Putt Putt Fore Puppies has wrapped up planning for year four of the mini golf fundraiser for Capital Humane Society (CHS). The event is planned by the GolfStatus team to bring the Lincoln community together to raise operating funds for CHS and help more pets find families.

2026 Event Details, Goals & Outcomes

Details

📅 Friday, September 18, 2026

🕞 3:30 - 6:30 p.m. (shotgun start at 4:30)

📍 Adventure Golf, Lincoln, Nebraska

🔗 Event website

Goals

🎯 Donate $13,000 to CHS - GOAL MET

🎯 Cover tournament costs with sponsorships and in-kind donations - GOAL MET

🎯 Sell out all three courses at Adventure Golf (54 teams / 216 golfers) - GOAL MET

🎯 Provide a fun community event and a great experience for participants - GOAL MET

Outcomes

🐾 Over $13,000 raised for Capital Humane Society - enough to help prepare 130 animals for adoption!

🐾 58 teams / 232 mini golfers (SOLD OUT and then some!)

🐾 30 sponsors

🐾 17 volunteers

🐾 22 pets in the Paws of Fame

🐾 29 raffle prizes worth more than $5,000

Four-year Totals

💰 $50,000+ raised for Capital Humane Society

🏌️ 808 golfers

🤝 1177 sponsors

♥️ 73 volunteers

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What’s New in 2026

Sponsor outreach. We’re leveraging a newly developed GolfStatus resource, the Golf Tournament Sponsorship Pitch Deck Template, to facilitate sponsor outreach with a customized deck with Putt Putt’s brand colors and content. It’s already paid dividends, as Sinclaire Hille Architects renewed their support as presenting sponsor for the fourth year!

New package names. Because we didn’t need to make any fundamental changes to team or sponsorship packages, we decided to have some fun with package names that leaned into the tournament beneficiary: animals. Say hello to the Best in Show Presenting Sponsor, Fetch Champion Golf Ball Sponsor, Hydration Station Sponsor, Tail Wagger Pet Toy Sponsor, and Paw-ty Break Sponsor (and many more). Golfers can choose from an All-Star Pack or Paw Print Team Registrations.

Paws of Fame Pet Spotlight. Every pet deserves to be in the “Paws of Fame,” so this package also got an upgraded name. The pet spotlights were a huge hit with golfers last year, with many oohs and aahs over the adorable pets, and the team is excited about featuring even more furry friends on signage.

Tilly

Pippa

Winston, Honcho, and Koda

Remi, Tilly, and Winnie

Zurich Ann Stahr

Luna and Lexi Prall

Gunner Watson

Piper

Gigi Watson

Rupert

Waffles

Red Willow

Barney

Booker & Red Willow

Buffy Wasson

Charlotte

Chica & Shelby

Fez & Zukah

Marshmallow!

Myles

Shorty, Bernie, & Emmy

Sunny Dee Pace

The Black Pack

New golfer gifts and raffle prizes. To keep things fresh for returning supporters, the planning team is exploring new golfer gifts and finding sponsors to underwrite costs, like hats, tote bags, and pet toys. We’re also connecting with organizational partners and business owners in our personal networks to secure high-value raffle prizes to provide even more value to participants.

50/50 ball drop + sponsor. The ball drop (attendees purchased numbered balls for $10 each, giving them the chance to win half of the total dollars raised from the ball drop) was a late addition to the tournament in 2025, with the planning team deciding to include it just a couple of weeks before event day. It was incredibly popular, but having more time to market it to golfers will be helpful. A sponsorship was added to this fun tournament add-on, and it sold within a few days of registration being opened. Thanks, Belmont Veterinary Center!

Refreshed on-course games. On-course games have been popular with golfers, so this year we’re giving them a refresh and working with sponsors to build a game around their business. For example, the presenting sponsor is Sinclaire Hille Architects, so the team is exploring games that incorporate building.

Merch is back! Ball markers and magnets featuring Pete, the Putt Putt Puppy; stickers with the event logo and likeness of several of the pet spotlight animals; and additional event t-shirts will all be on sale to boost revenue.

New t-shirt design. This year’s tournament t-shirt features the mascot from the Paw-some Partner T-shirt Sponsor, Woof Dog Care Center, along with Pete, the Putt Putt mascot, and a couple of Pete’s friends.

Planning Progress

Planning for year four of Putt Putt Fore Puppies is much different than year one. Instead of building the tournament’s infrastructure as we go, we can simply draw upon what we’ve already established and find ways to improve the experience and fundraising outcomes. We reworked and streamlined our tournament planning project based on the recently revised Golf Tournament Fundraising Checklist and Planning Timeline and lessons learned from the event’s previous years, which has helped clearly define team members’ roles and responsibilities.

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The planning team felt like we hit our stride in 2025 and didn’t make any significant changes to the tournament’s core components—time, location, format, main sponsorships, and team packages—for 2026, which made it easier than ever to copy the event and have our event website launched sooner than in previous years.

An important lesson learned so far in planning: Order materials as early as possible. As soon as the tote bag and golf ball sponsorships were sold, those items were ordered. The tote bags arrived with a misprint, but thankfully, we have plenty of time to work with the vendor to get replacement bags printed and shipped ahead of September.

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Learn more about Putt Putt Fore Puppies, register a team, make a donation, or become a sponsor!

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Thank you 2026 sponsors!

Best in Show Presenting Sponsor

Bone Appétit Dinner Sponsor

fetch champion golf ball & treat bag sponsor

pawsome partner
t-shirt partner

lucky dog ball drop sponsor

dapper dog hat sponsor

tail wagger pet toy sponsor

paws & prizes swag sponsor

zoomies dj & music sponsor

paw-ty break sponsor

Top Dog Trophy Sponsor

ink & paws printing sponsor

Playful Pet Batting Cage Sponsor & Treat Jar 19th Hole Sponsor

hole sponsors

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Past Tournament Outcomes

Year 3: 2025

• Golfers / Teams: 200 / 50

• Courses: 3 of 3

• Sponsors: 28 (plus 9 Pet Spotlights)

• Outcomes: $13,000 donated to CHS

  • $2,000 raised on tournament day

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Year 2: 2024

• Golfers / Teams: 216 / 54

• Courses: 3 of 3

• Sponsors: 31

• Outcome: $15,000 donated to CHS

  • $5,500 raised on tournament day

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Year 1: 2023

• Golfers / Teams: 164 / 41

• Courses: 2 of 3

• Sponsors: 21

• Outcomes: $9,200 donated to CHS

  • $1,100 raised on tournament day

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by Jen Wemhoff, Communications Manager at GolfStatus

If you’re looking for a way to bring fun and fundraising to your charity golf tournament, on-course games are a great option for events of all types and sizes. An on-course game is an addition to your tournament that involves an activity on one or more holes on the golf course that golfers pay to participate in. The games can have a variety of outcomes, like improving the team’s score, providing a better tee off location, removing an obstacle, winning a prize, or just to add an element of fun.

On-course games come with a ton of benefits for your event, including:

• Fun, fun, and more fun! Golfers of all skill levels can participate in on-course games and enjoy the extra entertainment.

• You’ll raise more money. Games bring in additional revenue, whether you sell one or more game sponsorships or just rely on golfers paying to play.

• They’re memorable. Golfers are guaranteed to remember the tournament where they shot the ball down the course with an air cannon or had to tee off or putt wearing Mickey Mouse gloves. Games add to a more enjoyable overall tournament experience.

• Cause connection. Tying a game to your cause in some way helps golfers better understand and connect with what they’re helping raise money for.

In this article, we’ll explore:

• Ideas for Golf Tournament Games

• Golf Tournament Contests

• Selecting a Golf Tournament Game for Your Event

• Best Practices for Running Golf Tournament Games

• Frequently Asked Questions about Golf Tournament Games

The Credit Unions for Kids Golf Classic adds extra fun to its tournament with on-course games, like kicking soccer balls onto an inflatable dartboard.

Fun Ideas for Golf Tournament Games

The possibilities are endless, so gather your planning team to brainstorm ideas. Reach out to the Pro at the host golf facility, who might also have ideas for games that have been popular at other tournaments. These ideas can help get you started.

1. Golf Ball Cannon

Give golfers the chance to shoot their ball down the fairway using an air gun or golf ball cannon, instead of hitting a tee shot.

2. hole of fortune

Choose one hole that’s dubbed the “hole of fortune.” Golfers pick a card, play Plinko, or spin a wheel to determine the club they’ll use to tee off or play the entire hole with or the tee boxes they’ll start from. Prizes could also include an extra mulligan, an automatic hole-in-one, or a free drink. Alternatively, some slots or cards could result in something not as rewarding, such as teeing off while blindfolded or getting a penalty stroke.

Pro Tip: Some slots or cards could result in something not as rewarding, such as teeing off while blindfolded or getting a penalty stroke to give it a true “wheel of fortune” feel.

3. marshmallow drive

Have golfers tee off with a marshmallow. The golfer with the longest “drive” wins a prize. You could change this up to have golfers chip with a marshmallow, and the golfer with the closest chip to the hole gets the prize.

4. Plinko

Give golfers the chance to drop a puck on a Plinko board to win a prize, earn a drink or raffle ticket, or improve their score.

Plinko is fun for all ages and can be used with a variety of golf tournament formats, including traditional nine or 18-hole events or putt putt tournaments.

5. Roll-a-score

Have golfers roll a set of dice and give them the option to replace any score from the event with whatever they rolled.

6. Single Club hole

Participants play with the same club for the entire hole. They could choose a card, spin a wheel, roll dice, or other method to determine which club they play with. 

Pro Tip: Consider limiting clubs to those that would present the most challenge across the hole, such as the driver, wedge, or putter.

7. Wrong Hand Challenge

Participants play the entire hole “wrong-handed”, i.e. with their non-dominant hand. You may need to have clubs available in case no one in a group has left-handed or right-handed clubs. 
Pro Tip: Give teams the option to pay a fee to play the hole normally.

8. Scavenger Hunt

Place items around the course (these could be related to your mission in some way or just for fun). Participating teams get a list of the items to hunt for and take a picture of them once found. Teams that find every item could earn a prize or the chance to better their score.

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9. Club Game

Teams are given the chance to purchase a certain number of club lengths to move their ball closer to the hole without taking an additional stroke.
Pro Tip: Have a volunteer stationed on the tee box and another one near the green to sell club lengths. Choose an especially challenging hole to make the purchase more appealing.

10. Poker Hand

Teams draw a card on each of five designated holes to make up a poker hand. The team with the best hand at the end of the round wins a prize or you can offer prizes for specific hands (i.e. three of a kind wins a gift card to the pro shop).

11. Speed Hole

See which team can play the entire hole—from tee shot to sinking a putt—the fastest. You’ll need a volunteer to serve as the timer. The team that logs the fastest time wins a prize.

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12. Trivia hole

Station a volunteer on the tee box to ask golfers trivia questions before they tee off to win a prize or move to closer tees.
Pro Tip: Relate the questions to your nonprofit’s mission to help connect golfers to your cause.

13. Shot Clock Hole

The entire team must tee off within a certain amount of time or must take a penalty stroke. Set up a large countdown timer or have a volunteer count out loud.
Pro Tip: Sell extra increments of time to take the time pressure off.

14. Ball Toss or Kick

Great for a booster club or team! Instead of hitting a golf ball off of a tee for their tee shot, golfers throw a football, baseball, softball, tennis ball, or other ball and play from there. Alternatively, they could kick a football or soccer ball for their drive.
Pro Tip: Have a local sports figure (high school, college, or even professional) run the game. For an extra fee, they can make the throw or kick.

American soccer legend Clint Dempsey kicks a soccer ball for his tee shot at a golf event benefiting Team Red, White & Blue.

15. Closest to the…

A spin on the classic closest to the pin contest, this game can be customized to your event. Determine an object either placed or naturally occurring—anything from a prize like a Yeti Cooler or golf bag, distinct tree (or other feature on the course), or an item related to a sponsor (one GolfStatus client places a rubber chicken on a hole, and the game is sponsored by a chicken company). The team that gets the closest to the object wins a prize (or wins the prize they were hitting at).

16. Speed Putting

Golfers try to make as many putts from one location in a certain amount of time as possible to win a prize. 
Pro Tip: Run multiple rounds of the contest, moving the ball further away from the hole.

17. Sitting Drive Challenge

Golfers take their tee shot while sitting on a chair. Offer the choice to pay a fee to opt out of the challenge.

18. Ball Swap

Golfers play the hole like normal until they reach the green, where they mark their spot and play the rest of the hole with a racquet ball or ping pong ball.

19. Blind Putt

Golfers wear sleep shades or blindfolds when they putt and have to rely on verbal cues from their team to try to make the shot.

20. Alternative Putter

Golfers putt using objects other than their putter, like a croquet mallet, hockey stick, or baseball bat. This could be on the practice green as a separate contest or as part of a specific hole. 
Pro Tip: Pick putting objects that help golfers understand what your nonprofit does. For example, Habitat for Humanity of Columbus, which helps provide affordable housing and homeowner education, had a game on the practice green where golfers putted with building tools, like sledgehammers and levels, instead of their putters.

Golfers at Habitat for Humanity of Columbus’s golf tournament used building tools to putt as part of a golf tournament game.

21. Caddie Auction

Teams bid on volunteer caddies to join their team. Recruit well-known locals, such as your nonprofit’s Executive Director, the mayor, coach, local news anchor or weathercaster, or influencer as caddies. 
Pro Tip: Use an online bidding software and allow teams to bid over the week leading up to the tournament so the caddies are set when event day arrives.

22. hit it & Get it

Set varying prizes up on the practice green. Golfers get the chance to putt and win a prize if they hit it.
Pro Tip: Place high-value prizes further away to up the challenge.

23. Skins Games

Skins games create mini-competitions where teams (or individuals, depending on the event’s format) compete against each other based on their score on a given hole, in addition to their overall score. Event organizers can use skins games to fundraise by setting a dollar amount for participants to buy in to compete. 
Pro Tip: Display skins results on real-time digital leaderboards to keep golfers engaged and make the skins games more competitive.

24. Dizzy Bat

Golfers take turns putting their forehead on the end of a baseball bat and spin around multiple times, making them dizzy, and then attempt to tee off.

25. Goggle Putt

Golfers wear goggles that impair their vision in some way—such as being impaired by alcohol or make everything appear upside down—and attempt to putt.

26. Bingo Bango Bongo

Players earn points for being the first on the green (bingo), closest to the pin once all balls are on the green (bango), and sinking the first putt (bongo). 
Pro Tip: Raise extra funds by selling a Bingo Bango Bongo sponsorship or encouraging donations for each point earned.

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Engaging Golf Tournament Contests

27. Hole-In-One Contest

Players take their best shot at acing a designated par-three hole (or several holes) for the chance to win an exciting prize, like cash or a golf getaway.
Pro Tip: Be sure your contest is covered by hole-in-one insurance so your nonprofit isn’t stuck footing the bill for the prize if someone gets an ace. Sell a contest sponsorship to cover the cost of the insurance to boost revenue.

28. Longest Drive Contest

Participants compete to see who can hit the ball the farthest off the tee while keeping it within the fairway on a selected hole.

29. Closest to the Pin Contest

Golfers test their accuracy and compete to see whose tee shot lands closest to the hole on a designated par-three hole.

30. Chipping Contest

Players demonstrate their short-game skills by chipping the ball as close to a target as possible, often set up near the practice green. 
Pro Tip: Boost revenue by selling mulligans specifically for shots in longest drive, closest to the pin, and chipping contests.

31. Beat the Pro Contest

Players take on a pro in a head-to-head challenge to see if they can hit their tee shot closer to the hole on a specific hole.

Golf Tournament Game Selector

Discover a fun, engaging on-course game for your next charity golf tournament.

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How to Choose a Golf Tournament Game for Your Event

You have endless choices when choosing games for your event, but not every game will be a hit for every tournament. It’s important to consider your tournament’s specifics when deciding which games will work best for your organization and golf tournament. Keep these factors in mind:

• Your audience. A corporate outing for employees or a more casual crowd might love a funny game like marshmallow drive or dizzy bat, but a competitive field of serious golfers might be more receptive to a skill-based challenge. You know your tournament’s audience best, so choose what fits their interests.

• Your cause. When you align games with your cause, you get double the impact—golfers get a deeper appreciation for your work and are more likely to chip in additional money. For instance, a trivia hole could include questions about your cause area or impact to help golfers better understand and connect with your work. Outlook Enrichment, a nonprofit that serves the visually impaired, uses the Blind Putt game to help golfers better understand the struggles of vision loss.

Outlook Enrichment uses sleep shades for a blind putt hole to help golfers better understand vision loss.

• Your golf facility. The host golf facility plays a role in choosing golf tournament games. An 18-hole facility is more equipped to comfortably accommodate multiple on-course games, while a smaller nine-hole or par three course might be more suitable for one or two. Check in with the golf pro to help you determine what works best.

• Your sponsors. Sponsors’ interests and business focus can also help guide your game choices. For example, if a local restaurant is sponsoring your event with the goal of attracting new diners, a Hole of Fortune with gift cards as prizes might work well. If a sponsor is up for running a game, consider giving them the freedom to choose or create a game that’s specific to their business.

Still unsure of which game best fits your golf tournament? Use the spinner below for inspiration.

Best Practices for Running Golf Tournament Games

• Leverage social media. Go live from a game, create a specific hashtag for a new game, and assign someone to share photos from each game throughout the tournament to get more people excited about participating. Use photos and videos from this year’s games to promote next year’s tournament!

• Hype it up. Ask a volunteer, a staff or board member, or recruit a local celebrity to announce or emcee a game to hype golfers up to participate (and make extra donations!). 

• Keep pace of play in mind. You don’t want teams piling up on a hole with a time-consuming game. Keep games easy to explain and quick to play to keep the round moving and golfers happy. 

• Recruit volunteers. These can be staff or board members, other volunteers, or even sponsors. Depending on the length of the round, you might want two shifts of volunteers. They need to be comfortable explaining the rules and procedures and collecting payments.

• Communicate clearly. Games can be added to your tournament at any time, well in advance or right before the event, and you can opt to have golfers pay to play when they register or on tournament day. Whichever you decide, be sure to keep golfers updated.

• Incorporate team-based challenges. Create ways for teams to compete against each other in the games. For example, if you use the marshmallow drive game, you can keep track of distance across all teams and award a prize to the overall winner.

• Use real-time leaderboards. A software solution that provides hassle-free live scoring lets you use real-time standings in your games. For example, teams that are under par at a certain game hole get a free extra wheel spin or Plinko drop, or teams that are more than a few strokes over par get an additional try at the marshmallow drive.

• Take online payments. Whether you’re selling supertickets, an all-in games package, wristbands, individual game entries, or collecting donations, collecting payments online via your event website brings in more dollars and makes post-tournament accounting easier. Post a sign with a QR code that links directly to the packages page to make it simple for golfers and your planning team, and you won’t have to keep track of cash payments.

• Keep track of who’s participating. Use wristbands or something similar to signal to the volunteers working the games on the course that those golfers have already paid to participate.

• Sell a sponsorship. There are a few ways to structure a games sponsorship for your event:

• Individual games sponsorships. Sell a sponsorship for each individual game on the course and encourage the purchasing business to run the game the day of the event. This gives them great brand exposure and ample opportunity to connect with golfers.

• Overall games sponsorship. An overall games sponsorship encompasses every game on the course. This sponsorship should sell for more than the individual game sponsorships and provide premium exposure for the sponsoring business.

• Front and back nine games sponsorships. Offer two separate games sponsorships, one for the front nine and one for the back nine.

Frequently Asked Questions about Golf Tournament Games

• What should I consider when choosing a golf game for my tournament? Think about the audience’s size and skill level, alignment with your mission, the golf facility where you’re holding the tournament, and which options give sponsors the best chance to shine.

• Can I use multiple games within a single tournament? Yes, although it’s important to understand how many games the golf course and your volunteers can reasonably accommodate.

• Do I need hole-in-one insurance for my golf tournament contest? Hole-in-one insurance is a must-have for a hole-in-one contest so your organization isn’t on the hook for the cost of any high-value prizes.

• What can I do to keep my golf course game organized while running the rest of my tournament? Use golf tournament management software to keep things organized and running smoothly, and ensure you have enough volunteers to run each game.

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About the Author

Jen Wemhoff - Communications Manager at GolfStatus

Jen Wemhoff accidentally discovered her passion for nonprofits in college. An internship while earning a degree in Communications from Doane University led to a 20 year career in the nonprofit sector, where she found a strong desire to be part of something bigger than herself. Her vast nonprofit experience includes roles in marketing, fundraising, and direct programming. When Jen came to GolfStatus as Communications Manager in 2020, she was struck by the power of the sport to raise money to power nonprofit missions. She tells GolfStatus’s story across platforms and channels and develops educational tools and resources to help nonprofits tap into golf’s giving power. Jen, her husband, and two daughters call Lincoln, Nebraska home.

By Aleks Chojnacki, Head of Partnerships, and Salvatore Salpietro, Chief Growth Officer at Dataro

Almost every nonprofit now uses AI to make things. Almost none use it to decide things.

In 2024, 78% of organizations used generative AI somewhere in their marketing, fundraising, or advocacy programs, but only 12.8% used predictive analytics tools. By late 2025, AI adoption had reached 92%, yet just 7% of nonprofits reported major improvements in what their organization could actually do, and only 4% had documented, repeatable workflows.

The takeaway? Nonprofits are only using AI as a writing assistant, not a decision-making tool.

This is especially clear with fundraising events. When we addressed this topic in a webinar hosted by GolfStatus in August 2026, the audience questions were rarely about copy; they were about people. Who do we invite? How do we find sponsors? How do we not waste the round?

Let’s take that question seriously and dive into smart uses of AI for charity golf tournaments.

The Biggest Challenge With Fundraising Events: The Invite List

A charity golf tournament typically has a fixed number of spots available. The same goes with galas or other fundraising events.

These events are the most concentrated dose of fundraiser attention on your nonprofit’s calendar: staff hours dedicated to invitations, follow-ups, pairings, event day logistics, thank-yous.

Because of their time-intensive nature, organizations must be strategic and intentional about who they target to fill the event’s field. Inviting individuals simply because they engaged with last year’s communications is equivalent to sending a mass email to your entire database—only with added venue costs.

The good news is that the guest list is a ranking problem, and ranking problems are exactly what predictive AI is for.

The Types of AI In Action

Three different technologies get called "AI," and they do genuinely different jobs. Run a fundraising event, and you can see all three in action in their most effective order, which informs the appropriate human action.

1. Generative AI Creates

Invitations, sponsor proposals, on-course signage copy, and the follow-up that lands 48 hours later while the round is still fresh in someone's mind. This is the part most organizations have already automated, and it is the least valuable of the three on its own. Beautifully written copy sent to the wrong 150 people is still sent to the wrong 150 people.

2. Predictive AI Prioritizes

Instead of simple filtering—i.e., "gave in the last 24 months, gave more than $500"—a propensity model ranks every record by the probability of a specific outcome. Dataro's models are trained on more than one billion de-identified donation events from several hundred nonprofits and rescore every donor weekly.

For a fundraising event, the useful rankings are:

• Mid-level readiness

• Major gift readiness

• Likelihood to confirm a gift in a will

These rankings can then be cross-referenced with those who have actually turned up to an event before. The shift is small to describe, but large in practice. You stop inviting the people you know and start inviting the people most likely to move the needle for your organization.

3. Agentic AI Prepares

Once you determine who is coming, the step is to prepare what to say and who to say it to. Dataro’s ProspectAI compiles a cited, current profile on each guest, reducing prospect research from hours to minutes. A gift officer can network across all 18 holes and know who each person is, what they care about, and what the next ask should probably be, instead of guessing their way around the crowd.

Sponsorships work the same way. Use the models to research companies, find genuine mission overlap, and know who signs the checks before you pitch a single sponsorship.

4. Fundraisers Make the Decision

Fundraisers check the prospect list against what they know about a family's circumstances. They edit the sponsor email that reads a shade too familiar. They decide whether this is the right year to raise the ask, or whether this particular donor should be paired with the executive director’s team on the golf course.

The technology narrows the field and does the preparation, but the judgment about what is appropriate stays where it belongs—in the hands of a human.

AI has its place, but nothing can replace human interaction.

Does This Actually Work?

Events are hard to A/B test. Direct mail is not, and it’s where the evidence for this method is clearest. Across Dataro's published cases, mailings have been reduced by 37% to 86% with net revenue holding or rising. Consider these examples:

• East Cheshire Hospice mailed 58% fewer donors than usual on its spring appeal, but raised 20% more than its revenue target and returned 477% ROI.

• UNICEF Australia increased the net revenue of its annual appeal by 26% and campaign ROI by 35% while mailing 15,000 fewer donors and saving AU$30,000 in mailing costs.

• Save the Children Netherlands cut its year-end mail file by 66% (around 117,000 fewer contacts), but more than doubled its response rate from 4.94% to 10.29%.

The economics that make this work are getting harder to ignore. U.S. postage rose about 7.4% on average in July 2025 and a further 4.8% in July 2026. Email isn’t the free alternative either: nonprofits raised $54 for every 1,000 fundraising emails sent in 2025, on a 0.05% response rate.

This same logic applies to event invitations, where the cost per contact is typically higher. If ranking your donor list outperforms simple filtering for direct mail, the advantage is even more dramatic for events, where every guest spot represents a substantial investment of staff time.

What Happens After the Round

The other reason to be deliberate about who is in the field is the 12 months after the event, when the same models that built the invite list keep working. Some examples:

• Greenpeace used churn predictions to prioritize retention calls and cut cancellations by 10% over three months and 15% over six, retaining 531 monthly donors worth an estimated $235,000 in future revenue.

• St Andrew's Hospice used legacy propensity to secure 30 new pledges, around £367,000 in future income.

The tournament, and communication around it, shouldn’t be the only time people hear from your nonprofit. Treat it as the beginning of the relationship rather than the end.

A golf tournament is a fundraising event, but that same golf tournament, when it produces a ranked list of who to call in November, is a fundraising program.

The Guardrail Your Donors Care About

One finding is worth keeping in front of you: asked how they would react to a nonprofit disclosing its use of AI, 32% of donors said it would make them less likely to give, against 14% who said more likely. The wariness is real, though it is softening: the "more likely" figure was 9% a year earlier.

This isn’t an argument against using AI. It is an argument about where to employ it.

Use the technology to analyze the contacts, surface the signals, and rank the opportunities, but let a human fundraiser decide what to do with it. The best applications of AI are the ones where your donors never classify them as AI at all.

The handshake on the first tee stays human. The thank-you call stays human. The conversation on the 14th fairway, the one that turns a player into a major donor three years later, very much stays human. AI doesn’t need to touch any of it to be worth having—it just needs to make sure the right people are standing there.

AI is a valuable tool in identifying the right people to invite to your golf event.

Wrapping Up: Start With One Event

If this feels overwhelming, there’s good news—you don’t need to overhaul anything to find out whether this works for you.

Start with your next golf tournament. Rank your contacts by likelihood to give at mid-level, major, and legacy levels rather than by who came last year. Reserve a portion of the field, perhaps a quarter, for that ranked list. Research every one of those guests before they arrive. Then measure what those spots produced against the rest of the field, not just on the day, but 12 months later.

That’s the difference between AI as a technology experiment and AI as a fundraising strategy: you can test it.

The organizations that pull ahead over the next three years will not be the ones writing invitations the fastest. They will be the ones using tools to make better decisions, event after event, about who should be in the room.

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About Dataro

Dataro helps fundraising teams decide who to focus on, who to engage, and what to do next—before the budget moves. Its mission is to set a new standard in nonprofit fundraising—where every targeting decision is grounded in data, every ask is made with confidence, and no donor relationship is lost to guesswork.

Aleks Chojnacki, Head of Partnerships at Dataro. As Head of Partnerships, Aleks plays a pivotal role in driving Dataro’s growth and accelerating global partnerships, in particular North American market expansion through strategic collaboration with external partners. Her primary goal is to establish and nurture mutually beneficial relationships that drive market penetration, overall business growth, and customer success.

Salvatore Salpietro, Chief Growth Officer at Dataro. Sal leverages his background spanning technology, digital marketing, and nonprofits to accelerate impact with a deep understanding of the AI solutions advancing the nonprofit sector. He transitioned to Chief Growth Officer at Dataro after serving as a founding employee and holding multiple C-level titles at AI-native platform Fundraise Up. Sal is passionate about optimizing generosity and bridging the technology gap for nonprofits.

by Logan Foote, Sales and Education Director at GolfStatus

For years, organizing a charity golf tournament meant juggling a mountain of paper registration forms, chasing down checks, and bouncing between spreadsheets. But the good news for nonprofits is that, thanks to today’s golf-event-specific technology, this is no longer the reality.

Purpose-built golf tournament management software makes planning and running a lucrative golf fundraiser easier than ever, from start to finish. So to answer the question directly: yes, a golf tournament is absolutely worth it. Here are five reasons why, and how the right tech makes all the difference.

The short answer—yes, a golf tournament is absolutely worth it for nonprofits of all types and sizes!

1. Golf Tournaments Raise Money & Awareness

Golf has massive fundraising power. The sport raises more than $4 billion for charity every year, and nonprofits of all types, sizes, and missions can use golf as an effective vehicle to raise mission-critical, unrestricted funds.

Golf tournaments also come with built-in opportunities to boost revenue, from golfer donations and premium sponsorships to add-ons and extras like mulligans, on-course games, and hole-in-one contests. These not only raise more money, but they add fun to the event and make it even more memorable.

What’s more, golfers often tap their own personal and professional networks to fill teams for charity tournaments, which means that with every team that registers, new people—and new potential donors—learn about your work and are connected to your organization.

How Tech Makes a Difference

• Seamlessly collect donations during checkout, from live leaderboards, and through a mobile scoring app, so giving never feels like an afterthought.

• Show real-time progress toward your fundraising goal on your event website’s homepage to keep momentum going throughout the round.

• Offer valuable digital sponsor exposure before, during, and after the tournament for an even stronger return on their investment. Multiply that exposure with high-quality on-site hole signage.

• Use an event website to tell your story and show golfers exactly what their participation supports. Use photos, videos, and compelling copy.

An event website is key part of a successful golf fundraiser, helping with promotion, registration, sponsor onboarding, communication, and more.

2. The Right Tools Automate Time-Consuming Tasks

Golf tournaments come with a lot of moving parts and details to track—everything from registrations, payments, receipts, sponsorships, hole assignments, and the day-of logistics that make it all happen. If you’re still processing registration forms manually and tracking information across spreadsheet after spreadsheet, there’s a better way, and it doesn’t require more people power. Automating administrative tasks can save you and your team upwards of 40 hours per tournament—which can be better spent on donors and sponsors instead of data entry.

How Tech Makes a Difference

• Golfers and sponsors register and pay online through your event website, with no manual entry, paper forms, or mailed checks needed. They automatically receive a registration confirmation and payment receipt, and you don’t have to lift a finger.

• Registration data is easily accessible in one centralized place as registration data flows from the website into the software’s backend, where you can track and manage teams, payments, and other details.

• Keep everyone on the same page by sharing access to the software with your planning team and even the golf facility. All parties can work with up-to-date information rather than trading emails or outdated spreadsheets.

• Set up notifications for new registrations, donations, and sponsorship purchases so you know the moment they happen, giving you a jump on thank-yous and sponsor outreach.

3. You Connect With the Golfer Demographic

The golfer donor is a key segment that every organization should want as part of their donor outreach and engagement strategy. Consider the average golfer demographics:

• The average golfer’s net worth is over $768,000

• The average household income among golfers is $125,000

• 33% of golfers are in top-level management

While not every golfer fits this profile, as a whole, golfers represent an affluent, influential audience. Not only are these ideal potential donors, but they’re exactly the audience your sponsors are hoping to reach as well, giving you real leverage when selling sponsorship packages.

A golf tournament is a valuable first step in converting a casual golfer into a regular, engaged supporter. When you provide a memorable experience and create a tangible connection to your mission at the event, whether through on-course signage, a short mission moment at the awards banquet, or an impact story shared on your event website, golfers are far more likely to come back year after year and potentially give beyond the golf course.

How Tech Makes a Difference

• Collect donor data through secure online registration, ensuring you capture complete, accurate golfer and sponsor information and nothing is overlooked.

• A streamlined registration flow keeps the process simple and intuitive so that golfers don’t abandon their purchase partway through.

• Manage and export data to your CRM, so your golf event information doesn’t live in a silo separate from the rest of your donor database.

• Get a clear picture of who supports you through golf at what levels, in what years, and how that support has changed year over year. This information is invaluable for post-tournament donor stewardship.

4. Golf Events Build & Strengthen Partnerships

Golf tournaments are unique in that they offer five (or more) uninterrupted hours across 18 holes to build relationships you’d otherwise never have the time or setting for. To that end, be strategic about your hold assignments: pair the chair of your board with a prospective corporate sponsor or put your development director alongside a major donor you’ve been courting for months. Several hours together on the course, away from phones and email, can do more for a relationship than a dozen meetings in the office. Be sure to follow up after the event with a genuine thank-you to keep the relationship moving forward.

Businesses already use golf tournaments as a way to entertain clients and prospects, network with peers, and engage their own employees. So when your event runs smoothly and professionally—from the moment someone registers or purchases a sponsorship on your event website to when their team submits their score through a live scoring app—you’ve already laid the foundation for a lasting partnership, not just a one-time sponsorship.

How Tech Makes a Difference

• Easily track registrants as the field takes shape to see which current and potential partners have committed and who is playing on their team.

• Make strategic hole assignments and team pairings with a few clicks instead of by hand, and easily make adjustments as needed right in the software.

• Handle the golf specifics like tournament format, scoring, start time, handicaps, and flighting so nothing falls through the cracks on event day and you execute a flawless, professional tournament that impresses attendees.

You don’t have to be a golfer or an expert on the sport to plan and execute a successful, lucrative golf tournament for your nonprofit.

5. Anyone Can Plan a Golf Tournament

Plenty of nonprofit event planners are hesitant to take on a golf tournament simply because they aren’t golfers themselves and don’t know much about the sport. The good news? This isn’t the roadblock that it might seem! Organizers with no golf background put on tournaments that raise five, six, and even seven figures every year. You don’t have to be an expert or know your way around a green to hold a successful event—you just need the right support system in place. The key is a platform built specifically for golf, one that can handle a golf event’s particular quirks and logistics without clunky workarounds or manual patches.

How Tech Makes a Difference

• Provides an infrastructure for your tournament so you don’t have to start from scratch. It starts with the event website, which serves as the hub for the event and where you can share tournament details, collect registrations, sell sponsorships, offer digital sponsor exposure, and much more. Year two becomes even easier—simply copy the event and update as needed.

• Support and coaching from golf fundraising experts who can answer questions, walk you through the software step by step, offer ideas based on what’s worked for other organizations, and support golfers and sponsors directly if they run into any issues with registration.

• Tournament add-ons that help drive additional revenue, offer premium sponsorships, and provide a great experience for golfers and sponsors.

• Planning tools and resources for every phase of the tournament, from promotion to day-of execution to post-tournament follow-up and everything in between.

Charity Golf Tournament FAQs

Is golf tournament software expensive?

GolfStatus’ golf tournament management software is available at no upfront cost to nonprofits and charities. There’s no setup fee, no monthly subscription fee, no cost to access support, or costs per user. A fee is assessed on transactions processed on GolfStatus’ golf tournament websites, but it can be passed on to golfers and sponsors, who choose to cover it nearly 90% of the time.

Can a small or first-time nonprofit pull off a golf tournament?

Yes! Golf tournaments scale well, and plenty of first-time organizers raise thousands of dollars with a well-run event. Having the right technology and support in place from the start makes it approachable, regardless of your team’s size and experience.

Do I need to know about golf to run a good tournament?

Not at all. Many successful organizers have never played golf. The sport-specific details—formats, handicaps, scoring, flighting—can be handled by the right software and support team (like those at GolfStatus), so you don’t need to be a golf expert to pull off a great event.

How much money can I raise with a golf tournament?

Golf tournaments have a ton of fundraising potential. To raise the most money possible, make sure registration and sponsorship prices cover hard costs and drive revenue. Sponsorships will likely bring in the most income, but add-ons like raffles, auctions, mulligan sales, and donation asks can bring in thousands of additional dollars. Nonprofit tournaments can raise anywhere from a few thousand dollars to upwards of seven figures.

The Bottom Line: A Golf Tournament is Worth It

A charity golf tournament remains one of the most reliable ways for a nonprofit to raise significant funds while building relationships with donors, sponsors, and community partners that last well beyond a single event. There’s real planning and logistics involved, but that’s exactly where tournament management tech earns its keep—handling the details so your team can focus on your mission.

Today's tech tools make it easier than ever for nonprofits and charities to raise more, work smarter, and create an experience that brings golfers, donors, and sponsors back year after year.

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Tech, Support & More from GolfStatus—at No Upfront Cost

GolfStatus’ event management platform is built specifically for golf tournaments, handling all the golf-specific details and freeing up organizers to focus on what matters most: connecting with donors and sponsors and sharing their mission. The software is backed by an in-house client success team, ready to answer questions and provide coaching seven days a week. Events can get started with GolfStatus at no upfront cost, including an event website, online registration, live scoring, and much more. Book a meeting to learn more and get started in the software!

Get Started With GolfStatus

Book a Meeting

by Jen Wemhoff, Communications Manager at GolfStatus

A popular—and lucrative—complementary activity to your charity golf tournament is an auction. With the right strategy, auctions deliver strong ROI and can generate significant additional revenue for your organization. This guide will explore how to seamlessly add an auction to your golf event and maximize income.

• Frequently Asked Questions about Charity Golf Auctions

• The Benefits of Running a Charity Golf Auction

• How to Add an Auction to a Golf Event

• Best Practices for Running a Charity Golf Auction

• The Best Golf Charity Auction Items

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Frequently Asked Questions about Charity Golf Auctions

Why should my nonprofit run a golf charity auction?

Auctions and golf tournaments go hand-in-hand. Both combine high-net-worth networking with a popular, engaging activity that, when done well, can result in meaningful revenue for organizations of all types and sizes.

What types of auctions complement golf tournaments?

• Silent auction. The vast majority of golf tournaments incorporate a silent auction. In a silent auction, participants write their bids on a piece of paper or, more commonly, submit their bids using an online bidding platform. Silent auctions work well with golf tournaments because of their flexibility, and thanks to mobile bidding platforms, golfers can place bids from anywhere on the course.

• Live auction. Live auctions utilize a professional auctioneer who leads the bidding process, encouraging competition amongst attendees. One item is auctioned off at a time, in front of the entire group. Live auctions are particularly effective for high-value items or experiences, but can be time-consuming at the end of a long day on the golf course.

• Online auction. An online auction extends the auction beyond the golf tournament itself, reaching a larger audience and broader participation.

When is the best time to hold the auction during a tournament?

An online auction or silent auction that utilizes bidding software can be launched before the tournament to maximize reach and bids. In fact, golfers can bid from their phones during the round! Bidding can start a few days or a few weeks before the event and usually concludes following the awards ceremony or banquet, so golfers or guests take their winning items home. Live auctions are often held during the post-round cocktail hour or dinner, and often coincide with the announcement of the tournament’s winners.

How do we handle bidding while golfers are out on the course?

Paper bid sheets are outdated and create more work for you and your team. Instead, use an auction platform that offers a mobile-friendly interface to:

• Keep the auction running smoothly and professionally

• Allow golfers to browse auction items and place bids during the round, without needing to return to the clubhouse to check bid status

• Automate finalizing bids

• Quickly collect payments and send receipts

How many items should we have for our charity golf auction?

The number of items you offer in your auction is dependent on the number of participants and guests at your tournament. You want to ensure every item is sold, while also creating scarcity that drives higher bids. A good rule of thumb for silent auctions is to have one silent auction item for every five to 10 guests.

Are charity golf auction purchases tax-deductible?

Yes. According to the IRS, “Donors who purchase items at a charity auction may claim a charitable contribution deduction for the excess of the purchase price paid for an item over its fair market value.” For the deduction to be valid, the Fair Market Value (FMV) must be displayed on the auction site.

How do we prevent “auction fatigue” at the end of a long day?

Keep the energy high for your golf event’s auction by:

• Encouraging bidders to save payment information to streamline purchases and receive digital receipts.

• Limiting the live auction to just a handful of big-ticket items to keep golfers engaged, and using an experienced, entertaining auctioneer.

• Opening bidding for a silent golf charity auction before the tournament, so golfers (and guests!) can browse items before they tee off.

• Ensuring there is plenty of time and there are plenty of volunteers to facilitate item pickup and payment when the auction closes.

How should we set starting bids and bid increments?

• Establish a clear FMV. Determine and clearly display the FMV for every auction item, which is the foundation for your pricing strategy.

• Set starting bids in the "Sweet Spot." A good practice is to start bidding at 30% to 50% of the item's FMV. This range is low enough to attract early bids and generate excitement, but high enough to ensure a meaningful return.

• Calculate standard bid increments. Set bid increments at approximately 10% of the starting bid (e.g., if the starting bid is $50, the increment should be $5).

• Minimize bidding friction. The 10% rule keeps the math simple and ensures the item's price steadily increases without drastic jumps.

• Create exceptions for "Priceless" items. For exclusive experiences or unique items (like a round of golf with a celebrity) where FMV is subjective, you may want to set a higher baseline starting bid based on your audience's perceived value.

What legalities do I need to worry about?

• Local liquor laws. Alcohol is heavily regulated. Before auctioning off any liquor items, verify local, county, and state laws. Many jurisdictions require charities to obtain a temporary liquor license or special permit to legally auction alcohol.

• Auction and raffle differences: It’s critical to distinguish between these two formats. An auction is a direct sale where the item goes to the highest bidder based on value, and a raffle (or lottery) is a game of chance where participants buy tickets for a random draw.

• Gaming and gambling issues. Raffles and lotteries are regulated under state gaming and gambling laws, which are stricter than auction laws. Using the terms interchangeably or improperly running a raffle can lead to legal or compliance issues.

• Tax deductions. Clearly state the FMV to keep everything transparent. Bidders can only claim a tax deduction on the amount they pay that exceeds the item's FMV.

How much revenue can your tournament raise?

Use this auction ROI calculator to help determine your charity golf auction’s potential net revenue!

Auction ROI Calculator

Estimate your charity auction's return on investment and maximize fundraising impact.

Number of Auction Items

Total items in your silent & live auction combined.

Avg. Item Fair Market Value ($)

Average fair market value of each donated item.

Expected Sell-Through Rate (%)

Percentage of items that sell. Golf auctions typically see 60–80%.

Avg. Winning Bid (% of Value)

Winning bids as a % of fair market value. Charity auctions often see 50–100%+.

Total Procurement Costs ($)

All costs: purchased items, display, software, printing, shipping, etc.

Calculate ROI

Gross Revenue

$0

Net Profit

$0

ROI

0%

Items Sold

0

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Revenue Breakdown

Total Inventory Value $0

Auction Revenue $0

Costs $0

The Benefits of Running a Golf Charity Auction

An auction can significantly increase your golf event’s overall revenue and further your nonprofit’s impact. Here’s why you should add an auction:

• Drive significant revenue from your event. Add another income stream to your tournament to supplement teams, sponsorships, contests, mulligan sales, raffles, on-course games, and other add-ons. Competitive bidding, especially in a live auction, can drive up the final sale price of items, leading to better fundraising outcomes.

• Attract new supporters and engage non-golfers. An auction—particularly an online auction with an easily shareable link—can draw a wider audience, including non-golfers or spouses or guests of golfers and sponsors. High-end items can also draw new teams to play in your tournament, so be sure to publicize the auction in your event marketing.

• Add excitement and engagement. Auctions add fun and excitement to your tournament, encouraging golfers, sponsors, and guests to stay longer—and spend more.

• Low-cost, high ROI. Keep your auction’s overhead costs low by securing as many donated items as possible. Items purchased outright or on consignment eat away at your overall take from the auction, so engage your donor base, partners, vendors, and sponsors to solicit item donations that boost ROI.

• Opportunities to connect with local businesses. An auction is another opportunity to engage with area companies and businesses. If a business can’t financially sponsor your tournament, invite them to donate an auction item, opening doors for future sponsorships.

• Turn bidders into donors. Capturing bidder data with an online auction platform makes it simple to include them in your CRM for year-round donor stewardship and giving campaigns.

How to Add an Auction to a Golf Event

An auction can easily be added to your tournament at any time, but planning early can help ensure a smooth experience that encourages higher bids. Here’s how to add an auction to your golf tournament:

• Determine the type of auction that best suits your tournament, either live, silent, or online.

• Procure auction items. Work with sponsors, local businesses, your planning team, board members, and corporate partners to secure donated goods, services, and experiences that appeal to your audience. Another option is working with consignment providers who offer big-ticket items without upfront risk.

• Choose an auction platform. Much like your golf tournament, using tech will help it run smoothly and save you time and hassle. The most important feature is a mobile-friendly interface, so golfers and others can browse auction items during the round and place bids right from their phones.

• Promote the auction on all your communication channels and as part of your tournament’s marketing campaigns. Use your GolfStatus event website to promote your golf tournament’s auction and include information about top-tier items, donors, and the bidding link in your pre-event email to participants.

• Establish bidding processes. Determine the starting bid for each item—30% to 50% of the FMV is a good place to start—and the bidding increments. If you’re planning a live auction, secure a high-energy auctioneer experienced in engaging guests.

• Secure volunteers to help set up the auction, answer questions, and finalize payment and item pickup.

• Finalize the details. Add items to your auction platform (making sure to include who donated each item and FMV), create baskets or groupings, and touch base with volunteers and the auctioneer.

ADD AN AUCTION TO YOUR GOLFSTATUS EVENT WEBSITE

Find out more!

Best Practices for Running a Charity Golf Auction

• Plan early. Start organizing your auction well in advance of the tournament so you have ample time to secure high-quality items that appeal to your audience. Sample timeline:

  • 6 months out: Assign an auction lead

  • 3 to 4 months out: Solicit donations and/or contact a consignment provider

  • 1 month out: Finalize lineup and open bidding link

• Set clear guidelines. Clearly outline the rules and communicate these before bidding begins, including bidding increments, payment methods, and pick-up procedures, to avoid confusion and ensure a seamless process.

• Utilize technology. Online platforms for silent or virtual auctions streamline bidding, help reach a broader audience, and make checkout and payments quick and easy. Include a link to the auction on your golf tournament’s website.

GolfStatus’ event website include an auction integration to easily link to your online auction.

• Secure donated items. Partner with local businesses for donated items or experiences, reducing costs, fostering community involvement, and improving fundraising outcomes.

• Engage attendees. Provide frequent updates and reminders about the auction during the tournament, highlighting selected items to keep attendees engaged.

• Follow up with bidders. Promptly reach out to winning bidders to confirm payment and item delivery, and thank them for their support. You should also send a personalized thank-you email to all attendees within 48 hours, and invite everyone to next year’s golf fundraiser.

• Evolve the auction based on feedback. Look for ways to improve your auction strategy based on the feedback you get from your supporters and golf event participants.

The Best Golf Charity Auction Items

One key to a successful auction is offering items that are appealing, attractive, and valuable to your audience. When procuring items:

• Ask your supporters ahead of time what type of auction items they would like to see.

• Have three to five “big” items in the mix that guests would splurge on, plus small to mid-sized items to round out the slate and attract more bidders.

• Include golf-related items to appeal to golfers, and consider items that match the tournament's theme.

• Invite sponsors to contribute in-kind gifts for auction items. If a prospective sponsor says no to a monetary sponsorship, ask for an in-kind donation.

Our Favorite Golf Charity Auction Items

• Experiences. VIP tickets to sporting events, concert passes, exclusive golf packages, vacations or travel packages, dining experiences.

• Memorabilia. Autographed sports gear, collectibles, pieces of art, branded merchandise, golf equipment.

• Luxury items. Designer goods, handmade jewelry, high-end electronics, gourmet food baskets, high-end spirits or wine baskets.

• Local business services. Spa packages, local dining experiences, home improvement services, golf lessons, local boutique packages.

Hope Strengthens Foundation partners with NHL Hall-of-Famer Ray Bourque as the auctioneer at their golf charity auction.

Golf-Related Auction Items

• Custom golf club set

• Golf rangefinder

• Personalized golf bag

• Exclusive lessons with a golf pro

• Golf apparel (hat, shoes, gloves, shirts, pants)

• Golf cart 

• Golf course membership package

• Golf weekend getaway

• Play with a club pro

• Play with a local celebrity 

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Pro Tip:

GolfStatus’ giving partners at Dormie Network Foundation offer in-kind donations that level up nonprofits’ fundraising efforts.

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Physical Auction Items

• Custom artwork

• Standing desk/walking pad

• Chef set (knives, kitchen supplies, etc.)

• Gourmet gift basket (luxury chocolates, wine, snacks, and other gourmet foods)

• Coffee lover gift basket (coffee mugs, French press, beans, etc.)

Experiential Auction Items

• Sporting events tickets

• Concert tickets

• “Night on the Town” (dinner and a show)

• Ultimate city experience (tickets to all the fun things to do in a certain city)

Consignment Travel & Risk-Free Big Ticket Items

• Vacation packages

• Golf-related packages, like tickets to The Masters, a trip to Pebble Beach, or a trip to play St. Andrews

Third-party providers offer risk-free travel packages. Your organization only pays the base cost of the item if it sells, and you keep all the profit above the reserve price.

Run a Golf Auction with GolfStatus

In addition to industry-leading software for charity golf tournaments and fundraisers, GolfStatus offers an auction add-on. The GolfStatus in-house team will work closely with you to set the auction up on the platform and activate the “Auction” tab on your golf tournament website so you can start collecting bids alongside golfer and sponsor registrations. Curious about how GolfStatus can help save time, raise more money, and streamline your auction? Click below to get in touch with our team.

Work With the Golf Fundraising Pros

Book a Meeting to Get Started

By Jen Wemhoff, Communications Manager at GolfStatus

Your charity golf tournament draws some of your most affluent, influential supporters—golfers, sponsors, and their networks. Yet, this is often the exact group that slips through the cracks of even the most data-savvy nonprofit’s fundraising efforts. If that data isn’t making it into your donor database, you’re leaving valuable relationships (and future gifts) on the table. Here’s exactly how to capture it, step by step.

Data Capture Checklist

1. Choose a golf-specific event management platform, not a generic event tool

2. Launch a dedicated online registration website for your tournament

3. Centralize data management, particularly if third parties are running events on your behalf

4. Export tournament data from your event management tool and tag every golfer, sponsor, and donor by year and level

5. Add the data to your nonprofit’s CRM as part of your broader fundraising strategy

6. Put the data to work to inform hole assignments and team pairings

7. Use data to re-engage lapsed golf tournament participants

Why Golfer & Sponsor Data Matters

The basic reality is this—you can’t use information that you don’t have. If your golf event participants aren’t in your donor database, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to steward high-capacity donors over time. And the worst thing? You may not even realize it’s happening, since the gap is a blind spot, not an obvious red flag.

• When golfers or sponsors tap their personal and professional networks to fill a team, your organization gets exposed to new, high-level supporters you’d otherwise never meet.

• A golf tournament sponsorship is often a company’s first touchpoint with your mission, and sponsors are strong candidates for deeper corporate partnerships down the road.

• Golf event-specific data, like handicap, participation history, add-on purchases, auction winnings, or day-of donations, gives you conversation starters and stewardship angles that generic donor data doesn’t.

• Golfers represent an affluent demographic with strong ties to the local business community.

Step-by-Step Golf Tournament Data Collection

1. Choose a Golf-Specific Event Management Platform

General event management tools or generic ticketing platforms simply aren’t built for the level of specificity that golf tournaments require. Set yourself up for success from the get-go and look for a purpose-built solution that seamlessly handles:

• Golfer information (handicaps, GHIN, course preferences, shirt sizes)

• Custom sponsorship packages and tiers

• Digital sponsor exposure throughout the platform

• Hole assignments and team pairings

• Online donations before, during, and after the event

• Live scoring and leaderboards

The right platform should make registration frictionless. Its flow should be intuitive, so golfers and sponsors complete it without abandoning their carts partway through. Every field, click, or step that feels unnecessary is a chance to lose a registrant before they finish.

2. Launch an Online Registration Website

Your event management platform should power a sleek, professional golf tournament website. Whether your tournament is weeks or months away, this is perhaps the single most impactful thing you can do. Why? Online registration replaces emailed signups and manually processed paper forms with a system that captures clean, structured data automatically—without extra work from you or your event committee.

A well-built website should ideally collect more than just a name and payment. Capture each golfer’s contact information (or give registrants the ability to add that information later if all golfers aren’t yet determined), and potentially their employer, job title, and sponsor affiliation. Pairing that information with their purchases—mulligans, game or contest entry, raffle tickets—offers additional context that can turn your registration list into data your development team can leverage later.

An event website makes capturing data from your charity golf tournament easy and efficient.

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PRO TIP:

Keep all tournament purchases within your event management platform to ensure you capture as much useful data as possible—and you won’t be stuck reconciling cash payments or Venmos post-tournament.

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3. Centralize Data Management

Online registration keeps all your event data in one easy-to-access spot so everyone on your team is working with up-to-date information, instead of multiple spreadsheets that quickly become outdated.

If your organization benefits from events hosted by volunteers, businesses, or other third parties, data capture and management can become even more convoluted—and fast. You may have limited visibility into who’s registering, sponsoring, or donating at an event you didn’t organize yourself.

Tech that centralizes events and their data into a single platform while still letting them run independently makes it easy for others to raise funds on your behalf. Plus, you capture the event’s data for long-term stewardship. This gives you the best of both worlds: expanded reach through the third party’s networks and goodwill and the donor and sponsor relationships that come with it.

4. Export, Tag, and Track Data by Year and Level

The best event data is useless if it’s not accessible outside of the fundraiser itself. An intuitive golf event platform should offer robust reporting and make it easy to export data to include in your nonprofit’s CRM.

Once the data is exported, use source codes, tags, or other batch notations to track who played in, donated to, or sponsored your event at what level and in what year. This turns a one-time registration list into a broader piece of each contact’s multi-year donor history.

Over time, this kind of tracking lets you answer questions that matter for stewardship and solicitation for next year’s golf tournament:

• Which sponsors have upgraded their level year over year?

• Which golfers have played every year?

• Who sponsored once and never came back?

• Which golfers played in the past but missed last year?

Each of these questions gives your team the context they need for outreach messaging that resonates.

Your event management platform should make it simple to export donor and sponsor data with a few clicks.

5. Import Data to Your CRM

Once the data is in your CRM, combine it with the rest of your donor information to make timely, relevant asks—donations, support for other events, invitations to future golf tournaments—through regular donor touchpoints.

This step is what connects your charity golf tournament to the rest of your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts. A golfer who’s been quietly showing up year after year or a company that’s sponsored the same hole-in-one contest for years are potential candidates for additional support. Your development team can only spot that pattern if the data actually makes it into their systems and processes.

6. Put the Data to Work

Organized data lets you be intentional about the event itself, not just what happens after it. You wouldn’t seat a major donor in the back of a dimly lit ballroom at a gala, and the same logic applies on the golf course.

Use what you know about sponsors and top donors to make thoughtful team pairings and hole assignments, especially since many sponsors are there to talk business over 18 holes. Good data also pays off in sponsor satisfaction. A sponsor who’s paired with or near golfers or other sponsors they have a business connection to is more likely to find value in the event and renew their support for next year.

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Pro Tip:

Strategically pair your nonprofit’s executive director with a team from the title sponsor or potential major partner. The hours spent on the golf course can go a long way toward future support and gifts.

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7. Re-Engage Repeat and Lapsed Participants

Repeat attendees, sponsors, and donors are typically more engaged and more generous than new participants, so getting them back year after year should be important. Reaching out to participants who missed last year’s tournament is also one of the more effective ways to bring active supporters back into the fold.

A simple low-effort habit worth building is to flag anyone who registered or sponsored the prior year but didn’t return. Next, reach out personally well before registration opens for the next event. A short personalized note asking what changed or saying simply that you missed them does much more than a generic email blast.

Use your golf event’s data to re-engage with lapsed participants, sponsors, and donors.

Common Data Capture Mistakes to Avoid

• Treating the tournament as a standalone event rather than an ongoing donor relationship. The data only pays off if it feeds back into your broader fundraising strategy.

• Relying on manual data entry from paper forms or email signups. Not only is it slow and error-prone, but it takes an enormous amount of time that could be better spent building relationships.

• Skipping data export so golfer and sponsor data sits in the event platform and is never used.

• Missing tags or notations when your data is uploaded to your CRM. Without this critical information, your data tells an incomplete story.

• Losing visibility into third-party events run on your organization’s behalf, which can mean entirely missing some promising sponsor prospects.

Wrapping Up

Your charity golf tournament is much more than a one-day fundraiser. In fact, it’s one of the richest sources of donor and sponsor data your organization has access to all year. The difference between capturing that data and letting it slip away usually comes down to a handful of decisions: registering golfers online rather than on paper, choosing a platform built for golf rather than a generic ticketing platform, and ensuring data reaches the people who need it rather than keeping it siloed.

The best news of all is that none of this requires a bigger budget or team. It simply requires the right tools and the habit of treating every tournament as an input into your broader donor strategy. Start with the steps outlined in this article, and you’ll be ahead of the game for your next tournament.

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Get a Free Event Registration Website

Worried that a dedicated event website will take a huge chunk out of your limited tournament budget? Nonprofits, charities, and third parties running golf events to benefit one can get a free event website, plus access to GolfStatus’ golf event management and fundraising platform at no upfront cost. Easily capture golfer and sponsor data, manage teams, track payments, communicate with participants, and much more—all to save you time and help raise thousands more dollars for your cause. Click below to book a meeting or get started in the software on your own!

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by Jen Wemhoff, Communications Manager at GolfStatus

Corporate fundraising presents a valuable opportunity for nonprofits and businesses to make a meaningful impact on their communities. For nonprofits, it means additional funding, resources, and greater visibility. For businesses, raising money for charity as a third party boosts brand reputation, engages employees, and fosters connections with new audiences.

Whether you’re a nonprofit looking to secure corporate support or a company looking to give back, these key strategies and fundraising ideas will help you maximize your impact.

Skip to:

• Corporate Fundraising FAQ

• Top Corporate Fundraising Idea: Charity Golf Tournament

• Event-Based Corporate Fundraising Ideas

• Workplace Giving & Employee Engagement Fundraising Ideas

• Community-Focused Fundraising Ideas

• Virtual Fundraising Ideas

• Seasonal Corporate Fundraising Ideas

Corporate Fundraising FAQ

What is Corporate Fundraising?

Corporate fundraising is any effort where a business raises money or resources to support a nonprofit or charitable cause. It can take many forms, and the right approach depends on the company’s size, culture, budget, priorities, and goals. Some companies focus their corporate fundraising efforts on increasing employee engagement and strengthening community relationships, while others prioritize charitable impact and enhancing brand visibility.

What Are the Benefits of Corporate Fundraising?

For Corporate Entities

• Reputation boost. Corporate giving enhances your social responsibility profile, enhancing and strengthening your brand and reputation.

• Introduction to new audiences and customers. Supporting a nonprofit can help businesses engage with new customers. For instance, fundraising events that attract higher-net-worth individuals—like charity golf tournaments—help businesses attract valuable clientele.

• Improved employee engagement. Giving back can boost employee satisfaction and engagement, foster connections between teams, and improve team building.

• Diverse giving opportunities. There are multiple ways companies can support charitable causes, including in-kind donations, monetary sponsorships, cause marketing campaigns, and more.

For Nonprofits

• Increased funding and financial stability. Corporate sponsorships and donations create a reliable funding source for nonprofits.

• Expanded audience and brand awareness. Corporate partnerships introduce nonprofit causes to new audiences and raise awareness about important issues.

• Access to valuable resources and expertise. Corporate partners may provide helpful resources like in-kind donations or skilled volunteers, along with industry expertise.

• Long-term strategic partnerships. These collaborations provide ongoing support for sustained impact.

• Increased credibility and public trust. Aligning with respectable brands or well-known businesses helps build trust among the community and with donors.

Corporate partnerships have a number of benefits for businesses and noprofits.

What Are the Top Corporate Fundraising Best Practices?

For all parties to maximize the impact of charitable partnerships, the following best practices should be considered:

Nonprofits

• Educate partners on any other corporate giving opportunities that may exist to further maximize their charitable efforts, such as matching gifts, volunteer grants, or payroll giving.

• Mobilize your donor network to spread the word about your corporate partner’s contributions, share information about the upcoming fundraising event, and encourage participation.

• Set goals that are both ambitious and realistic, based on past fundraising efforts, successes, and lessons learned.

Businesses & Third-Party Fundraisers

• Be transparent about the scope of your support and involvement in the fundraising event.

• Align fundraising events with your company’s mission, brand, and audience.

• Collaborate with the nonprofit to create compelling event promotional materials, such as a compelling event website with storytelling, visuals, and many opportunities and tiers for involvement.

Both Parties

• Work with partners that share your goals and values for the best possible outcomes for everyone involved.

• Choose the right event that will appeal to each organization’s audiences.

• Follow up after the event to reflect on its success, demonstrate its impact, and express gratitude.

• Create an event plan that details event tasks, assignments, and timelines.

• Outline a budget so both parties are on the same page.

• Use purpose-built tech to effectively and efficiently streamline planning and event management. For example, if you choose a charity golf tournament, choose a solution built specifically for golf, like GolfStatus.

The Top Corporate Fundraising Idea: Charity Golf Tournament

What Is a Charity Golf Tournament?

A charity golf tournament is a premier fundraising event that offers numerous benefits for the host company and benefiting nonprofit. Golf events bring people together like no other event can, combining philanthropy with networking, camaraderie, and an activity people genuinely enjoy. Golfers pay a registration fee to participate as an individual or a team and businesses purchase sponsorships to support the cause.

Charity golf tournaments bring people together to raise money, make connections, and strengthen relationships.

Why Is a Charity Golf Tournament the Best Corporate Fundraising Idea?

• Golf events have high revenue potential. Player registrations, sponsorships, and add-ons such as contests, on-course games, mulligan sales, auctions, and raffles drive revenue.

• Golf tournaments appeal to sponsors. Golf events provide excellent branding and exposure opportunities for businesses of all types, plus access to an audience that can’t be found with any other event.

• Golf events attract decision-makers. Golf attracts corporate executives and higher-than-average net-worth individuals. 90% of Fortune 500 CEOs are golfers, and one in three golfers are in top-level management.

• Golf is more popular and inclusive than ever. Golf continues to see record popularity, attracting new audiences of beginners, women, and young adults.

• Golf builds relationships. Because the focus of the event is on an enjoyable activity, it’s easy for donors and sponsors to build relationships and positive memories that keep them coming back year after year.

• Golf events strengthen community engagement. Golf events planned by a third-party corporate partner deepen community ties and engagement.

• Golf tournaments are customizable. Choose the golf facility, format, and competition level that best suits your combined audiences.

• There are multiple opportunities for support. Golf tournaments offer a plethora of opportunities to support a nonprofit partner—monetary sponsorships, employee volunteering, in-kind donations, and more.

Tips for Launching a Charity Golf Tournament

With the right strategy and tools in place, it’s easier than ever to plan and execute a successful charity golf tournament. Follow these tips:

• Use an event website. A dedicated golf tournament website with online registration makes promotion, registration, sponsor onboarding and exposure, sharing information about your cause, and communication with supporters simple and efficient.

• Offer sponsorship packages at varying price points. This best practice allows businesses with different budget capabilities to support your tournament. High-end exposure, like a pin flag sponsorship, should be sold at a premium,

• Maximize additional fundraising. Incorporate tournament components such as mulligan sales, raffle tickets, auctions, on-course games, and hole-in-one contests to boost fundraising outcomes.

• Enlist volunteer help. Work to engage volunteers from both the corporate partner and nonprofit to help in tournament prep and day-of execution.

Most importantly, use a golf-specific event management platform. Golf tournaments come with a unique set of details that must be handled, including handicaps, hole assignments, team pairings, flighting, and scoring. Standard ticketing software and nonprofit CRMs simply aren’t built to handle this level of specificity without requiring time-consuming workarounds.

GolfStatus’ golf event management software addresses the golf specifics and has baked-in tools to save organizers time and opportunities to raise more money:

• Event websites with online registration, secure payment processing, broad digital sponsor exposure, the ability to collect donations, and more.

• Robust reporting and data management in one easily-accessible web-based platform.

• A user-friendly back end where team members can collaborate, manage payments, track team and sponsorship sales, make hole assignments, and more.

• Reliable live scoring that engages golfers throughout the tournament and makes the tournament more fun.

• Exclusive sponsorships and add-ons to raise thousands more dollars.

• A responsive, in-house client success team comprised of PGA Professionals and fundraising specialists.

For third party fundraisers like corporate entities, GolfStatus can essentially be the bank for the golf event. GolfStatus makes it simple to collect and hold funds that can be paid out directly to the nonprofit after the tournament concludes.

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Other Event-Based Corporate Fundraising Ideas

2. Corporate gala or charity ball

3. Trivia night

4. Charity game night

5. Wine and dine fundraiser

6. Benefit concert (could also accompany your charity golf tournament)

7. Networking event or conference

8. Executive challenges (like dunk tanks or pie-in-the-face challenges)

9. Giving days

10. Corporate field day

11. Charity bowling tournament

12. Corporate cook-off

13. Art auction featuring employee or local artist works

14. Charity fashion show highlighting local boutiques

15. Escape room challenge

16. Corporate talent show and dinner

17. Pancake breakfast fundraiser before the workday begins

18. Charity poker or casino night

19. Community outdoor movie night

20. Murder mystery dinner party

21. Charity cornhole tournament

22. Paint and sip fundraising event

23. Mini-golf tournament

24. Charity obstacle course race/field day

25. Bingo night fundraiser

Workplace Giving & Employee Engagement Fundraising Ideas

26. Donation matching

27. Payroll giving

28. Company-wide donation challenge

29. Internal company charity raffle

30. Company silent auction

31. Cause-related product sales

32. Peer-to-peer company-wide fundraising competition

33. Office bake sale

34. "Dress down" or casual dress days in exchange for a donation

35. Paid volunteer time off (VTO) campaigns tied to a financial match

36. CEO/Executive "jail" (employees donate to bail them out)

37. Lunch and learn sessions with a nonprofit guest speaker (catered lunch with suggested donation)

38. Office pet photo contest with voting via entry fees

39. Parking spot auction

40. Employee skill auction (e.g., bid on lessons for employees with niche skills, like guitar lessons or baking)

41. Spare change collection jars in the breakroom

42. Department vs. department penny wars

43. Used book or media sale at the office

44. Coffee cart sale (all coffee purchases are used as donations to a charity)

45. Company recipe book sales featuring employee submissions

Companies can further the impact of their charity golf tournament by holding an accompanying donation drive.

Community-Focused Fundraising Ideas

46. Charity car wash

47. Restaurant fundraising night

48. Food or in-kind item drive

49. Charity run

50. Community festival for charity

51. Charity dog wash or pet grooming event

52. Company-wide garage/yard sale

53. Community tree planting or park clean-up sponsorship

54. Local artisan craft fair with a portion of proceeds donated

55. Charity bike ride or cyclathon

56. Community scavenger hunt with local business sponsors

57. E-waste recycling drive (partnering with a local recycling firm)

58. Local business coupon book sales

59. Bottle and can recycling drive

Virtual Fundraising Ideas

60. Online fundraising gamification or rewards-based campaigns

61. Social media challenges

62. Crowdfunding campaigns

63. Livestream fundraising event

64. Virtual 5K or step challenge

65. Online cooking class hosted by a local chef

66. Virtual trivia or bingo hosted via Zoom

67. E-sports or video game tournament

68. Online peer-to-peer walkathon

69. Corporate branded merch sale

Seasonal Corporate Fundraising Ideas

70. Halloween costume contest

71. Valentine's candy-gram fundraiser

72. Holiday gift drive

73. Summer corporate BBQ fundraiser

74. Ugly holiday sweater contest with entry fees

75. Spring cleaning office garage sale

76. Pumpkin carving or decorating contest

77. Holiday wrapping paper service (executives wrap gifts for staff donations)

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Final Thoughts

Corporate fundraising strengthens communities, builds partnerships, and makes a lasting impact. Whether you’re hosting a charity golf tournament or launching another fundraising campaign, the right tools and strategies help ensure success.

GolfStatus simplifies golf event planning and management while maximizing fundraising potential. Click below to learn more!

Start Planning a Corporate Golf Event With GolfStatus!

Click Here to Get Started With a Free Event Website

About the Author

Jen Wemhoff - Communications Manager at GolfStatus

Jen Wemhoff accidentally discovered her passion for nonprofits in college. An internship while earning a degree in Communications from Doane University led to a 20 year career in the nonprofit sector, where she found a strong desire to be part of something bigger than herself. Her vast nonprofit experience includes roles in marketing, fundraising, and direct programming. When Jen came to GolfStatus as Communications Manager in 2020, she was struck by the power of the sport to raise money to power nonprofit missions. She tells GolfStatus’s story across platforms and channels and develops educational tools and resources to help nonprofits tap into golf’s giving power. Jen, her husband, and two daughters call Lincoln, Nebraska home.

by Jen Wemhoff, Communications Manager at GolfStatus

Mulligans are a low-lift option to add real revenue to your charity golf tournament. They cost you nothing to offer, golfers of all skill levels love them, and they’re one of the easiest add-ons to any golf tournament.

Many golf tournament organizers leave money on the table by either not offering mulligans at all or not pricing, packaging, and selling them effectively. Learn how to leverage mulligans for your next tournament.

What is a Mulligan?

A mulligan is simply a “do-over” or a chance for a golfer to retake a shot without it counting against their score.

Mulligans aren’t allowed in professional or official competitions, but are a staple of charity tournaments. They’re less about strict rules and more about fun and raising money for your cause. Golfers who shank a tee or approach shot are usually more than happy to pay a few dollars to erase it and keep the round moving.

Golfers who hit a poor tee shot are happy for the chance for a “do-over” by using a mulligan.

How to Price Mulligans

There’s no single “right” price—it depends on your tournament, format, competitiveness, and what golfers are used to paying. Here are a few general suggestions:

• Casual charity tournaments: $5-$10 per mulligan. A reasonable price point keeps sales volume high.

• Competitive or higher-end tournaments: $15-$25 per mulligan. Golfers at higher-end events tend to have more discretionary income to spend and can justify the higher cost.

• Bundles: Selling mulligans as a set—for example, three mulligans for $20 instead of $10 each—encourages golfers to buy more than they might as a single.

Whatever price point you decide, think about it the way you think about sponsorship and registration packages. Even though most golfers at a charity event already know they’re there to support a cause, you still want to offer value, and they’re generally willing to spend accordingly.

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Pro Tip: Ask for feedback on mulligan pricing in your post-tournament communications with golfers to help you lock in options for next year.

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Building Mulligan Packages That Sell

Pricing is only half the equation. How you package mulligans can have a big impact on whether or not golfers decide to buy them. Consider these mulligan package options:

• Bundle them into team registration. Consider an upgraded registration tier that includes a set number of mulligans per golfer or team, so those who want the cushion of a mulligan don’t have to make a separate purchase decision later.

• Sell them as a standalone add-on. Not everyone wants mulligans bundled in—and some golfers may want additional mulligans than what’s included with a package. Give them the option to add mulligans à la carte during registration and at check-in.

• Fold them into VIP or premium packages. Another option is to pair mulligans with other perks, like premium parking, extra raffle tickets, or contest entries, to make an upgrade package feel like a deal rather than an upsell.

• Offer tiered mulligan bundles. Offer a “basic” bundle of two or three mulligans at a lower price, and an “upgraded” bundle of four or five at a better price per mulligan to give golfers options without overcomplicating the package.

• Pair mulligans with raffle tickets. Golfers who buy one of these are often receptive to the other, so consider offering a combo package that includes both mulligans and raffle tickets.

List a mulligan package on your event website to make it as easy as possible for golfers to buy them.

The goal with any package for mulligans is to make the decision easy. Keep your menu of options simple and clearly priced on your event website so golfers can make their selection without having to think through a ton of choices.

Where & How to Sell Mulligans

Mulligans sell best when they’re easy to buy in the moment someone’s already thinking about them, so it’s a best practice to offer them before the tournament and at the course.

• At registration. Include mulligan options in the online registration flow so golfers can add and pay for them without a separate transaction. This is the prime converting moment, since golfers already have their credit card out and are ready to buy.

• At check-in. Some golfers wait until tournament day to decide, and others may want to add additional do-overs, so make sure mulligans are just as easy to purchase when they arrive at the golf facility.

• On the course. Consider setting up a mulligan station or two near the tee box of notoriously tough holes. A well-timed mulligan offer right before a challenging hole can be one of your highest-converting moments of the day.

Across all three touchpoints, the common thread is removing as much friction as possible. If buying a mulligan means finding cash, hunting down a volunteer, or filling out a form, you’ll lose sales. A mobile-friendly event website lets golfers buy mulligans (or anything else) right from their phones, wherever they are in the course, keeping the process quick and easy and eliminating the headache of tracking and reconciling cash payments.

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Pro Tip: Post QR codes that link directly to the mulligans package on your event website at the check-in table and any mulligan stations for easy access.

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Direct golfers to your mobile-friendly event website to purchase mulligans at the event, eliminating the need to hassle with and reconcile cash payments.

Communicate Rules to Keep It Fun & Fair

Mulligans work so well because they’re lighthearted, not because they let anyone buy their way to winning a tournament. It’s crucial to set clear limits and expectations up front. A common approach is limiting mulligan purchases to two to four per golfer and specifying where they can be used, such as for tee shots only. Communicate the rules on your event website and again at check-in so there’s no confusion, frustration, or push-back mid-tournament. You might even post signage that explains mulligan usage.

Physical mulligan cards, tickets, or wristbands can help volunteers and other golfers see at a glance who has purchased them and how many they have left, which cuts down on disputes and keeps the pace of play moving.

Mulligan FAQs

Why should we offer mulligans at our tournament?

For nonprofits, golfers’ willingness to pay is a golden opportunity. Mulligans require no inventory, vendors, or setup, beyond deciding your pricing and how you’ll sell them, which means every dollar collected goes straight toward your mission.

Are mulligans allowed at all golf tournaments?

Mulligans aren’t utilized in official or professional competitive tournaments, but they’re standard practice at charity events and other casual formats where the focus is fun and fundraising. As the organizer, you get to set the rules for your own event.

How many mulligans should we let golfers buy?

Most tournaments cap purchases somewhere between two and five per player. Capping the number keeps the format fair and prevents mulligans from feeling like a way to buy a win rather than the fun add-on they’re intended to be.

Where on the course can golfers use mulligans?

Many tournaments limit mulligans to tee shots only to keep play moving and avoid disputes over lies in the fairway or on the green. That being said, you can allow them for any shot—the key is to communicate the expectations clearly before the round starts so there’s no confusion. Mulligans can’t typically be used on hole-in-one contest holes and in putting contests.

Do we need physical mulligan cards?

Physical cards or wristbands give volunteers an easy way to verify purchases and their use on the course. Selling them through your event website ahead of time (or from a phone on tournament day) cuts down on the need to handle cash and makes reporting easier post-tournament. If golfers buy them ahead of time, have them ready for pick-up at check-in.

Should mulligans be included in registration or sold separately?

Both approaches work, and offering them both ways helps you capture the most revenue possible. Bundle a set number into an upgraded registration or VIP package for golfers who want the cushion built in, and offer them as a standalone add-on for everyone else.

What’s a reasonable price to charge for mulligans?

It depends on your event, goals, and field, but $5-$10 per mulligan is typical for charity golf tournaments. Higher-end events may be able to charge $15-$25 per mulligan. Bundling mulligans together at a slight discount usually outperforms selling them individually.

Turn a Small Add-On Into Real Revenue With Mulligans

Mulligans won’t replace sponsorships or registrations in terms of revenue, but they’re an easy win to fold into your tournament. With thoughtful pricing, a simple package structure, and a frictionless way to buy, mulligans can add meaningful dollars to your tournament’s fundraising outcomes, all from something golfers already want.

Mulligans are a great way to build in easy, low-cost revenue drivers to charity golf tournaments. Make it easy to package, list, and sell with a free event website from GolfStatus. Websites are powered by GolfStatus’ golf event management platform, which streamlines and simplifies tournaments to save organizers time and help raise more money for your cause, and backed by a team of golf fundraising pros. Book a meeting to find out more and get started at no upfront cost!

Get Started With GolfStatus at No Upfront Cost

Book a Quick Meeting

About the Author

Jen Wemhoff - Communications Manager at GolfStatus

Jen Wemhoff accidentally discovered her passion for nonprofits in college. An internship while earning a degree in Communications from Doane University led to a 20 year career in the nonprofit sector, where she found a strong desire to be part of something bigger than herself. Her vast nonprofit experience includes roles in marketing, fundraising, and direct programming. When Jen came to GolfStatus as Communications Manager in 2020, she was struck by the power of the sport to raise money to power nonprofit missions. She tells GolfStatus’s story across platforms and channels and develops educational tools and resources to help nonprofits tap into golf’s giving power. Jen, her husband, and two daughters call Lincoln, Nebraska home.

by Jen Wemhoff, Communications Manager at GolfStatus

Traditional golf tournaments are ideal fundraisers and a proven way to raise serious funds. But for nonprofits with a dispersed donor and supporter base, it can be challenging to rally local support. Other nonprofits may be limited by course availability in their area or have concerns about unpredictable weather with a traditional golf fundraiser.

A virtual golf fundraiser is a smart, viable alternative to an in-person event. With low risk and broad reach, a virtual format allows you to engage supporters—and expand your donor base—from anywhere without the logistical concerns of a single-location event.

This guide will cover how to structure, monetize, and execute a successful virtual golf tournament fundraiser to maximize impact.

Table of Contents

• Virtual Golf Tournament FAQs

• Best Practices for Planning & Execution

• Creative Ideas to Maximize Virtual Golf Engagement & Revenue

Virtual Golf Tournament FAQs

What is a Virtual Golf Fundraiser?

Essentially, it’s a decentralized tournament where participants play a round at a local golf course (or even a simulator) on their own schedule. Instead of golfers gathering at a single golf facility on a single day, your supporters can participate from anywhere during a designated time period and still compete together in a unified event.

Much like traditional golf fundraisers, virtual events generate revenue through:

• Golfer registration fees (though they’ll still need to pay green and cart fees at their chosen golf facility)

• Sponsorships

• Donations

Virtual events are also well-suited to a peer-to-peer fundraising element, with a format that blends the competitive fun of golf with the accessibility of online fundraising.

Virtual golf events have the potential to reach a broad audience, especially if your supporter base isn’t localized.

What Are Some Virtual Golf Fundraiser Formats?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to a virtual event, so be flexible and tailor it to your audience. Here are a few common formats:

1. "Play-anywhere" multi-day format. Your organization chooses a date range (such as a week or weekend), and golfers play a round at a course, day, and time of their choosing. This is the most accessible and scalable option for a virtual event.

2. Hybrid format. This combines an in-person event with a virtual component. Local golfers attend your in-person tournament, while out-of-town supporters compete remotely at the same time. A hybrid event offers the networking and camaraderie of a traditional golf tournament with the accessibility and reach of a virtual tournament.

3. Indoor simulator format. Partner with simulator venues like TopGolf or X-Golf to host synchronized, weather-proof, indoor events. This option can be perfect for winter fundraising in urban audiences.
   
   

What Are the Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Golf Fundraiser?

A virtual golf fundraiser offers several key advantages that can translate into higher fundraising outcomes:

• Broad reach. No geographic limits means golfers can join from anywhere, increasing participation.

• Reduced overhead costs. Because you’re not renting a golf facility or providing food and beverage, there are next to no costs associated with venue rental, catering, and on-site staffing.

• Flexibility. With some virtual tournament formats, golfers can play when it fits their schedule, making it easier for busy supporters to participate.

• Digital engagement. Use technology and social media to create a fun, interactive, and shareable event experience that keeps golfers connected.

• Weather-proof. A virtual event eliminates the risk of cancellation, the need to reschedule, or low turnout due to inclement weather.
  
  

When is the Best Time to Host a Virtual Golf Fundraiser?

Virtual events can be held year-round, and the flexibility of a virtual format means you can align the event with your broader fundraising calendar.

Want to engage donors during the offseason? Consider a winter simulator event. Looking to build momentum before Giving Tuesday? Try a multi-day virtual tournament in early fall. Want to engage remote supporters in tandem with your annual in-person golf fundraiser? Add a hybrid virtual component.

Best Practices for Planning & Execution

A successful virtual golf event requires the right systems and structure to make it feel polished and professional, along with effective communication strategies to make it feel cohesive.

• Leverage golf-specific software. An event management platform is a must-have for an in-person golf event, and a virtual setup makes it even more important. Trying to manage a virtual tournament relying on spreadsheets or standard ticketing software is a recipe for disorganization and confusion. Golf event tech ensures a seamless experience for everyone, plus massive time savings for organizers.

• Maximize passive data capture. One of the biggest missed opportunities in any type of golf tournament is limited data collection. With paper registration forms, one team member registers, leaving you without contact information for the rest of the golfers. Online registration eliminates this hurdle, capturing email addresses for every participant so you can build a stronger donor database and improve marketing and fundraising efforts.

• Negotiate partnerships with golf facilities. In areas where your organization has a strong donor presence, you might work with a handful of golf facilities to negotiate discounted rates and fees for tournament participants. These “preferred virtual courses” benefit from more players, more food and beverage sales, and more exposure to guests. What’s more, having standardized courses can offer better consistency in scoring (though it’s not necessary).

• Outline clear rules. Clarity is everything in a virtual setting. Without it, confusion and disputes can derail your event. To keep things running smoothly, define and communicate the following at the outset of the tournament:

  • Tournament format, whether it’s a four-person scramble, individual stroke play, two-man best ball, etc.

  • Scoring. Explain how scores are to be submitted, what app needs to be downloaded and used, and where participants can access the leaderboards. The mobile app should integrate into your golf event management platform.

  • Equipment/technology requirements. If yours is a golf simulator event, specify the necessary golf simulator requirements to participate.

  • Eligible facilities. Outline the requirements of the facility, such as the course’s par, slope rating, number of holes, etc., to help level the playing field. If you are working with preferred courses or a specific simulator franchise, be sure to

  • Timeframe. Set the start and end dates/times for the virtual tournament.

  • Code of conduct. Make expectations for sportsmanship and fair play as clear as possible.

It’s important to explain to virtual golf event participants how scores will be submitted and where they can access the leaderboards.

Creative Ideas to Maximize Virtual Golf Engagement & Revenue

One challenge of virtual tournaments is keeping participants engaged from afar. Creating shared experiences can keep golfers connected and even boost revenue.

• Sell digital add-ons. Digital add-ons are low or no-cost to your tournament. These might include virtual mulligans, an online silent auction, entries into virtual on-course games, or a virtual raffle drawing.

• Solicit themed donations. Boost fundraising by setting up themed donation tiers. Get creative and offer fun donation options like "Bogey Insurance" or "Take a Virtual Shot."

• Drive social media interaction. Encourage participants to share their experience and keep everyone feeling connected with user-generated content. This could include a branded event hashtag, trick shot video contests, or photo challenges from each golf course.

• Involve club pros or other special guests. Invite the golf pro at a local golf club, a local celebrity, or even a well-known supporter to record a welcome video or motivational message that’s shared on the tournament website or sent directly to golfers. This personal touch adds credibility and builds excitement for your event.

• Host virtual opening and/or closing ceremonies. Create bookends for your tournament with live virtual events. Open the event with a welcome message, sponsor recognition, and an event overview. Wrap up the tournament by announcing winners, drawing raffle prizes, and publicly thanking sponsors, volunteers, and golfers.
  

How to Sell and Fulfill Digital Sponsorships

Sponsorships are a major driver of revenue, even for virtual formats. The key is translating on-course visibility into digital exposure. Here are some ideas:

• Use an event website. Digital sponsorships start with your golf tournament website, where you can list packages, sell sponsorships, and onboard sponsors in one place. Logo placements throughout the platform offer broad digital exposure every time someone visits the site to register or make a donation.

• Digital leaderboard naming rights. Offer a title sponsorship for your virtual event’s live leaderboard. To provide maximum exposure, include the sponsor’s name: The [Sponsor] Live Leaderboard or the Live Leaderboard Presented by [Sponsor].

• Push-notification sponsorships. Sell the ability to send push notifications through your live scoring app to all golfers during their round. Messages could include promotions for their business, simple sponsor recognition (“The back nine is sponsored by [Sponsor]), or even calls-to-action to donate on your event website.

• Virtual hole sponsorships. Use your live scoring app’s hole-by-hole scorecard to assign sponsor logos and boost visibility. Highlight virtual hole sponsors further through email blasts, social media posts, and in-app messages.

• Create a digital swag bag. Replace the traditional golfer gifts with a digital version that doesn’t require shipping. It could include valuable gifts like promo codes, discounts, and special offers from sponsors or other partners. Deliver it via email to golfers, giving sponsors direct access to your audience.

Anyone, anywhere should be able to access the event’s virtual live leaderboards on your event website.

Wrapping Up

A well-executed virtual golf fundraiser can be just as impactful as a traditional golf event, or even more. With low costs, flexibility, and a broad reach, a virtual golf tournament is an opportunity to expand your audience while increasing your fundraising potential.

The key? Using golf-specific event management software lays the foundation for a successful virtual event, keeping your planning team organized and on the same page, providing a home base for decentralized participants, and offering digital sponsor exposure.

Pairing a strong event strategy with the right technology, setting clear expectations, and building engaging digital experiences will help you run a seamless virtual golf tournament fundraiser that delivers real results.

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About the Author

Jen Wemhoff accidentally discovered her passion for nonprofits in college. An internship while earning a degree in Communications from Doane University led to a 20 year career in the nonprofit sector, where she found a strong desire to be part of something bigger than herself. Her vast nonprofit experience includes roles in marketing, fundraising, and direct programming. When Jen came to GolfStatus as Communications Manager in 2020, she was struck by the power of the sport to raise money to power nonprofit missions. She tells GolfStatus’s story across platforms and channels and develops educational tools and resources to help nonprofits tap into golf’s giving power. Jen, her husband, and two daughters call Lincoln, Nebraska home.