Chili Cook-off

Just about everyone has a secret family chili recipe. Encourage people to share theirs by having a Chili Cook-off for your next fundraiser. Charge an entry fee to all chefs and award cash prizes to the winners. Assemble local celebrities to make up your judging panel. Have different categories for people to enter i.e. best spicy chili, best vegetarian chili, best chili by a chef under the age of 16, etc. Either have everyone bring in their pre-cooked chili or provide a space for them to cook it onsite. Have the cooking be a part of the judging process by awarding points based on timing, technique, and cleanliness. People love to watch others cook so have an observation area for the audience. Have a timed cooking contest to see who can make the best chili in an hour (or a half hour for an added challenge). Sell bowls or samples of the different chilies for the audience to try and to raise extra money.
Read our full guide to fundraising through a chili cook-off.

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Thomas Jones

My church group holds a cook-off every year. We still do chili but last year we added to it and have a rib cook-off as well. It's big hit in the community.

Rachel

Oh my goodness this is my favorite fund raiser of the year. We have an amazingly large turnout of several hundred people each year when our church does this fund raiser. We set up tents and sell bowls of chili from them and have a contest to name the Chili King or Queen from our parish each year. We have been doing this for close to ten years and now provide a budget for the chili entrants in order to cover the costs of making such large vats of Chili, but we have the historical figures to work with and know based on them we'll more than get the return on the money we lay out. We also have face painting, a live local band performs some oldies faves and even have hay rides for the kids. Fantastic time... have this fund raiser and make it a tradition to see if grow each year.