Set up a donation-based fundraising competition with live scoreboards and celebration animations.
The VBS Donation Competition lets you run a fundraising challenge between groups during your Vacation Bible School event. Groups compete by raising dollar amounts, and you control when totals are revealed to the audience through a publish workflow. A dedicated public leaderboard page — designed for projectors — shows every group climbing toward the goal on a jungle stage, plus a dramatic winner reveal with drumroll, podium, and confetti.
Setting Up the Competition
The competition is created automatically the first time you visit the competition admin page. From your VBS event's admin sidebar, navigate to the Competition section.
1
Open competition settings
In the VBS admin sidebar, click Settings under the Competition section. Here you can configure the competition title, description, start and end dates, and a fundraising goal amount.
Configure competition details, dates, fundraising goal, and theme colors
2
Pick a stage backdrop
The public leaderboard offers four curated stage backdrops: Canopy (jungle green), Midnight (high contrast — best for washed-out projectors), Twilight (night sky), and Sunset. Open the display page as an admin and click the backdrop button in the bottom-left corner to cycle through them. The choice is saved in the page address, so a projector bookmark keeps your pick.
3
Activate the competition
Toggle Active to make the competition live. When inactive, the public display page will not show any data. You can deactivate the competition at any time to hide it from public view.
Tip
Set up your competition groups before activating. Navigate to the Groups section in the VBS admin sidebar to create and configure the groups that will compete against each other.
Tracking Donations
There are two ways to track donation amounts for each group: setting totals directly, or linking donations from your church's giving system.
4
Update group totals directly
On the competition admin page, select the Update Totals tab. Each group card shows a dollar amount field. Enter the current total for each group. Amounts are stored in cents internally, but you enter them as dollar values.
Update group donation totals directly from the admin page
5
Link existing donations
Select the Add Donation tab to link donations that were already recorded in your church's giving system. Choose a donation record and assign it to a competition group. The linked amount will be added to that group's total.
Note
Each group card displays the current total, the published total, goal progress, and a leading indicator showing which group is ahead. The current total is what you see as an admin; the published total is what the audience sees on the public display.
Publishing Totals
The competition uses a two-stage publish workflow to give you full control over when the audience sees updated numbers. This is especially useful for building suspense during live VBS events.
6
Review unpublished changes
When you update a group's total, the change is saved as the current total but is not yet visible to the public. An amber Unpublished changes banner with a pulsing dot appears at the top of the admin page to remind you that changes are pending.
7
Publish to the display
Click the Publish button to copy all current totals to the published totals. The public display page will update immediately. Once published, the amber banner disappears until you make further changes.
Warning
Publishing is immediate and visible to anyone viewing the public display. Make sure all group totals are accurate before clicking Publish, especially if you're projecting the display during a live event.
Public Leaderboard
The public leaderboard is designed to be projected on a screen during your VBS event. Every group appears as a mascot badge on a jungle stage: with six or fewer groups, mascots ride colored vines that climb toward the goal; with seven or more, groups race in horizontal lanes. The current leader wears a crown, and the header shows the combined total for all teams with progress toward the overall goal.
The live leaderboard adapts to your group count — climbing vines for a few groups, race lanes for many
8
Open the public display
From the VBS admin sidebar, click View Display to open the public-facing leaderboard. It shows the competition title, each group's badge, rank medal, and published total, and a footer with the last published time.
9
Reveal the winner
When you're ready for the big moment, click Reveal winner in the bottom-right corner. A roughly nine-second podium race plays out: the podium bars climb neck-and-neck with teasing scores while group badges hop on and off the podium from the side rail, then third, second, and first place lock in one at a time — each badge flying onto its podium — before the champion is crowned in confetti. On phones (portrait screens) a simpler drumroll-and-pop version plays instead. Only admins and event organizers can trigger the reveal before results are published; once published, anyone viewing the page can replay it.
The podium scramble locks in 3rd, 2nd, then 1st place before crowning the champion
Tip
The display page receives real-time updates via live subscriptions. When you publish new totals from the admin page, the display page updates automatically without needing to refresh the browser.
Competition Display Tips
Projecting on a big screen — Open the display page in a full-screen browser window on the computer connected to your projector. The page is designed to look great at large sizes.
Building suspense — Update totals throughout the week but only publish once per day (or save the final reveal for the last day). The two-stage publish workflow is built for this.
Backdrops — Try Midnight if your projector washes out in a lit room; it has the highest contrast of the four stage backdrops.
Group customization — Each group can have its own color and logo, which appear on both the admin cards and the public display. Configure these in the Groups section of the VBS admin.
Real-time updates — The display page listens for changes in real time. You do not need to refresh the page after publishing new totals.
Note
If the winning group has a custom celebration sound configured in the Groups section, it plays at the moment the champion is crowned; otherwise a default cheer is used.
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