This and all the pages regarding fund-raising initiatives are composed in part or entirely by young volunteers who have actually done the given project successfully. The authors simply want to share their experience, and it is general advice only; Trailblazers takes no responsibility for private initiatives, nor claims any percentage from those who find these ideas helpful.

Description: Scrabble is all about being fluent in the language and coming up with words that might be worth a lot of points. People have fun coming up with strange and exotic words no one else has thought of.

• Teams of four, six, or eight gather at different tables, each with a Scrabble board and all the letters available. 
• Each team starts with the same opening word, and has 20 minutes to fill the board with high-scoring words. 
• A judge sits at each table. 
• Individuals pay $35 to participate. Players can sneak a peek at a dictionary for an additional $10 donation. Make extra fundraising money selling refreshments, raffle, auction, etc. These amounts are, of course, discretionary.
• How you win: After the 20 minutes is up, the judge at your table racks up the points of all the words on your board. And the team with the most points wins.
• Remember, one person can not win by their self, you’re a team, you win as team. You can have 1st, 2nd and 3rd place if you want to or you can just have one winner. It’s your pick.
• You could have a prize for the person that makes the longest word on your teams’ board or the word that is worth the most points, but know, that you must be very organized to do that, write down each team members’ name, and the words that they make. Otherwise, it may get ugly, people will argue over who made what word.  This is not a mandatory rule, it’s just an option.
  

Expected Income: if you get 20 people to play, $700 + $10 anytime someone looks at a dictionary

People Needed: one judge for each table in play, and it’s a good idea to have one person to over see everything.

 Materials Needed:

• Scrabble Boards. - Maybe ask some of the players to bring one from home. But if you do ask them to bring their own, you must make sure that all the pieces are their and that they do not have more letter then their supposed to and that they don’t have more of one letter then they should.
• Tables and Chairs. At least enough to seat everyone.
• Prizes for first, second and third prize, or any other prizes, such as for the longest word. It's often wise to have one prize for everybody, so that even if someone looses, they get something concrete and palpable - even if it's something simple - from the evening.
  

The time questions:

• Each team has 20 minutes to fill their board. Probably 10-15 minutes (maybe more) before and after, to get things set, socialize, etc. You might even want to offer something like pizza and ice cream at the end of the evening.
• You will need time to promote your Scrabble Tournament. 
• Pass out fliers, tell your friends to tell their friends. 
• A month to 3 weeks before is a good amount of time to do P.R. work. But remember the more the better, don’t wait until the last minute to start telling people about it.

Location:

• A school, a social hall, or if you have a big house or basement where you can set up tables and chairs and it’s safe, then it would work too.