WHY HOST A FUNDRAISING GOLF TOURNAMENT THIS FALL
When the pandemic hit last year California golf courses began reopening up to public play in May 2020. But, it quickly became clear that hosting a fundraising golf tournament was going to be a much different experience and become expensive. New expenses included offering PPE and purchasing food and beverage from the golf course vs. relying on donated F&B. The largest expense was the rental of golf carts so each golfer had their own cart unless they were from the same household. These expenses, coupled with individual tee times vs. the community building shotgun format, proved to be a budget deal-breaker and forced most nonprofits to postpone their annual tournament in 2020.
Onto 2021… even though indoor gatherings are being allowed with fewer restrictions, many donors are expressing a hesitancy to gather indoors. With this, now is the perfect time to begin or revive your conversations about hosting a fundraising golf tournament in the fall of 2021.
THE PERFECT CONTACTLESS FUNDRAISING EVENT
Golf tournaments allow for natural social distancing and can be planned as a 100% contactless event allowing all guests, volunteers, and your organization’s staff to safely participate.
For a contactless golf tournament, tap into technology that has been around for years, and is gaining popularity such as iScoreGolfPlus, a live score system.
Each team or individual golfer enters their hole score into the software. Scores are tracked live throughout the entire round eliminating the need for scorecards and pencils. The best part – you have now created a new sponsorship opportunity! Think about the number of impressions per round your sponsor will receive. The ROI on this will be one of the hottest sponsorship items you have to offer.
If your nonprofit has not already shifted to a mobile auction platform, now is the time to do so. Registration, auction, on-course packages such as mulligans can all be sold online to make the entire sales and registration process contactless. Our two favorite all-in-one platforms for this are Auctria and Greater Giving. Both are powerhouses and user-friendly. Their services are different, so it’s important that you identify your ‘must haves’ in order to make the decision of which is best for your event.
USE A FALL GOLF TOURNAMENT TO KICK OFF YOUR YEAR-END CAMPAIGN
Fall means the hot summer months are coming to an end and lends itself as a natural time to host a golf tournament. The fall of 2021 may be the first time you gather donors in person since 2019, so why not use it as a way to introduce and kick off your year-end campaign?
What better way can you think of to build awareness of your campaign? Use the golf tournament as a way introduce (or re-introduce) a potential donor to your organization. A fundraising tournament will create inspiration for attendees to donate again in December at the height of your year-end campaign.
START PLANNING NOW
Now is the time to begin planning your fall golf tournament. Select a golf course that is central to your donors and provides the safety precautions that are important to you and your organization. Talk with your key donors and sponsors to learn what is important to them and why they want to join you. Make this your first in-person event since before the pandemic. Then let the planning begin!
Visit our Events page to learn about the fundraising golf tournaments we produce.
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ABOUT RUNDLES & ASSOCIATES EVENTS
Rundles & Associates Events is a Northern California-based full-service production and strategy agency that specializes in fundraising events for 501(c)3 nonprofits. Its founder, Angela Rundles has been recognized for her work in the community, including being named the 2017 Contra Costa County Women of the Year by California State Senator Bill Dodd. We strive to build events around Content, Community, and Connection.