Many animal rescue groups pull animals from shelters to help find them homes. This often requires a pull fee to get them out of ‘jail’ and into a rescue. One creative way to raise money specifically for these pull fees is through a Monopoly Tournament. Of course, hosting a Monopoly Tournament could be a great family-style fundraiser for any reason! Here are some ideas for the tournament.
Get out of Jail Free- Monopoly Tournament

For your next “Bail for Tails” event to raise money for pull fees, you could have a bail bondsmen help sponsor you! Or, local police and sheriff departments might find the humor in sponsoring and supporting an event that is designed to raise bail.

Play on the Monopoly idea of the “Get Out of Jail Free” cards, and have a costume contest where people dress up like the dapper fellow on the box, play the game in a competition (first one to $XXX,XXX wins, to keep it shorter), and have a trip to St. James Place, Boardwalk, or whatever game-related location is near your city, perhaps just a restaurant name that is similar to a place on the game. You can also get a trip for a railroad adventure donated! Your group could feature foods from some of those locations listed on the gameboard, and have a community chest (door prizes), awarding people 2nd prize in a beauty contest, giving you a tax refund… include all the funny things that Monopoly has on the cards!

There’s a new Here and Now version of Monopoly that has new locations across the gameboard. New cities and monuments are featured, such as Times Square, Centennial Park in Atlanta, Fenway Park ballfield, the White House, and Las Vegas. Take a look at Monopoly’s website for the new locations which might be near you! This new gameboard could also be one of the prizes for your event. This event lends itself wonderfully to people of all ages, because so many people have played Monopoly. This would be great for families, college students staying up all night, or as a singles mixer event, too! And, many towns even have their own Monopoly boards with local businesses and places for the spaces. If your Chamber of Commerce or a business in town is considering creating this board game for your area, then your group should definitely capitalize on this by hosting an all-night monopoly-a-thon or just a monopoly competition where people compete against each other in an elimination style tournament!

Typical “boardwalk” type foods could be served at the event, either as a concession stand or as part of a higher ticket price. These foods could include anything from corn dogs and pretzels to cotton candy and saltwater taffy. Sausage and peppers and cheese steaks are other choices, along with ice creams and flavored ice cones. Of course, you could use other food items and give them names from the game, such as Mediterranean Avenue (or Baltic) Cup O’ Soups, since those are the cheapest places on the board. Or, create a Park Place shrimp cocktail for the higher end dish. Ask restaurants to each provide one food item following the theme of the game. This spreads the burden over several restaurants instead of asking just one to cater the whole event alone.

Another obvious add-on is jailing people at the event until they raise their own bail (Jail n Bail)… or combine it with our Luxury Lock-Up Fundraiser where business execs are voluntarily jailed and pampered with spa treatments and good food until they raise their bail amounts!

This event could include sponsorships from local restaurants and toy stores that sell the game Monopoly, and participants can also bring in sponsorships to compete for extra prizes.