Using a murder mystery party as a fundraiser

by jackie
(flin flon manitoba canada)

Would it be possible to do a murder mystery as a community fundraiser?

My response:

Goodness yes!

I've written an article on that topic - click here to read Fund raiser ideas.

Setting up an appropriate mystery

by Luke

I'm looking at possible fund raising ideas for our local charity and thought that perhaps a Murder Mystery event would be a lot of fun. I've never done one before and really have very little idea about the various types and ways they can work.

What I'm wondering is how much effort it is to make one from scratch and where I might find the best information on doing so, or whether it would be a whole lot easier to simply purchase one. I guess ideally we would be looking at 20 plus guests, hopefully a whole load more, and I would like something fairly challenging for an adult audience. I don't think too many people would be up for so much 'acting' as such but I do have a few people in mind who would love that aspect. Can I have a plot/theme where the majority of the guests simply have to solve the case, and a small crew in amongst them as 'actors' for the mystery?

I'd like to do it myself as it's a potential fund raising event, spending out on an organiser may contradict that point, if indeed I could find one.

We're based in a Scottish country mansion type location if that helps with any potential advice you may have. Indeed any advice at all would be utterly fabulous!

My response:

It's far, far easier just to buy a game than to write one yourself. Writing can take many, many hours - and even then you may find that you've missed something. The games for sale have been tested before going on sale.

The kind of game you suggest is the kind of game that Mysteries on the Net do - click here for more information.

And here I've written a number of general tips for hosting murder mystery games.

Charity Event

I want to run a murder mystery event in Spain to raise money for a charity called the 'Lions'. This is a world wide charity and I am involved with the charter that is in Mazarron Spain.

Obviously we would like to charge for entrance to the event and so raise money for the funds of the charity, is this acceptable or not?

My response:

Whether it's acceptable or not depends entirely on the publisher. You need to contact the publisher direct of the game that you're interested in to find out if they will give you permission.

I've also written an article on running murder mystery games for charity. Click here to read Fund Raiser Ideas.

a themed night held at our village pub - charity

Are we allowed to purchase one of these games to play at our pub? We would be charging to play the game as a charity raising event.

Also would you recommend St Cakes?

My response:

Hi - I'm afraid the short answer is "it depends".

The longer answer is that the rights to the games are held by the publishers (not me!). If you want to charge admission (even for charity) then you need to get their permission directly.

Having said that, there shouldn't be any problem if you're doing it for charity - particularly if you give the publisher a bit of free publicity when you're promoting the event.

(I've written an article on using games to raise money for charity - read "Fund Raiser Ideas" here.)

As for St Cakes, unless you have a very large room or hall, I don't think I'd recommend it. You'd probably be better off with something like The Auction.

Click here to read more about The Auction.

Who might donate a Murder Mystery to my non-profit fundraiser?

by Kathy Dalton
(Davis, CA)

We are a small non-profit school and, as auction coordinator, I am looking for great things to offer at the silent and live auction.

I think a murder mystery dinner package would do fantastic. Do you know anyone who would be willing to donate such a package? For 10-15 people is about right, but smaller or larger is ok - its a donation!

I can send all the info for our nonprofit status to anyone who need its. Thank you for your help on this.

My response

You'll need to contact the individual publishers themselves for that - it's not something I can arrange.

If you are planning on running a murder mystery game for charity (ie, holding the game and charging admission which will go to your good cause), I've written some advice here.

Fundraising

by Kendra
(Canada)

I was wondering if you had any idea of how much people usually charge per person when they are hosting a party for a fundraiser?

Any advice would be great.

Fabulous site by the way. Very informative!

My response:

Thanks for the kind words about my site.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how much people are charging. I know that I attended a few some years ago that charged £25/head - but that included a slap-up meal (but not wine or beer) as well.

Certainly if I was going to charge that amount I would expect to feed my guests as well!

I'm sorry that's not more help - but I think the price you charge has to reflect what you're delivering and what else you are doing to raise money.

Good luck with your fundraiser!

steve

Murder at Sea for fundraiser

(Lisa)

I am holding a murder mystery fundraiser. I currently have 25 confirmed but this number is likely to rise. I am looking at Murder at Sea. It looks like fun and a bit different but still based around our theme of cruising.

If my numbers go over 33 will it still work just having extra passengers? I have had a few people say that they would like to have smaller / less involved parts....

Grateful for your input!

My response:

Good news - Murder at Sea actually has seven "unofficial" extra characters that have been written by a previous customer for the game.

So when you buy Murder at Sea you can download these extra characters as well - so you can have up to 40 guests.

As for guests who don't want to be involved, the easiest thing to do is give them the optional characters. That way they can still be involved (and if they want to get very involved they can be), but if they want to be less involved then that's okay too.

The instructions tell you who the optional characters are.

Good luck!

Click here to learn more about Murder at Sea.

Click here to read my tips for hosting a murder mystery fund raiser.

Murder Mystery Fund Raiser for Cancer Research

by Judy
(Bridgewater, Ma)

I was thinking of having a fund raiser for Cancer Research. Has anyone done this before? I would have to rent a hall and charge addmission. Any sugguestions?

My response:

I've written an article about using murder mystery games for fund raising.

Click here to read fund raiser ideas.

Tips for writing a murder mystery fundraiser

by Connor
(Manchester )

As a fundraiser for my theatre company I am thinking of writing a murder mystery dinner, but as we write comedy productions I intend it to be funny more than anything.

We have a big hall, for a big audience.

We usually write plays, so this will be a new experience to us.

Do you have any tips?

My response:

Sorry - I don't have any tips for writing a murder mystery game, at least, not immediately to hand. I'm not sure what sort of murder mystery you have in mind - there are many different sorts (including dinner theatre, versions where you have suspects that groups of detectives interview, the round-based games in the shops, and the interactive parties that I tend to promote on this site) and for most of them I wouldn't know where to start.

In terms of the interactive games, I'd start with this article, which covers the main points. (Note that it's written for freeforms/larps, which are the same as the interactive murder mystery games that I promote on this site.)

Murder fundraiser recommendation needed

by Giovanni
(Tampa Bay, Florida USA)

Hello from Tampa Bay, Florida. I'm looking for a fundraising dinner party, and wonder how your game could be a fit.

We will have a small staff to do all of the greeting, serving, photos, hosting, etc.

The host will want to know just who the murderer is in advance.

We would sell tickets for others to sit at a table of 8, and each table will watch the interaction, and at the end vote on whom they think the murderer is. And win a prize.

We'd like the actors to be able to walk around from table to table and answer questions the table of "investigators" will have for clarification. So I'm guessing this will take place once or twice in your game - after the "secret telling"

What game do you recommend? We are a retirement community, with lots of retired actors.

I envision the cast of characters will be introduced one at a time, over a 20-minute period, to everyone in attendance and will enter in character. They could mingle and maybe explain what they already know about their role, name, etc., to the guests as they mingle. Everyone will have a buffet dinner, and the game will begin with dessert and the main table (characters). I think, ideally, we would want 10-14 characters. Plus, the host. The murdered person could be the host, who later becomes the police to help move the investigation/game along or something like that.

Does any of this work? make sense? (I attended this kind of function years ago as a fundraiser when I lived in NY, and trying to re-create similar here). Many thanks.

My response:

Hi, it sounds like the kind of game you're interested in would be one of the Mysteries-on-the-Net games. They have a small group of "actors" and everyone else is detectives trying to solve the murder.

However, you will need to check with them to make sure that they are happy for their games to be used as a fundraising event.

Click here to learn more about Mysteries-on-the-Net.

I've also written an article on using murder mystery games for fundraisers, which you can read here: Fundraiser Ideas.