Taking Golf Fundraising to the Next level: Q&A with Kyton Sweat of Children’s Miracle Network’s Ideation Team
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals) has joined forces with GolfStatus.org as its official partner for golf event fundraisers, including those belonging to Barbara and Jack Nicklaus’s Play Yellow for Children’s Hospitals. With 170 member hospitals across the U.S. and Canada, CMN Hospitals serves 10 million kids each year, providing life-saving research and care in support of its mission to save and improve the lives of children. GolfStatus.org recently caught up with Kyton Sweat of CMN Hospitals’ Ideation team to reflect on the impact of COVID-19 and learn more about how the organization is approaching golf fundraising, technology and innovation amid its challenges.
Kyton Sweat, Senior Manager of Ideation, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals
GolfStatus.org: Tell us about the Ideation Team at CMN Hospitals. How does the team approach and implement new ideas and programs?
Kyton: Ideation has helped the organization evolve, finding new initiatives, tools, and processes that match up with what CMN Hospitals is doing strategically to fulfill our mission to change kids’ health and change the future. The Ideation team looks at where there might be gaps or issues with a program, works to understand the problem, and finds innovative solutions.
GolfStatus is a perfect example of how this works. Due to all the issues surrounding COVID-19 during 2020, many of our golf fundraisers were on the brink of cancellation. It’s our job to find the tools and opportunities that produce better outcomes, and this technology was the solution to bringing these tournaments back online.
GolfStatus.org: Why is innovation so important to CMN Hospitals?
Kyton: Leadership has always placed an emphasis on innovation. The ideation team leads this process for the overall organization, but over the last couple years it became apparent that we needed to instill a culture where everyone is an innovator. Hospitals and the kids they serve will always require funding, so it’s imperative that we find new and innovative ways to fill that need and provide the best possible outcomes.
We’re constantly looking forward at what could become a need and staying ahead of the curve so to speak, which has defined our business model. We strive to have an intimate understanding of our partners and of donors’ needs and to be proactive in addressing them. Our work with GolfStatus is forward-thinking in looking to maximize golf fundraising in the future, but also reactionary to unanticipated effects of COVID-19 on fundraising as a whole. It’s been exciting to think about how this technology will result in more dollars raised for our hospitals.
GolfStatus.org: Speaking of COVID-19, what has been the impact on fundraising and what are your thoughts and predictions on the year ahead?
Kyton: Fundraising for CMN Hospitals at all levels has been affected by the pandemic. Many of our partners, hospitals, and foundations rely heavily on fundraising events, which had to be canceled or modified. On the flip side, we also saw some great innovations come about as people found creative ways to modify events and the ways they fundraise out in the field. So in general, fundraising was down, but it pushed our thinking and allowed us to find new avenues and emphasis points that will lead to new and better practices moving forward. While many nonprofits were seeing partners and fundraising evaporate last year, our network retained 100% of our partnerships, showing our strength and value of relationships both old and new.
We’re seeing things start to pick up now, with many events and campaigns planned for the fall. We’re looking for connecting with our donors in flexible and meaningful ways, including virtual and hybrid opportunities. We have to balance the hunger to engage with organizations with the lingering hesitancy of returning to “normal” events. I think this will be an opportunity to expand donor pools, which leaves me hopeful for the future of fundraising.
GolfStatus.org: Why is Play Yellow so important to CMN Hospitals’ fundraising now and in the future?
Kyton: Play Yellow is a strategic priority for us. CMN Hospitals has a long tradition of raising funds for our hospitals through golf. From corporate partner events to local outings and one-off tournaments by celebrities and other passionate supporters, golf events have raised tens of millions of dollars for CMN Hospitals. In an industry that contributes $4 billion per year to charity, the singular platform of Play Yellow has been important to tie all of our golf fundraising together and maximize its potential.
Play Yellow gives us the ability to tell the story of the impact our hospitals are having in communities across the country and further our reach into the golf community. And when you have two supporters in Jack and Barbara Nicklaus helping lead the way, it’s the perfect recipe for success. It lets us engage with the golf community like we never have before.
GolfStatus.org: What’s unique about how CMN Hospitals leverages golf events to fundraise?
Kyton: It’s unique in that we rely on third parties to hold these events on our behalf. What we’re working toward with Play Yellow is to share solutions like GolfStatus that help these tournaments raise more money in a more efficient way and provide an even better experience for organizers, partners, and golfers. I’m really excited to get more hands-on and explore our whole ecosystem of golf tournaments, and how we can better coach them and find where there might be gaps.
What also makes us unique is the overarching view of the different tournaments—including small, mid-level, and national events—and how we can employ GolfStatus, which works at all levels. We want to take the experiences of successful tournaments and share the tools and revenue enhancers for others to replicate. Ultimately, we want to help organizers raise more money for children’s hospitals with less time, effort, and administrative costs.
GolfStatus.org: How is technology helping meet your goals?
Kyton: Whenever we look at new tools and solutions to bring to our organizations and partners, we need to make sure they have the capabilities to do what we need them to do. We work closely with our technology partners to develop the solutions our fundraisers tell us are needed. As technology is used, it’s a collaborative effort to share lessons learned, fill gaps, and find better ways to serve their needs and further connections.
GolfStatus.org: What does the partnership between GolfStatus.org and CMNH bring to the table?
Kyton: It meets our customers where they need help, taking so much work off their already-full plates. It makes our partners happier and tournament organizers don’t have to spend hours dealing with spreadsheets! Plus, we’re able to collect data from tournaments to build out best practices driven by insights.
I’m really excited to see how this partnership evolves and how much money we can raise for children’s hospitals through golf. We want organizers to know that they can trust GolfStatus’s tech and trust that these tools help them fill their needs to put on a great tournament.
GolfStatus is proud to be the official golf event management platform for charity golf outings and fundraisers benefiting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Those holding golf fundraisers that benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and other nonprofits can qualify for no-cost access to GolfStatus’s golf event management technology through the Golf for Good program. Get qualified or email us at [email protected].