How to raise the par at your charity golf tournament

Hosting a charity golf tournament is a great way to drive fundraising as a nonprofit organisation. Follow these steps to ensure your event is a success.

Are you ready to score a hole-in-one for your nonprofit’s cause? Host a charity golf tournament!

In 2019, there were over 500,000 charity golf outings in the U.S. alone, netting an average of $5,000 USD per event. Overall, golf tournament fundraising generates a whopping $4 billion USD each year.

Charity golf tournaments put golfers of all skill levels and dedicated philanthropists on the course. They can drive serious donations and are easier to plan than many
fundraising alternatives.

Grab your putter, your nine iron, and get ready to hit the fairway! Here’s how to plan a charity golf tournament:

1. Define Your Goals

All fundraising events should start with identifying your goals. If you don’t know what you’re striving for, how will you achieve it?

We always recommend using SMART goals, because they’re Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

However, your goal can also be as simple as:

• “We want to raise $5,000.”
• “We want to attract 25 new donors.”
• “We want at least 75 people to attend.”

Once you define your goals, you can start working toward them.

2. Find a Venue — and a Tee Time!

A golf tournament fundraiser would be woefully unsuccessful without a golf course and tee time (that’s golf-speak for course reservation).

Use your network as your driving force here. Reach out to your board of directors or staff members who are part of a clubhouse, country clubs, or attend other charity golf outings. You’ll never know that your co-worker scores six under par and attends an annual charity golf tournament unless you ask!

If your network doesn’t have these connections, approach golf clubs with a pitch about your cause and offer sponsorship opportunities in exchange for letting you hold your charity golf event. Offer to include their logo on your website, goodie bags, signage, press releases, and other marketing materials you create for the tournament.

If you’re still stuck in the metaphorical sand trap, get creative with your charity golf tournament. After all, you haven’t told everyone what kind of golf tournament it’s going to be yet.

Instead, you can host a mini-golf tournament, longest drive competition, or a disc golf tournament! You probably won’t attract the PGA tour pros this way, but these fundraising ideas will still raise money for your good cause.

3. Choose Your Charity Golf Tournament Format

If your co-worker’s clubhouse buddies come through and you score a golf course, that’s awesome!

Next, decide on a format — and get the advice of your colleague’s golfing friends, because there are several ways to approach your charity golf tournament:

• Stroke Play: Stroke play is golf as most of us know it. Often, golfers play either nine or 18 holes, and their scores are based on how many strokes they take.
• Match Play: Match play is a team sport! Get your twosomes or foursomes together and compete hole-by-hole. The team winning the most holes wins.
• Scramble: Scrambles are great for newbies and intermediate players. During a scramble, everyone makes their first drive. The team captains determine the best shot taken, and then go from there until the ball sinks into the hole.
• Best Ball: In best ball play, each golfer plays the whole round. After, you use the best score or scores of your teammates for that hole. Often, best ball also involves a handicap based on a team's experience.

4. Get Sponsorships

The pros at The Golf Wire state that the keys to success for all golf outings are sponsors and golfers.

Sponsors will help you cover your operating costs, which can add up quickly. Luckily, charity golf tournaments give you tons of chances to engage sponsorships — and in many ways — so don’t limit sponsorship opportunities to just one or two package types. Sometimes a sponsor wants to sponsor a hole or provide the prizes. Others will agree to matching donations or sponsoring the entire event!

Here are a few types of sponsors you should look for:

• Corporate sponsorships and large companies with philanthropy programs.
• Smaller companies, community organisations, and individuals who want to get involved in any capacity they can.
• Local restaurants, vendors, and coffee shops that can supply food and beverages for the event.
• Golf enthusiasts and past/current donors who share a deep connection with your cause.

Offer multiple sponsorship packages for each of these categories on your event’s fundraising page and marketing materials. Also, don’t hesitate to make customisable sponsorship arrangements with groups like restaurants, vendors, or the venue itself if they’re offering some branded swag.

Lastly, don’t forget to thank your sponsors for their generosity. Include their names and logos in your marketing materials. When relevant, also show how they’re helping make the tournament happen. Invite your largest sponsor(s) to form a team and play in the event. You can’t do this for everybody, but there’s no reason you can’t let them in on the fun!

5. Determine Prizes and Tee Gifts

Prizes and tee gifts are charity golf tournament staples. If you want to attract quality players and enthusiasts, you’ve got to provide the goods.

Here are a few common tee gifts you should offer at check-in:

• Goodie bags with all sorts of coupons and knick-knacks from sponsors
• Bottled water with your nonprofit and/or a sponsor’s logo
• Hat or visor with your nonprofit and/or a sponsor’s logo
• Healthy snacks, including granola bars, trail mix, or dried fruit
• Golf ball sleeves
• Golf balls with your tournament’s logo
• Sunscreen

Prizes can be tricky. You want to attract amazing talent without breaking your bank. Cash prizes are an obvious draw, but also consider meaningful offerings, like trophies, golf clubs, or a donation in the winning team’s honour. It is a charity golf tournament, after all.

Work with your sponsors to secure prizes. Odds are they have a few ideas in mind.

6. Market Your Event

No matter your nonprofit’s cause or size, every charity golf tournament will benefit from an all-in-one fundraising platform — and that’s where Raisely comes in!

Raisely’s fundraising features are powerful tools created by fundraising experts and used by thousands of charities.

Create a customisable landing page that’ll serve as your event’s hub, providing information about your cause, the charity golf tournament, and the event’s sponsors.

Include a donation form with multiple donor options, inviting people and organisations of all means to donate what they feel comfortable giving. Also, let people know that donations aren’t the only way they can contribute to the event. Golf tournaments are a huge undertaking. You'll also need volunteers.

Raisely’s customisable registration forms make it easy to include your logo and messaging. You’ll also have access to custom fields on our ticketing feature, which can help you obtain specific information, such as T-shirt sizes, golf equipment needed, etc. Speaking of tees, you can also use your event page to sell merch to raise additional funds for your cause!

Once you create your event page, share it via email, your organisation’s main website, and on all your social media channels to let your followers know it’s happening. Enhance engagement by encouraging your peers to serve as your brand ambassadors. Never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer fundraising. You never know who your followers know, or whose interest they’ll pique.

7. Be Prepared for the Day-Of Event

Your driver and irons landed your golf ball into putting range. Now it’s time to sink it into the hole.

A charity golf tournament is a massive event with many moving parts, so plan accordingly.

First off, meet with your volunteers the day before or the morning of the event. Train them on all the essentials, including:

• Event registration for any last-minute joiners
• What’s included in the tee gifts
• The software you’re using
• How golfers can donate if they want to make additional contributions
• The venue itself

Take the time to answer any questions they may have, and keep tabs on them throughout the event if they need something. Raisely’s platform is 100% mobile integrated, which will make assisting volunteers and players alike that much easier.

In addition, plan for whatever else you may need. Have extra equipment handy if someone needs a set of golf clubs. Assign golf carts and caddies, if teams requested them ahead of time. Also, if you’re offering VIP treatment for your top-tier donors, prepare all their extras accordingly.

8. Send Thank-Yous and Celebrate Your Success!

Use Raisely’s email and SMS messaging functions when thanking your event participants. Recap the tournament’s highlights, including how much was raised, who won, and who made the event possible.

Invite everyone to provide feedback on the event. Also, follow up your thank-you message with information about future events, such as next year’s charity golf tournament.

Plan Your Next Charity Golf Tournament With Raisely

While you can’t get a mulligan for your event as easily as you can on the fairway, by following these steps and using Raisely’s fundraising platform, your golf tournament can score a hole-in-one.

Our customisable landing page templates make branding a breeze, and our ticketing, registration, and donation forms are so user-friendly that you’ll rarely find yourself in the rough. And if you ever do, our charity fundraising experts are available to guide you through any step of the process. Raisely’s all-on-one platform can help you from your campaign’s first stroke to the eighteenth hole, and everything in between.