Keeping a non-profit organization running can be difficult. This is very unfortunate as non-profit organizations are sometimes very important to the community. From recreation centers where children can stay after school until their parents get home from work, to twenty-four hour volunteer fire departments; communities need these organizations to get the proper funding they require.

Fundraisers are a great way to keep non-profit organizations in business. Fund raising is especially effective if centered around a holiday. One of the most fun and effective fundraisers is to create a haunted house or haunted hospitals for Halloween.scary house

Nearly any organization with access to a building can create a haunted house. This is easy enough for youth centers who already have their own building with lots of rooms. Non-profit organizations that don’t have their own building might be able to borrow or rent one for the occasion. Establishment owners might be willing to loan out their building for a few nights to a good cause, and it’s also great publicity on their part.

Once you have your location picked out, you’re going to need plenty of costumes and volunteers. A good idea is to cherry-pick volunteers that can supply their own great costumes. Having costumes that are scary and have some level of quality to them is important. Even though your haunted house is a charity event, you don’t want it to come across as cheesy.

The layout for charity haunted houses usually follows a simple formula. You set up the rooms so that they are all linked into a single path. You don’t want people wandering all over, you need to have them enter from a set point, go all the way through with just one path option, and then come out the other side.

Typically there will be a guide with each party leading them from room to room. This is often necessary because you need to keep the program running, and need those currently in the haunted house to enter and leave in a steady fashion so new customers can enter. If a group of people chooses to linger, it clogs up your haunted house. You also need guides to make sure groups of teenagers don’t get too wild or out of hand.

You’ll want to have plenty of scares and surprises from start to finish. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the local laws on haunted houses. Some states and counties allow the “monsters” to grab people in a non-violent way as a means to scare them. Other areas dictate that your casts of creature are not allowed to physically touch the guests in any way. You need to know what is and isn’t allowed, this is crucial.

You might want to play music in your haunted house to add some ambiance. It can be tempting to play the most popular rock songs at the time but this can be distracting. You’re best option is the play something acoustic so that it’s more in the background; lyrics tend to take too much attention from people. Be sure to pick out something dark and eerie.

One thing you might consider is to alternate the contents of your haunted house props based on how late it is. Children love haunted houses too but it is much easier for them to get scared but you don’t want to overdo it. Teenagers and adults can handle scarier content and wouldn’t enjoy a haunted house that’s downplayed for children. This is why for the first hour or two you might cater the haunted house to younger crowds. Tone down the monsters so it won’t be too frightening for young children. After a few hours and it gets to get dark, you can switch the haunted house over to its full throttle scaring ability. Be sure to post times so your guests know which version they’re going to.

If all goes well, your haunted house can be a great fundraiser for your organization and a lot of fun for your volunteers and guests. Maybe your group can put on one of the best haunted houses in America.