Jingo Fundraiser Information Pack
Waikiwi Tavern, Invercargill, (03) 215 9080
What is it?
Jingo is an exciting variation of bingo, where a short music track is played instead of numbers called. Players win by either marking off a line (horizontally or vertically), the four corners, and by filling in the full card before others.
A standard game of Jingo consists of 4 rounds. Each round can either have 50 cards, 70 cards or 100 cards. A standard game of 50 cards runs for about an hour and a half, with the largest game of 100 running for approximately 2 and a half hours.
How does it work? How can we raise money for our club, school, organisation or charity?
Traditionally, Jingo is played at the Waikiwi every Tuesday night. Players pay $5 per card in the hope of winning cash prizes (from the money pooled from the card sales). As a fundraiser, you would receive all of the money generated from the card sales, and instead of players winning cash from the cards sold, your group would source donations from businesses to giveaway throughout the rounds. Since there are small breaks between the rounds, there are great opportunities for selling raffle tickets for smaller prizes too. Again, this money generated is yours to keep.
When can we hold out Jingo event?
Jingo fundraisers are held exclusively on Wednesday nights, with most events starting at 7pm. We have found the trick is to tell people that it starts at 6.30pm, that way the majority of people are there ready to go at 7pm.
What do we need to do?
There are a few things that you will need to do to make sure your Jingo night is a success. First off is advertising and promoting your event. It is important to promote it is as much as possible to ensure you gather a large crowd. The more people who buy cards, the more money you raise! You must have a minimum of 50 people for your night to go ahead and be a success. Easy ways to do this are to put up fliers, add it to newsletters and to set up Facebook events. If you do make a flier, be sure to send us a copy so we can also pop it onto our various social media accounts. The other thing that you will need to do is source donations. These donations will be used for your Jingo prizes (and your raffles if you decide to hold them). Approach family businesses, companies your group may be affiliated with and anyone else who is willing to contribute. The MC will thank these businesses on your behalf, and if you also provide us with team photos and logos, we can play them on our big screen as well. To make sure the event runs as smoothly as possible, we advise that you keep a list of the prizes that will be used for Jingo prizes and those that are to be used for raffles.
In total we recommend having 16 prizes available for the rounds. Sometimes there can be more than one winner and this covers all the bases. Any unused prizes can be easily slipped into your raffle prizes.
Please note that when you are gathering prizes, it is illegal to give away alcohol as a raffle or gaming prize as set out by The Gambling Act 2005. More information on this can be obtained by visiting www.police.govt/advice/personal-community/housie-raffles/gambling.
Is there a cost?
While the Waikiwi pay for the cost of the Jingo kit (which we consider as our donation to the event), there is no charge to you!
How much can we make from this event?
It all depends on how many cards you sell. Advertising and promoting your event will increase interest, but if you ask each person in your group to bring along at least 2 people each, and get those people to bring along at least one person, and so on, you will generate a large enough crowd to make the most of the card sales. If you have a 50 card pack, sell all the cards in each round at $5 a card and that’s $1000. This is on top of what you make in raffle sales. A sold out 70 game would generate $1400, and a sold out 100 game would generate $2000. Not bad for a couple of hours!
Where do I sign up? I have more questions…
You can see available dates and make a booking at https://calendly.com/waikiwi-ilt. For any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out by either phone (03) 215 9080 or email waikiwi@ilt.co.nz.