PULTEVENT
School trivia night fundraiser: 7 rounds that run themselves
A primary school hall on a Friday night in term three. Trestle tables of ten under the basketball hoops, a stack of blue gym mats pushed against the wall, one table dressed as pirates and another as the teaching staff of 1985 (brown cardigans, whistles, a clipboard). There's a cheese platter on every table, a silent auction along the stage, and at the back, by the urn, two volunteers from the P&C are about to spend four hours marking answer sheets in pencil.
★ Free for the first 3 days, no card required
Every school parent group I've worked with runs the trivia night the same way: a hard-working quizmaster, answer sheets passed forward, runners collecting them after each round, and a scoring table at the back that never quite keeps up. The quiz is the easy part. The marking, the tallying and the arguments are what wear people out, and they're what keep your volunteers from ever doing it again.
With PULTEVENT the quizmaster runs the night from a laptop plugged into the hall projector. Each table scans a QR code with one phone and answers from it, no app, no accounts. The phones need internet (more on school Wi-Fi below). Scores add up on their own and the leaderboard goes up on the screen after each round. Your two volunteers at the back get to join a table.
7 rounds and extras for a school hall
1 The general knowledge rounds
The backbone of the night: six or eight rounds of ten questions, each on a theme (sport, music, food, the local area, the year the school opened). One phone per table, four options per question, scored as they come in.
How to run it. Split the writing among three or four parents, one theme each, and have a fourth check every answer.
The quiz runs to time, and nobody spends the interval arguing with the scoring table.
2 Which teacher is this?
Baby and school photos of the staff, one at a time on the big screen. Tables guess which teacher from a list. The reveal is always a cheer.
How to run it. Ask the staff through the principal, not directly, and give them the option to say no.
It's the round that makes it your school's trivia night rather than any trivia night.
3 Best-dressed table
Themed tables are half the fun of an Aussie or Kiwi trivia night. At the start, each table stands for a moment, and the hall votes from their phones. Results come up as bars on the screen.
How to run it. Announce the theme competition on the ticket so tables plan their costumes in advance.
It warms up the hall and rewards the tables who went to real trouble with the cardboard.
4 Put it in order
A timeline round: five events, from the school's founding to the year the new library opened, mixed up with national milestones. Tables work out the right order and the answer is revealed on the screen.
How to run it. The school office usually has a history booklet or an old anniversary program. Use it.
Older parents and grandparents shine here, and it's a nice nod to the school's past.
5 The game-show final
For the last round, a category board on the screen in the board game-show format: five categories, points on each tile, tables choosing a tile in turn.
How to run it. Put a double-points tile somewhere in the board so the trailing tables still have a chance.
It closes the night with suspense, and the leaderboard can change right up to the end.
6 The raffle and lucky door prize
Guests enter by scanning a QR code at the door or during the break. When it's time, the draw runs on the screen, one winner at a time, while the hall holds its breath.
How to run it. Keep the tickets you've sold on paper as usual; the screen does the drawing. Check your state or council rules on running a raffle.
Everybody watches it happen, so there's never a whisper about who drew the winning ticket.
7 Winners and the wooden spoon
The team scoreboard ends with an awards ceremony: best table name, best costume, the wooden spoon, then third, second and first with confetti on the screen.
How to run it. Line up the prizes on the stage beforehand so the principal can hand them over without a search.
It ends the night on a proper moment, and the photos go straight into the school newsletter.
No marking at the back
Each table answers from one phone. Scores are counted as the answers come in.
Rounds only this school could write
Teachers' baby photos, the school's own history, the principal's favourite song.
The raffle on the big screen
Entries by QR code, the draw run in front of the whole hall.
A proper podium
Winners, runners-up and the wooden spoon, with fanfare on the projector.
Where the money comes from
Anyone who has organised one knows the tickets rarely make the big money on their own. The extras do: the silent auction, the raffle, the drinks and the little extras between rounds. Some schools sell a "cheat" or a hint for a gold coin, others run heads or tails between rounds, with everyone standing and a coin tossed at the front. Keep the extras simple and fast, and let the screen handle the parts that need to look fair, like the raffle draw.
A quiz that runs to time helps the fundraising too. When the rounds don't stall for marking, people spend the gaps at the auction table instead of in the car park.
School Wi-Fi, and what to do about it
The school network is often locked down for students and won't let visitors on. Ask the business manager a fortnight before whether there's a guest network, and test it in the hall with a few phones. If there isn't one, mobile data will usually do the job, since each table only needs one phone connected.
"Can we have the Wi-Fi password for the night?"
"You can have the guest one. It resets at nine."
Find out things like that before the night, not at ten past nine in the middle of round five.
The same night in the UK and New Zealand
In the UK the parent group is usually the PTA or PTFA, and the event is called a quiz night, often with a fish and chip supper at half-time. In New Zealand it might be the PTA or a board-organised fundraiser in the school hall. The format doesn't change: tables of friends, rounds on a screen, one phone per table, and a raffle at the end. Swap the spelling of the prize list and you're done.
Jobs for your volunteers
With the marking gone, the jobs change. You need a quizmaster on the microphone, one person at the laptop (or the same person if they're confident), someone at the door handling tickets and the raffle, and someone running the auction. That's four people, not eight, which on a school committee is the difference between a trivia night and no trivia night.
Testing it before the ticket sales open
Try the free 3-day demo at a committee meeting, no card needed. Build one round, put it on the staffroom TV and let the committee play. If it's a fit, the full version is a one-time licence, no subscription, so the same setup can run next year's night, the end-of-year disco and the Christmas concert slideshow. The price is on pultevent.ru/en. The ready-made quiz decks are mostly Russian today, so plan for your parents to write the questions.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run a school trivia night fundraiser on a projector
- 1
Six weeks out, split the quiz rounds among a few parents and collect staff photos through the principal.
- 2
Enter the questions in the quiz builder and have one person check every answer.
- 3
Ask the school about the hall projector, the HDMI input and a guest Wi-Fi network, and test it.
- 4
On the night, put the QR code on screen and have each table connect one phone.
- 5
Run the best-dressed vote, the rounds, the teacher photos and the timeline, with the raffle at half-time.
- 6
Finish with the game-show final and the podium, then hand out the prizes.
FAQ
Does every guest need a phone?
What if the school has no guest Wi-Fi?
Can it handle a big hall?
Does it handle the raffle money?
Is there a ready-made trivia pack?
Can a teacher run it without the parent committee?
How much does it cost the school?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
Start free