Heads Or Tails: The Fundraising Game Of Chance That Only Requires A Coin

What is Heads or Tails? 

Heads or tails is a fundraising game of chance where participants pay to play and then compete to guess whether a coin flip will result in heads (put hands on head) or tails (put hands on tail). This continues until one person remains standing, and the winner receives a big prize. 

The prize can be a percentage of the proceeds or a unique prize that was donated. The cost to play and the prize are at your organization’s discretion. Typically, we see pricing around $20-25, but pricing is totally up to you and depends on your donor base. 

How Do You Play Heads or Tails? 

You sell access passes to the game, where everyone who purchases one can pick up a wristband or have some kind of indicator that they paid to play. During the event (when it is live), your MC tells everyone with an access pass to stand up, and then the fun begins. Each person will be told to pick heads or tails by putting their hands on the body part to indicate. Then a coin is flipped, and the winners stay in the game. Everyone else sits down. Once there are 10 or so people left, have them come to the front of the room and play until only one person is left: the winner!

Can Heads or Tails Be Played Virtually or Online? 

Yes, it absolutely can. Community Sailing of Colorado (see above) accomplished this. In one of our Pivot to Virtual Customer Success webinars, they shared how they did it.  

By selling access to the game as instant items, they reached people across the country and attracted more players than they would normally get at a live event. This dramatically increased the amount raised for the event. 

Each player was sent a Google document to fill out their heads-or-tails guesses, and each day leading up to the gala, there was a coin flip. If you got it right, you were still in the game, and if you got it wrong, you were eliminated. These videos were all from celebrities in their world and are actually quite hilarious. 

With this method, and with a campaign running for several days, it is also possible for people to sign up multiple times!