Rick Waddell was sitting in his living room in July of 2020, enjoying live coverage of the Memorial Tournament. The annual golf tournament was founded and hosted by Jack Nicklaus at his Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, in part to benefit the Nicklaus Children's Healthcare Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. An interview with Jack himself caught Rick’s ear, and he listened intently as Jack talked about Play Yellow and its ambitious goal to raise $100 million for Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) Hospitals through golf.

Rick was inspired by the story of the yellow shirt, the bravery of kids in CMN Hospitals across the country, and the giving power of golf. He channeled this inspiration into action.

“My wife and I have been very fortunate in our lives and have been looking for ways to give back,” Rick says. While he and his wife currently reside in California, when his family lived in Ohio, their infant son was a patient at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The incredible care their son received meant Rick and his wife already had a deep connection to CMN Hospitals, and he felt a strong bond to Jack’s dedication to this cause.

“I thought to myself, I could do that, I could run a golf tournament to help kids,” Rick says. “I’m not sure I could find a more worthy cause to give back to.” The local CMN Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), was chosen as the event’s beneficiary.

“I thought to myself, I could do that, I could run a golf tournament to help kids.”

— Rick Waddell, Event Organizer

Getting started

Rick had never run a golf tournament or fundraiser before, but didn’t let that deter him. As a lover of golf and its innate generosity, he jumped in headfirst. “I honestly didn’t know what I didn’t know,” Rick says about planning a golf tournament. Rick is a longtime member at Indian Wells Country Club (IWCC), a Club Corp facility in Indian Wells, California, so naturally, it was chosen to host the inaugural year of the event. The beautiful course, which hosted the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic for over 40 years, boasts excellent playing conditions and made the perfect backdrop for the tournament. In addition to Club Corp’s commitment to charitable causes, IWCC benefited from broad exposure to potential members.

Photo courtesy of Indian Wells Country Club

The first thing Rick did was get in touch with Ben Parker, Senior Director of Play Yellow at CMN Hospitals, who connected him with resources to get a tournament started, including GolfStatus, the official golf event management platform for Play Yellow. “I had never used a platform that was developed specifically for a golf tournament from nuts to bolts,” Rick says. He worked closely with GolfStatus’s customer success team to get an event registration website up and going. As a Play Yellow event, it qualified for full access to GolfStatus’s software and first-rate support at no cost. “The team knew this was my first time planning an event and they really stepped in to fill any voids in my knowledge,” Rick says.

Rick worked in the software business for years, so he’s no stranger to leveraging technology to solve problems and make things easier. “The back end of the software had everything I needed, and the reporting capabilities were invaluable,” Rick says. He utilized various reports to keep a running total of the tournament’s finances. Plus, he could see who had registered and if they had signed up as an individual or a team so he could plan team and hole pairings accordingly.

Knowing he would need additional help on the local level, Rick assembled a committee of members from IWCC and other golf clubs in the Coachella Valley. The group’s initial plan was to hold the first-year tournament in December of 2020, but COVID-19 forced it to be pushed back a year. “It actually ended up being a good thing,” Rick says, noting that the extra time let them be more intentional about structuring the event, recruiting golfers and sponsors, and finding more ways to raise money.

“The back end of the software had everything I needed, and the reporting capabilities were invaluable.”

— Rick Waddell, Event Organizer

Building an Exclusive Event

The planning team set a fundraising goal of at least $70,000. The quality of the golf facility, an affluent target audience, and high-end tee prizes meant they felt comfortable charging $1,500 per person to golf and priced sponsorships to reflect the caliber of the event.

Over the long-term, Rick wants to keep the field at 36 teams of two players each. While that may mean limitations in terms of the amount of money raised from registration fees, he wants the event to be exclusive. Low gross and low net players will earn an invitation to the Play Yellow Championship held each November at The Bears Club, Jack Nicklaus’s golf course in South Florida, plus an exclusive luncheon with Jack and Barbara Nicklaus.

To counter the intentionally smaller field, Rick added an auction to the event, which raised an additional $20,000 for CHLA. “We had a great auctioneer that worked the room to get every penny possible!” Rick laughs. To raise excitement ahead of the tournament, Rick listed auction items on the GolfStatus event website.

While several auction items were donated, Rick relied on consignment sites to procure some higher-value packages. He says one of his major lessons learned after the first event is to focus on securing donated auction items. “Paying the consignment sites ate a bunch of the event’s profit,” Rick says. “The more you can get donated, the better.” He plans to add a silent auction to next year’s event on top of the live auction.

Golfers at the first annual Play Yellow golf tournament at Indian Wells Country Club.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

One of the nation’s leading pediatric hospitals, CHLA has cared for kids and their families since 1901. CHLA was a charter member of the Children’s Miracle Network in 1983, and since then, its doctors and researchers have consistently made significant contributions to preventing, detecting, and treating health issues in children.

Many of the vital services provided by CHLA and other CMN Hospitals are not reimbursed or fully reimbursed by government or private insurance, which makes third party fundraisers, like Play Yellow events, even more crucial to help fund pediatric research and complex care for critically ill and injured children. The IWCC Play Yellow event benefited the Children’s Fund at CHLA, which helps meet the most critical needs of the hospital and its patients.

To help golfers make the connection to CHLA, Rick invited the hospital’s Senior Director of Partnerships, Brian Rodick, to speak at the banquet/auction. He shared the story of a young patient who had gone undiagnosed at several other hospitals before he arrived at CHLA on death’s door. This young man was unable to walk when he was admitted, but was diagnosed almost right away and after two months of treatment, walked out of the hospital under his own power. “We really wanted to help golfers hear and see firsthand where this money is going and what the CHLA does for kids in the community,” Rick explains.

Dreaming Big for the Years Ahead

Rick isn’t content with the amazing results of his first Play Yellow tournament—which raised about $75,000 for CHLA—and has even bigger things in mind for next year and future years’ events. Understanding the process and how to better utilize GolfStatus’s software to raise even more money will be key to doubling the donation to CHLA. He was pleasantly surprised at the platform’s broad and encompassing capabilities and knows he can use it more effectively. “Everyone at GolfStatus was so helpful and went above and beyond to provide assistance and make sure the event was a success.”

“I’m confident we can do even more,” Rick says. “I want to take what we learned this first year to make the event better next year, and ultimately raise more money for the children’s hospital.”

Rick (third from left) and members of his planning team present a check to Brian Rodick (second from left), Senior Director of Partnerships at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Proceeds from the golf tournament and auction totaled $75,000.

GolfStatus + Children’s Miracle Network Hospital

GolfStatus is the official golf event management platform for Play Yellow events and golf tournaments that benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. To launch an event for your local children’s hospital, start here.

Nonprofits of all types and sizes—and those raising money on their behalf—can qualify for the Golf for Good program, which gets them no-cost access to GolfStatus’s full platform. Organizers can save time, money, and hours of labor with software that streamlines prep and planning and handles all the golf-specific details. Ready to get started? Get qualified by clicking the button below or email [email protected].

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