doesn’t guarantee they’ll last a single round. But it certainly raises profits! 

Heads or Tails is an easy game to host, simple to follow, and great at getting a crowd ready and engaged for more fundraising events.

Katie Collins

Campaign Success Team Manager – UK

Katie heads up the UK Client Success team. With experience working with a multitude of organisations across Europe, Katie has in depth knowledge about what it takes to run successful fundraising campaigns and events. Her passion for advising clients on how to maximise their fundraising is fueled by helping them meet and exceed their goals!