Bored of running marathons? Run a board game marathon for charity instead

Everyone’s heard of 24-hour dance-a-thons, sports challenges, or even gaming streams for charity, but what about their lesser-known cousin: board game marathons? As the name suggests, communities come together and pay an entry fee to participate in an event with 24 hours straight of tabletop fun, with all proceeds going to a charity of their choice. Imagine your evening at a board game café, but essentially extended fivefold and all for a great cause. So, it suffices to say that these events find great success in local communities, raising thousands of pounds for charities close to the organisers’ hearts.

Imagine your evening at a board game café, but essentially extended fivefold and all for a great cause

There’s a myriad of setups when it comes to organising a board game marathon. As one group in Somerset did, you can have eight-hour timeslots that people pay to book into, with many people selecting multiple and dipping in and out of play across the course of the event.

Equally, as Damon Pritchard, organiser of the board game marathon ‘Dicing with Boardom’, did, you can up the ante to 12-hour slots, or people can even just pay to drop in and play a couple of games. With the goal to raise as much as possible, every play helps!

Finally, for the more hardcore gamers among you, you can have a strict 24-hour only policy. Gav Price, board game fanatic and volunteer at local Kettering charity Youth Works, did exactly that, equipped with his staggering collection of 450 games and, presumably, an arsenal of energy drinks. Locals came, and Price played any and every game requested with them, day and night.

Maybe our parents and grandparents are right: it is the damn phones

As a student occupational therapist, Price also runs a weekly games night for the young people in this charity, because the benefits of bringing people together around board games extend far beyond an annual charity marathon.

As the President of Warwick Tabletop Society, Holly Mankelow says: “Tabletop at its core is a community. Everyone loves games, and societies (like our own) are a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and simply play with other members of your community!”.

These communities also encourage vital skills of communication, co-operation, and calculated thinking. Maybe our parents and grandparents are right: it is the damn phones. With everyone from seven to 70 years old coming together over a game of cards or Catan, with no screens in sight, they are vital avenues of social interaction in local areas, especially with these low-stakes competitive settings developing crucial pro-social behaviours across age groups. Charity board game marathons also stand to do exactly that, with the added attractions of being a challenge and supporting a meaningful cause.

“Board game marathons work so well because … there’s something inherently charming about watching a group of friends socialise and joke over games of Monopoly or Settlers of Catan for a good cause – it feels accessible and human,” highlights Tabletop Society’s Boardgames Faction Representative Hugo Everitt. He adds that it is this inherent social and community-centred aspect of board games that also makes it easy to drum up donations through livestreams or social media updates.

Accessibility is also an overarching advantage of choosing to marathon board games

Accessibility is also an overarching advantage of choosing to marathon board games. As Everitt underlines, “it’s way more inclusive than your typical ‘run a marathon’ fundraiser”. He continues: “Not everyone is able to train for months, but almost anyone can sit around a table and play games. It levels the playing field, making the event about thinking and human interaction”. Because of this, board game marathons become a “giant, meaningful hangout”, creating a fair, fun, and fruitful fundraising space.

If you play your cards right, you could end up with some new friends, expert game strategies, and lifelong memories

Now, there’s also some strategy to choosing which games you play (unless you’re Gav Price, where even if someone challenges you to Chess at 4am you have no choice but to go with it). During ‘peak hours’, when there are a lot of people dropping in and out, people tend to choose easily expandable games like cards or trivia. The evening is when the seemingly never-ending higher complexity games come out (Magic Realm, I’m looking at you here). Then, as energy levels plateau and delirium is on the rise, that’s when you bring out the quick and easy games that everyone knows. Bonus points if they are deception or speed-based, like Dobble or Boggle, to add extra humour when everyone is so out of it that nobody cares how it goes anymore.

So, the next time you need to host a charity event, don’t run down the beaten path of sports marathons, and consider a board game marathon instead. If you play your cards right, you could end up with some new friends, expert game strategies, and lifelong memories.