Golf may not be the biggest thing in football-focused Klein, Texas, but the boys and girls golf teams are talented, passionate, and growing. “The kids get so much out of being on the golf teams,” says Andrea Vickers, president of the Klein High School Golf Booster Club’s board. Klein High School provides some funding for the teams, but unfortunately, doesn’t have the budget to fully subsidize all the teams’ expenses and needs.

The Klein High School Golf Booster Club helps fill the funding gaps between what the school provides and what the student athletes need to be successful.

That’s where the Golf Booster Club comes in. The club wants to make sure any student that wants to play golf for the BearKats has the opportunity to do so and has the tools and equipment needed to be successful. The combined team of nearly 30 student athletes is becoming more competitive in local and regional tournaments and getting more kids excited about golf.

Filling the funding gap between what the school provides and what the student athletes need requires significant dollars. “Golf teams can’t just go play in the school gym or football field,” Andrea says. “We have to go to area golf courses and that gets expensive.” Other team expenses include entry and travel costs for tournaments, plus greens fees for practice rounds, uniforms, and balls for each golfer.

The Booster Club launched a golf tournament to help raise funds to cover costs like travel fees, tournament entry, and equipment.

Three years ago, the booster club decided to launch a golf tournament as the best option to raise as much money as possible. The first tournament was successful in terms of dollars raised, but the time and administrative burden on Andrea, her husband, and the rest of the planning team was significant. “We’re all busy parents that work full-time and shuttle kids to and from activities, so we really needed to get away from manual, time-consuming processes,” Andrea says. They used an online platform to manage registrations, but one that required much more time and attention than the team had to give. “It was loosely organized chaos!” Andrea says.

Read the [full case study] to find out how GolfStatus’ tournament management tech—which Andrea and her planning team were able to utilize at no cost through the Golf for Good program—streamlined the tournament from start to finish and prevented a whole bunch of stress.

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Planning a Golf Tournament?

Whether you have a tournament on the calendar or are just exploring the possibility of a golf event, GolfStatus can help! With easy-to-use technology, tournament planning resources, and an industry-leading support team, you’ll be set up for success. Click the button below to learn how you can use GolfStatus at no cost through the Golf for Good program and get qualified!

We’re back for year two of Putt Putt Fore Puppies!

The GolfStatus and Dormie Network marketing teams had so much fun in the tournament’s first year—and learned so much—that we decided to do it all over again and crush our goals from 2023. Check out the 2023 planning blog to get the rundown on the mini golf tournament.

Once again, Putt Putt Fore Puppies will raise money to support the pets looking for their forever homes at the Capital Humane Society here in Lincoln, Nebraska. Follow our journey here and on Facebook and Instagram!

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1st Quarter Update

We kicked off planning with committee meetings in February and March to review lessons learned and ideas from the post-tournament debrief and start brainstorming for 2024. The planning committee welcomed several new members, with newer GolfStatus Account Managers and Client Success Reps joining in on the fun. The team now numbers 13, which means more people to share the workload. The decision was made to move the tournament to September, for a couple reasons. One, we hit the jackpot with weather last year—75, sunny, and just a slight breeze. October weather in Nebraska is extremely unpredictable, with more stable conditions in September. Second, Capital Humane Society had no events scheduled for September, so Putt Putt could fill that gap.

Thus far, planning has been easier, as we have actual data and last year’s experiences to draw from. We have a better understanding of costs, revenue, attractive sponsor packages, and how many teams to shoot for. We also have processes and assets in place to use down the road. What’s more, we could simply copy our event in GolfStatus’ backend so there was no need to start from scratch. Stay tuned for the website launch!

Here are the tasks we handled this quarter:

• ✓  Finalized the planning committee
• ✓  Set dates for all remaining committee meetings
• ✓  Set a fundraising goal
• ✓  Reviewed pricing options for facility rental and team registration
• ✓  Brainstormed sponsorship and package ideas
• ✓  Brainstormed revenue enhancers
• ✓  Locked it in with Adventure Golf (September 20!)
• ✓  Confirmed the date with the Capital Humane Society team
• ✓  Divided up sponsorships among committee members
• ✓  Worked on updating the event website so it can launch in April
• ✓  Updated the tournament’s budget spreadsheet

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Partner Snapshot

Mahoney Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska is part of the city’s robust municipal golf program. Head Golf Pro Jonathan Benson (JB) has been with Mahoney for nearly 20 years, nine of them as Head Pro.

Mahoney was built in 1976, the third of the city’s five courses. The par 70 course boasts some of the most challenging par four holes in the city, and as JB says, “is more difficult than some golfers think!” Its large, fast greens make for great playing conditions and multitude of trees present a challenge for every golfer.

JB loves the city’s approach to running its golf program, allowing pros to work as independent contractors within specific parameters. He also has the freedom to hold course-hosted golf events to engage golfers and the Lincoln community at large, getting them to the course for a day of fun.

The challenge

When JB and his predecessor launched Mahoney’s first event, the Mahoney Masters, they did all the prep work manually, taking registration and credit card information over the phone or in-person when a golfer would stop in the pro shop (and hoping the information was written down correctly) and tracking it all on a big, single access spreadsheet. Leading up to and on event day, they would spend 15 or more hours creating scorecards and cart signs, not to mention the time spent flighting results and breaking ties by hand.

All this manual work came with major challenges that took up valuable staff time. What’s more, it was often difficult to collect payment upfront. “When our staff would expand over the summer to 15 part-timers that worked the pro shop, it was a big problem to make sure they took payments when someone registered,” JB says. “We dealt with a huge number of no-shows without prepayment, sometimes up to 20% of registered golfers,” he says. He needed a tool to scale the course’s events while saving his staff time and effort.

The solution

A part-time staffer at Mahoney, Frank Cuddy, was also interning at GolfStatus and mentioned how its tournament management software would be helpful for managing tournament signups. “My first reaction was, ‘you mean I don’t have to do this over the phone?’” JB laughs. GolfStatus was a perfect fit for JB and his team, with robust enough features to streamline event prep but simple enough any staff can jump in and find the tools and information they needed.

“I haven’t seen any part of GolfStatus that I don’t like,” JB says. “We can spend two hours prepping for an event instead of 15. The support we get from GolfStatus is great.”

— JB, Head Golf Pro at Mahoney Golf Course

the results

No More Manual Signups

The online registration feature is what first drew JB to GolfStatus. “We were spending so much time on the phone, so anything that can cut down on that is huge,” he says. Online registration changed all that. “Everything is online these days so it makes sense to do this online too,” JB explains. Golfers choose their team packages, skins, and mulligans and pay directly through the website, giving them an increased confidence that their information is handled securely, as opposed to having a staff member write down their credit card information. “Even if someone calls, we now send them to the website to register,” JB says.

JB says having their branding on the event website is an added bonus, and if they have any sponsors for the events, they get great exposure.

Mahoney Golf Course’s event website for the Mahoney Masters, held every April.

easy communication

JB uses GolfStatus’ messaging feature to promote each event to past participants and other avid golfers in the area, which has helped Mahoney’s events grow significantly. He’s also able to easily share updates, the day’s itinerary, and other reminders without having to hunt down golfer emails and pulling them into a different platform. “I love being able to communicate with teams leading up to the tournament,” JB says.

More Golfers, More Events

The Mahoney Masters is a two-person scramble held the Saturday of Master’s week. In its first few years, the event attracted 60 to 80 golfers. But once JB started leveraging GolfStatus, the tournament regularly fills with 160 players. “We didn’t fill events until we started partnering with GolfStatus,” JB says. “Being able to promote tournaments online and have golfers register online has been amazing for our golf course.”

“We didn’t fill events until we started partnering with GolfStatus,” JB says. “Being able to promote tournaments online and have golfers register online has been amazing for our golf course.”

— JB, Head Golf Pro at Mahoney Golf Course

The success of the Mahoney Masters led JB to add three additional course-hosted events powered by GolfStatus:

• Mahoney North Side Scramble, a one-day four-person scramble

• Mahoney Open, a two-person scramble the week of the U.S. Open

• Mahoney Fantasy Football Scramble, which plays on fantasy football points

This slate of tournaments is great from a business perspective. It gets golfers to the golf course with guaranteed rounds and cart rentals and boosts sales across the golf course: food and beverage, merchandise, and gift certificates.

Printouts, Flighting & Tiebreakers

Automating the time-consuming aspects of a golf event is a huge advantage of using an online event management platform. Golfer information is easily accessible in the software’s backend, where JB and any of his staff can access it to make team pairings and hole assignments quickly and easily.

Before GolfStatus, custom printouts were a major time suck. “We would have to type everything into Excel and into a template, which took a long time and often had errors because we had to decipher handwritten golfer information,” JB says. Now, “we can do it in minutes!” Professionally formatted cart signs, scorecards, and alpha lists are auto generated—all staff has to do is click print.

Mahoney is starting to lean into live scoring a bit more. Teams record and submit their scores via the GolfStatus mobile app, which syncs to live leaderboards in real time. Not only does live scoring let golfers see current standings, but it’s also a time-saver when it comes to finalizing the tournament results. “I don’t have to type in the scores, they’re all there,” JB says. The software will flight the results and break ties automatically—with the ability to manually change them if necessary—so they don’t have to rifle through paper scorecards. “We’re able to announce results, award prizes, and get people done faster than ever.”

Golfstatus for every golf event

Golf facilities like Mahoney Golf Course benefit as much from GolfStatus’ tournament management tech as event organizers. Facility staff and the planning team can share access in GolfStatus’ backend to manage golfer and sponsor information, finalize team pairings and hole assignments, and save time from start to finish. Want to learn more about how your organization or golf facility can save time and raise more money with GolfStatus? Hit the button below to get in touch!

Once you’ve gotten a new golf tournament up and running—which is no easy feat—it can be tempting to simply cruise and maintain the status quo. But in order to grow your event into its second year and beyond, tournament organizers must find ways to keep golfers and sponsors coming back year after year. These 10 strategies can help.

1. Get Online

If you haven’t before, get your tournament online. A web-based golf event management platform saves you a ton of time and gives you tools to plan, manage, and execute a professional, lucrative event. Leverage an event website to easily promote your tournament, collect registration, onboard and recognize sponsors, and more.

Using digital channels for your golf tournament, especially an event website, is a great way to grow the event.

2. Expand the Event

This can be scary, especially if it comes with added expenses, but might be the key to scaling your tournament. Depending on the type of event and the capabilities of your golf facility, you might add an additional course, round, day, or accompanying event (such as a post-golf banquet or auction). This approach works best if you typically have a waitlist for your tournament or most of your teams are committed to sponsors and you’d like to open it up to other supporters. Do a cost-benefit analysis before you take the plunge!

3. Make it Memorable

Look for ways to build even more fun into the event. And lucky for you, many elements that make a tournament memorable also bring additional fundraising opportunities to the tournament. Exciting add-ons like on-course entertainment, golf tournament games, and contests are great ways to have an impact. Charge a nominal fee to participate in these add-ons, but don’t nickel and dime people. Consider selling a super ticket or wristband that provides entry or participation in each event for a flat price. Folks will remember the fun they had and come back in subsequent years.

Adding games to your golf tournament makes it even more fun and memorable for golfers and sponsors.

4. Boost Your Marketing

Definitely start your marketing efforts with past participants, sponsors, and anyone on the previous year’s waitlist, giving them the first shot at registering or purchasing sponsorships. Boost your marketing efforts in order to broaden your audience and spread awareness about your organization and cause. Leverage social media, partner marketing, sponsor promotions, and email campaigns to reach new folks. Consider an early bird registration period to create a sense of urgency and encourage golfers and sponsors to commit to your tournament.

5. Live Score the Tournament

Live scoring gives your tournament another level of engagement with golfers and sponsors. Golfers love to see where teams stand throughout the day on the event’s live leaderboards and you can use it as a call-to-action for folks to donate. Share leaderboards on social media so all your supporters can follow along. You’ll also give sponsors broader exposure with their logo in the live scoring app.

Live scoring via a mobile app keeps golfers engaged throughout the event and lets spectators follow along online.

6. Focus on Sponsorships

Sponsorships are where your tournament will bring in the bulk of its dollars. If your tournament regularly sells out, don’t be afraid to raise prices a bit. Talk directly with prospective sponsors to determine how your tournament can help them meet their goals, whether it’s straight up exposure, engaging with golfers, or something else. Identify new sponsorship opportunities—if you can put a logo on it, you can sell a sponsorship, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box! Including a team in sponsor packages not only adds value, but helps fill your tournament’s field, so price those packages accordingly.

7. Improve Processes

With one or more tournaments under your belt, it’s a good idea to take a look back at what worked, what didn’t, what tasks needed more time and attention, and what things you can omit altogether. Improving your processes lets you be more efficient with planning tasks and better use your time to pitch to sponsors, promote your event, and focus on the overall experience. Fine tune the planning infrastructure you already have in place—event website, graphics, vendors, etc.—to make the next go around less stressful.

8. Streamline & Simplify

Take a critical look at the tech tools you used to plan and execute your event. Did you spend a ton of time managing logins to umpteen platforms? Did you spend too much time bouncing between spreadsheets and tracking checks and receipts? Can all the functions be rolled into an all-in-one golf tournament platform? The lesson here is not to force a square peg into a round hole. Ticketing and event management platforms can’t handle the intricacies of golf tournaments and likely require your team to make time-consuming or complicated workarounds and adaptations. Look for a single software to manage everything from registration, payments, and promotion to hole assignments, sponsor onboarding, and flighting.

Using a golf-specific tournament management platform keeps everything organized in one easily-accessible place.

9. Shake Up Your Planning Team

Don’t force folks off the team if they still want to contribute, but consider bringing in a few new people that can provide a different perspective and connections. Reassign tasks if people are interested in spearheading a different portion of the tournament.

10. Garner Feedback

Make a point to chat with golfers and sponsors to get their immediate impressions of the tournament, then consider sending a quick survey in your post-event communications to ask them for additional feedback on the golf facility, format, add-ons, registration fees, what can be improved, what worked well, etc. Listening to participants gives you concrete ways you can make your tournament even better.

Ask your tournament’s golfers and sponsors directly what feedback they have about the event and implement suggestions that will help you scale.

Final Thoughts

One of the best ways to grow your event is to use a golf-specific tool to plan and manage your tournament. You’ll save a ton of time and get additional ways to raise funds, give golfers the best experience possible, and provide more value to your sponsors. GolfStatus can help with all that, and more. Nonprofits, charities, and those planning golf events to benefit one can use GolfStatus at no cost through the Golf for Good program. Click below to learn more and get qualified!

GolfStatus’ golf event management platform powers golf tournaments and events of all types and sizes—even mini golf tournaments.

GolfStatus’ golf event management platform powers golf tournaments and events of all types and sizes—even mini golf tournaments.

Leaning on the tournament planning resources available in its online resources library and working closely with the in-house Client Success team, the GolfStatus marketing team planned a brand new mini golf tournament, using the tasks outlined in the golf tournament fundraiser timeline and checklist, to give back to our community and raise money for a local charity. The tournament raised over $9,200 for the Capital Humane Society in our hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska.

A big THANK YOU to our tournament sponsors!

Presenting Sponsor

Sponsors

Golf Ball Sponsor

Dinner Sponsor

Koozie Sponsor

Pin Flag Sponsor

Batting Cage Sponsor

19th Hole Sponsor

Swag Sponsor

Game Sponsor

hole sponsors

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Post-event update

Lessons learned: The to-do list doesn’t stop once the tournament is done! Post-event follow up and engagement with attendees is super important for ensuring a great experience and building momentum for the next year’s event. Using GolfStatus’ messaging app was a simple way to reach out to everyone in one fell swoop to say thank you, provide a final update, and announce that Putt Putt Fore Puppies will be back again in 2024! Once all of the tournament accounting was reconciled, we were able to present Capital Humane Society with a check for $9,208.15 (which was THREE TIMES what we set for an initial fundraising goal).

We worked on these post-tournament tasks in the last month or so:

• ✓  Sent a thank you to all attendees via GolfStatus’ platform
• ✓  Sent handwritten thank you notes to sponsors
• ✓  Provided hole signs to sponsors
• ✓  Updated the event website
• ✓  Reconciled final expenses and income and presented a check to Capital Humane Society
• ✓  Debriefed with the planning committee
• ✓  Renewed with GolfStatus for 2024!

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OCTOBEr Update

We did it! And it was an amazing day. We hit the jackpot in terms of weather—low 80s, plentiful sunshine, and a slight breeze. Set up and check in both went smoothly. People were eager to buy the games package and raffle tickets through the event website, and we raised $1100 the day of the event just in add-on purchases! Best of all, we were able to make a big check presentation to Capital Humane Society for over $8000! We heard from so many golfers and sponsors about how much fun they had and how they hoped we would do it again.

Lessons learned:

• As much as we tried to plan ahead so the week of the event wouldn’t be hectic, there were just some tasks that had to wait until close to the event, such as printing alpha lists and making hole assignments.

• It’s a good idea to avoid mentioning a specific time for post-golf happenings, since the round might take longer than anticipated. We planned an hour for golf, but the round on the Backwoods course (which is significantly more difficult than the Blue course) took close to an hour and half. Those on the Blue course finished in just over an hour, and thankfully were content to mingle, enjoy dinner or a drink, hit the batting cages, and soak in the beautiful weather while waiting for the raffle drawing and awards presentation.

• Having QR codes for folks to buy raffle tickets and the all-in games package made it super easy to do. We also had QR codes to download the GolfStatus app for live-scoring, since we didn’t use paper scorecards. Live-scoring was a big hit, and sponsors loved seeing their logo in the app.

• Giving ourselves plenty of time for setup was helpful—we arrived at Adventure Golf about 12:30 so we weren’t pushed to get everything ready before registration opened at 3:30.

• Running everything through the GolfStatus event website was so helpful in reconciling expenses. Some golfers preferred to pay via cash, but that added a level of complexity for accounting purposes.

• Getting proofs for printed items is imperative to ensure there are no errors and all items are up to our high standards and make sponsors look good. We had some difficulties getting accurate proofs from a vendor, but our persistence paid off and everything turned out fine (though it did add some unnecessary stress).

• We truly couldn’t have done without GolfStatus. From easy registration, instant sponsor exposure, premium sponsorships, and the hands-on help from the client success team, GolfStatus was a key part of our success.

We crossed these last-minute to-dos off of the list in the weeks and days leading up to the event:

• ✓  Held bi-weekly meetings with the planning committee to discuss logistics
• ✓  Re-opened registration for waitlisted teams
• ✓  Created QR codes for golfers to purchase raffle tickets and all-in games and to download the GolfStatus app
• ✓  Created a rules sheet outlining the format and rules for each of the on-course games
• ✓  Assembled pin flags, hole signs, and golfer swag bags
• ✓  Worked with our GolfStatus client success rep to make hole assignments
• ✓  Confirmed and communicated volunteer assignments and committee roles
• ✓  Finalized the event day schedule
• ✓  Wrote talking points for the welcome
• ✓  Pulled together registration table supplies and odds and ends
• ✓  Communicated with sponsors and registrants to remind them of all-in games packages and raffle tickets

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September Update

Lessons learned: Our tournament date is rapidly approaching and we’re in final prep mode. Our promotional push paid off, as we officially sold out the event! It was super exciting to see every sponsorship and team slot sold. As our GolfStatus client success rep had explained to us a few months ago, the majority of teams tend to register in the month or so leading up to the event, and that was the case here. We had a few additional teams inquire about registering after all the slots were filled, so we opened a waitlist. There are currently nine teams on our waitlist, so we’re figuring out a plan for potentially doubling up teams on some holes or even opening the third course at Adventure Golf. As we plan for all the final details and logistics, some of our sponsors have stepped up to provide things like tote bags and swag for player gift bags.

Here are the tasks we accomplished in September:

• ✓  Sold out our teams!!!
• ✓  Opened a waitlist for additional teams
• ✓  Held our monthly tournament planning meeting and set bi-weekly meetings through the tournament date
• ✓  Worked on recruiting volunteers to run games
• ✓  Designed and ordered a bunch of items: sponsor banners, hole signs, pin flags, koozies, and golf balls
• ✓  Checked with Adventure Golf on logistics like A/V equipment and tables
• ✓  Tracked donated game and raffle prizes

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AUGUST Update

Lessons learned: Our summer focus on sponsorships has paid off, as we are officially sold out of sponsor packages! We worked with a couple businesses who were interested in participating in the event to create custom sponsorships, based on their goals and capacities for being part of the tournament. We’re super excited about selling our presenting sponsorship to Sinclair Hille Architects! The presenting sponsorship included GolfStatus’ exclusive Technology Sponsorship. With less than two months to go until event day, we’re working on determining details for on-course games, soliciting in-kind donations for prizes, and most importantly, pushing team registrations. Our team has been posting flyers around Lincoln, reaching out to friends and family who have expressed interest, pushing out email promotions, and utilizing targeted ads and organic social media to get the word out. 

Here are the tasks we accomplished in August:

• ✓  Sold out our slate of sponsorships (shout out to Sinclaire Hille Architects, Ross Eickhoff State Farm, 402 Creamery, Allo Fiber, Raising Cane’s, Luly Motors, Pioneer Greens Dentistry, Nexus Marketing, Amigos/Kings Classic, Vanicek Dental, Yankee Hill Veterinary Hospital, Prairie Dental, Armature)
• ✓  Sold 10 teams
• ✓  Continued posting promotional flyers at businesses around Lincoln
• ✓  Worked on a promotional strategy to drive team registrations
• ✓  Held our monthly tournament planning committee meeting
• ✓  Created a spreadsheet to track volunteers, on-course games, prizes, and donations
• ✓  Started recruiting volunteers to help run the tournament
• ✓  Got to know some of the furry friends available for adoption at Capital Humane Society
• ✓  Continued outreach for in kind prize donations

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July Update

Lessons learned: The team focused on securing sponsorships over the past month, relying on personal and professional connections to reach out to businesses. We’ve heard from a couple of potential sponsors that their charitable or sponsorship dollars have already been allocated for the year, which has reinforced the advice to start sponsor outreach early! We’ve been using our new budget spreadsheet template to track revenue and expenses, which has been helpful to reference, and started outlining volunteer needs and the details of the extra games we’ll have on the course.

Here are the tasks we accomplished in July:

• ✓  Onboarded five new sponsors (shout out to Upland Software, Global Golf Post, Five Nines, Nicki for Nebraska, Allstate Agent Ty Shearman)
• ✓  Sold 11 teams
• ✓  Dropped flyers off at businesses around Lincoln to promote the tournament
• ✓  Held our monthly planning committee meeting
• ✓  Got to know some of the furry friends available for adoption at Capital Humane Society
• ✓  Continued sponsor outreach and asks for prize donations
• ✓  Selected a photographer to capture images of the event

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June Update

Lessons learned: While we were initially discouraged about the lack of team registrations thus far, we’ve discovered that folks are interested in playing in the event—they just don’t want to commit this far out from the tournament date. Our Client Success team assures us that most team registrations occur within 30 days of the event, and since our tournament isn’t until October 20, we’re still in good shape. That being said, we’re continuing promotion to keep the event on people’s radars and hopefully drive some early registrations and sell additional sponsorships.

Here are the tasks we accomplished in June:

• ✓  Finalized a promotional flyer
• ✓  Held a monthly committee meeting
• ✓  Sold an additional sponsorship (thanks Vanity Fur)!
• ✓  Determined on-course games
• ✓  Added a registration package for on-course games to the event website
• ✓  Continued to reach out to potential sponsors
• ✓  Continued promotion on social media

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May Update

Lessons learned: It was exciting to put on the finishing touches and launch our event website! GolfStatus’ platform made it easy to add graphics, customize verbiage, and set a donation goal. We also worked with Cash, our Client Success rep, to add watch emails so members of our planning team are notified whenever someone registers a team, makes a donation, or purchases a sponsorship. A custom form was added to each registration package to collect preferences on which golf course folks want to play (Adventure Golf has three courses, one of which is definitely more challenging!). We knew that the software was easy to navigate, but have now experienced it firsthand! Now we shift our focus to promoting the tournament and approaching potential sponsors.

Here's what we did in May:

• ✓  Held our monthly planning committee meeting
• ✓  Finalized and launched our event website.
• ✓  Sold our first two sponsorships. (shoutout to 402 Title Services and Certified Piedmontese!)
• ✓  Had our first team register.
• ✓  Finalized team registration costs.
• ✓  Sent our first promotional email.
• ✓  Started working on a tournament flyer.

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April Update

Lessons learned: Divvying up the labor has helped keep planning moving forward at a brisk pace. Monthly committee meetings have been a great checkpoint and opportunity to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of each other. Each planning committee member took ownership of a sponsorship package and determined costs, pricing, and benefits, and will also take point in selling the sponsorship.

At this point, we have two of the three courses booked at Adventure Golf, but are working to price sponsorships so they’re still profitable if we need to scale up to include all three courses (which would be a great problem to have!).

We crossed these items off the to-do list in April:

• ✓  Field trip to Adventure Golf to scope out the courses’ layout and where we can place signage, registration, tables, etc.
• ✓  Added imagery and custom text to the event website.
• ✓  Finalized the tournament logo (and it’s super cute!).
• ✓  Finalized sponsorship packages.
• ✓  Finalized team registration costs.
• ✓  Added details to the budget worksheet to track income and expenses.
• ✓  Started fleshing out a promotion schedule to implement once the event website is launched.

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March Update

Lessons learned: As a first-year event, we’re creating and documenting processes as we go. Without past years’ experiences to draw from, it’s necessary to make educated guesses on a number of components, like fixed costs, expected revenue, sponsor packages, or the number of participants. We also don’t know what we don’t know, but have found that GolfStatus’ online resources and our Client Success team are filling in the gaps. Cash, our dedicated rep, is essentially an extra planning committee member, sharing his experience and expertise.

The good news is that we’re ahead of the game with planning. Cash shared that most tournaments open up registration 60-90 days out from the event date, and we’re on track to open registration sooner than that timeframe, once we determine some details about format and further flesh out sponsorship packages. Our committee members, like most golf event organizers, are trying to balance planning tasks with our full-time jobs and lives.

Here are the tasks we tackled in March:

• ✓  Finalized a date and locked it in with Adventure Golf (October 20!)
• ✓  Divided up sponsorships among committee members
• ✓  Received an education session from our GolfStatus Customer Success rep
• ✓  Worked on a draft of our event website
• ✓  Submitted fundraiser information to name Capital Humane Society as a beneficiary
• ✓  Started working on the tournament logo
• ✓  Started brainstorming promotion ideas
• ✓  Created a budget tracking spreadsheet
• ✓  Started creating a budget
• ✓  Practiced our putting skills (we do this a lot)

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February Update

Lessons learned: Even with a mini golf tournament, there are a lot of moving parts and important things to consider, but the checklist has kept us on task. We’re finding a lot of fun possibilities for a mini golf tournament in terms of add-ons, sponsorship options, and games. After discussions with the planning committee, the original tentative event date needed to be reconsidered due to a conflicting event—which is why it was important to loop the entire team in to help consider decisions from all angles.

Here’s what we accomplished in February:

• ✓  Finalized the planning committee
• ✓  Set dates for all remaining committee meetings
• ✓  Reviewed pricing options for facility rental
• ✓  Revisited potential event date options
• ✓  Brainstormed sponsorship and package ideas
• ✓  Determined a tournament name (Putt Putt for Puppies)
• ✓  Narrowed down a list of local animal-related beneficiaries
• ✓  Reviewed several GolfStatus client mini golf events and websites
• ✓  Started creating a budget
• ✓  Practiced our putting skills (again)

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January Update

Here’s what we did in January:

• ✓  Set a tentative event date in October 2023
• ✓  Checked local event calendars for conflicts
• ✓  Met with the golf facility (Adventure Golf Center in Lincoln, Nebraska)
• ✓  Received a GolfStatus demo
• ✓  Brainstormed event ideas with the planning team and our GolfStatus Account Manager
• ✓  Practiced our putting skills

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An offhand comment about a golf tournament in a group text among Adam Sedivy’s friends was the spark for raising over $22,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Adam’s son, Brantley, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a newborn. The longtime friends are all avid golfers, and in a group chat, someone jokingly suggested that they put together a golf tournament. As time went on, the joke became serious, and it turned into the Brantley’s Buddies Golf Classic.

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects the lungs, pancreas, and other organs. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation says that close to 40,000 kids and adults in the U.S. are living with cystic fibrosis. “Brantley is a great kid and such a trooper when it comes to all the medicines and treatments he’s on,” says Adam. Cystic fibrosis is a progressive disease, but thus far, Brantley is taking it all in stride.

Adam and Brantley Sedivy

“We all love to golf and decided we could do it for a good cause,” says CJ Barone, a member of the Brantley’s Buddies board. “We kept thinking, ‘why not us?’ We had nothing to lose and everything to gain with a tournament.”

In April of 2022, the group, consisting of Adam, Brantley’s mom Logan, CJ, Dylan Frank, and Garrett Riley, officially started planning for their first annual event for November. While Dylan has been a PGA Pro at several golf facilities in the area and has experience with golf tournaments, the rest of the group wasn’t sure where to start. They stumbled upon a website for a local tournament in North Carolina that used GolfStatus. “We were originally going to find a way to build our own website for the tournament, but then we found GolfStatus,” says Adam.

TECH DRIVES SUCCESS

Brantley’s Buddies qualified to use GolfStatus’ tournament management software at no cost through the Golf for Good program since it was raising money for a 501(c) nonprofit in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. GolfStatus gave the group an easy way to consolidate everything they needed all in one place—registration, sponsors, teams, hole assignments, and payments. “Especially as a group of guys who hadn’t done this before, it was nice having everything in one central location that we could all access when we needed to,” says Dylan. Adam says having a singular place to collect and hold funds just for the tournament was especially helpful.

Because the tournament was just starting out, the planning group wasn’t sure what kind of sponsor or golfer interest they would see right off the bat. But the tournament was an instant draw, thanks to the support from the surrounding community. “We sold out our teams in just over three weeks, which was incredible,” says Adam. He says they utilized online channels to promote the event, and the interest was very organic. Because they had a GolfStatus event website, they skipped printing flyers or mailers, and used online channels like social media, email, and word of mouth to drum up interest.

An event website made it simple for Brantley’s Buddies to promote the tournament, collect registrations, and sell sponsorships.

Sponsorships had similar success, with the team tapping into their networks to reach out to local businesses and some corporate sponsors. Brantley’s Buddies took advantage of GolfStatus’ exclusive Technology Sponsorship, building it into the title sponsor. They sold a pin flag sponsorship and purchased GolfStatus’ hole-in-one contest package, building the cost into the Par 3 sponsorships. In-kind sponsorships were just as important. Food for the tournament was donated in exchange for a sponsorship, along with silent auction items.

The tournament also utilized GolfStatus’ hassle-free live scoring to track scores for the round. They sent emails ahead of the event reminding golfers about the live scoring feature and asking them to download the free GolfStatus app ahead of time. Most teams used it to submit their scores, which made finalizing the tournament’s results easy and efficient.

Adam says having the right people involved was a huge part of the tournament’s success in its first year. They leaned on each person’s individual strengths to make the tournament happen—from organization, sponsor sales, promotion, and the golf specifics—combined with the infrastructure GolfStatus provided. “GolfStatus helped us find ways to make the tournament so much more professional than we ever could have dreamed out of the gate,” says CJ. “It gave us the platform to be able to raise money for our buddy’s kid and propelled us to success.”

GOLFING FOR GOOD

Every cent raised from the tournament—around $22,000—went directly to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Adam says the Foundation has been so helpful during their family’s journey and they wanted to contribute to finding a cure. The organization also provides counselors, parent and family groups, and a variety of resources on topics like day-to-day patient care and understanding hospital bills.

The Sedivy family: Mom Logan, dad Adam, big brother Rylan, Brantley, and Fosters the Australian shepherd

The Foundation sent a team to the golf event, where they set up a booth on the first hole and mingled with golfers, passed out materials, and helped bring awareness and connect people to the cause. “They’ve been a great partner, and we’re excited to have them at the event again this year,” Adam says.

building momentum

Brantley turned four this year and started taking golf lessons, so naturally he’s excited to be back on the course at this year’s tournament. And now that they have one year of planning under their belt, Adam and the rest of Brantley’s Buddies are bringing the excitement and momentum from the inaugural event into its second year. In addition to expanding the silent auction, they’re bringing in GolfStatus partner BackSwing Golf Events for a closest to the pin contest on a par three hole, both to drive additional dollars and make the tournament more fun and exciting.

Adam Sedivy, CJ Barone, Dylan Frank, and Garrett Riley

The 2023 tournament sold out in just two weeks, with much of the 2022 field returning for the second year. Because of the high interest and community support, they were able to raise sponsorship pricing to drive more revenue and an even bigger donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. They’re also applying for 501(c)(3) status for Brantley’s Buddies as an official nonprofit organization so they can do even more to raise funds and awareness for cystic fibrosis.

Brantley’s Buddies are once again leaning on GolfStatus to help streamline planning and tournament execution. After a successful first year, it was a “no brainer” to continue to use the software. “GolfStatus was a game changer for us,” says CJ. “We probably said no less than 20 times throughout planning, ‘thank goodness for GolfStatus!’”

Qualify for Golf for Good

Nonprofit organizations and third parties (like Brantley’s Buddies) planning golf tournaments to benefit one can qualify to use GolfStaus’ tournament management tech at no cost. Save time with built-in automations and time-saving tools, and raise even more money with fundraising tools and exclusive sponsorships. Plus, take advantage of GolfStatus’ in-house client success team to coach you every step of the way. Click below to learn more and get in touch with the GolfStatus team!

Partner Snapshot

RiseUp Malawi was born out of a trip founder Megan Mathis took to the African country in 2010, where she was struck by the widespread poverty. While on that trip, she met a gentleman named Hudson, who was running a program on his front porch to teach kids computer skills. Megan knew she wanted to help, but didn’t know how. She and Hudson stayed in touch in subsequent years, and she tip-toed into raising money for in-country work on a part-time basis. That changed in 2018, when she felt a calling to grow the organization and its impact full time.

RiseUp Malawi began working with kids after school to provide additional educational support and encourage them to continue their education. “There are so many barriers to education in Malawi,” Megan says. “If we can help eliminate those barriers, we can help lift these kids out of generational poverty.” Hudson became the full-time in-country director of the after school program, which serves over 300 kids in the district.

The Challenge

To create an in-country income source, it was decided to build a guest house that could be used by the organization to host visitors but also rented out to tourists. Megan was charged with raising $60,000 and had no idea where to start. Megan and her family had recently moved to Castle Pines, Colorado with a golf course down the street from her home. Her husband is an avid golfer and had played in several charity golf tournaments, and she knew golfers were a great demographic to target for fundraising. “I just kept hearing ‘golf’ in my head,” says Megan. “But I couldn’t get past the thought of ‘I don’t know how to do this’.”

The Solution

When Megan first began thinking of a golf fundraiser, she signed up to receive emails from GolfStatus. After she booked the golf course in December (giving herself plenty of planning time before the August tournament date), she knew there was no turning back, so she circled back to GolfStatus, downloaded some planning resources, and saw the value in using the software and jumped on board. “I came into this not knowing what I was doing or if this was going to work, but GolfStatus’ experience helped make it a success,” says Megan. The ROI was great for us.”

Tournament organizers promoted the event through local events, alumni associations, social media, and the local newspaper.

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“I came into this not knowing what I was doing or if this was going to work, but GolfStatus’ experience helped make it a success. The ROI was great for us.”

— Megan Mathis, CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF FUNDRAISING at riseup malawi

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The Results

For a first-time event, Megan and her team were thrilled with the turnout, sponsor support, and overall return on investment of the golf fundraiser. On-course games, pin prizes, upgraded food and drink, and player swag bags were incorporated into the tournament to enhance the experience even more.

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GOlf TOurnament Summary

Golf Facility

The Ridge At Castle Pines North, Castle Pines, CO (upscale public golf course)

Tournament Name

Let Hope Rise Charity Golf Tournament

Golfers

88

Dollars raised

$38,500

top sponsorship

$10,000 (Title Sponsorship)

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Lessons Learned

Planning & Promotion

Since it was her first time organizing a golf tournament, Megan wanted to give herself plenty of planning time. She used a volunteer matching tool to help find folks in her area that were interested in helping nonprofits to help build a planning team, as well as connecting with local supporters. “A big lesson learned in planning a tournament for the first time was the importance of getting a good team together,” Megan says. “Finding those who have ties to the community or the golf world in some way was super helpful.”

To get the word out about the golf event, Megan started with social media and the local newspaper and expanded to having a booth or presence at various community events where she could talk about RiseUp Malawi’s work and promote the golf tournament. She also tapped into her local alumni group to connect with other graduates of the University of Southern California. “Alumni groups are super powerful!” Megan says. She leveraged the group’s networking events to share information and relied on word of mouth among members.

Sponsorships

Megan and her family were relatively new to the Castle Pines area, so she didn’t have a huge local network to reach out to for sponsorships. Megan started with a GolfStatus guide, Types of Businesses to Target As Sponsors for Your Golf Event, and used connections on her planning team to create a target list. She also found success through the local Chamber of Commerce. She joined as a member and started attending events, chatting with business owners and sharing information about RiseUp Malawi and the upcoming golf fundraiser. “The personal connections were so important and we didn’t have to spend a ton of time on cold calls,” says Megan. She also advises approaching sponsors as early as possible before they allocate their budgets.

Two sponsors even made a connection during the golf fundraiser—Burley Brewery and Redemption Road Coffee—and later collaborated on a special coffee porter beer that was offered in the brewery’s tap room. They also hosted a fundraising event during February and kicked back part of sales to RiseUp Malwai, raising about $5,000.

Megan leveraged GolfStatus resources, the local Chamber of Commerce, and personal connections to sell sponsorships.

Tech & Support

As a first-time event organizer, Megan knew she would need some help. “GolfStatus’ blog and resources were helpful as I tried to figure out where to start and what to do next,” she says. She says the software was straightforward and easy to use, but that the support GolfStatus provided was second to none. “GolfStatus’ support team was really my partner in this, so helpful and communicative,” Megan says.

As a nonprofit organization RiseUp Malawi qualified for the Golf for Good program and was able to use GolfStatus’ tournament management software at no cost. Megan says the free event website gave the tournament instant credibility. “We wanted to make the tournament look legitimate and like we’d been doing this for a long time, and the event website did that,” Megan says. Every event website powered by GolfStatus includes online registration and integrated, secure payment processing. “Online registration was great, I could export a list of everyone who had registered.”

The event website also gave the tournament’s sponsors added visibility and digital exposure as soon as they committed to sponsoring the event. Logos, links, and other assets are submitted and stored right in the software so it appears on the site right away. “There was a real sense of pride once we had sponsors committing—we’d look at the site and think, ‘Hey, look at those sponsors!’” Megan says.

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“We wanted to make the tournament look legitimate and like we’d been doing this for a long time, and the event website did that”

— Megan Mathis, CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF FUNDRAISING at Riseup malawi

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Cause Connection

Megan and the planning team looked for ways to help golfers better understand RiseUp Malawi’s work and why the cause is so important. They utilized the in-cart screens to play a video showing Hudson and the kids thanking them for their support. They also worked with a local coffee company that has a Malawian bean blend (coffee beans are one of the country’s biggest exports) to can it as cold brew and provided it in each golf cart.

The goal for the tournament’s second year is to raise money to build casitas adjacent to the guest house.

looking ahead

Megan hopes to build on the success they had in the event’s first year. They’ve already broken ground on the guesthouse in Malawi, so money raised from year two of the golf tournament will fund the construction of the casitas adjacent to the guest house for additional rental income. They hope to top $50,000 in the event’s second year.

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GOlfing for good

GolfStatus is proud to help nonprofits of all types and sizes tap into golf’s giving power. Its tournament management software streamlines golf events for first-time organizers and veteran event planners. Plus, its exclusive sponsorships and add-ons and built-in fundraising tools help raise even more money for your cause. If you’ve got questions along the way, GolfStatus’ in-house support team is there to help and troubleshoot. Best of all, through the Golf for Good program, 501(c) organizations and those planning golf events to benefit one can qualify to use GolfStatus at no upfront cost. Click the button to learn more and get qualified.

End-of-year giving is crucial for nonprofits looking to boost their bottom line and meet the year’s financial goals. Motivated by the holidays and the opportunity to make a tax-deductible donation, donors give (on average) about $48 billion to nonprofits in the last two months of the year. Plus, nonprofits typically see about 30% of annual giving occur in December. Nonprofits, causes, and charities of all types and sizes have the opportunity to end the year on a high note with a targeted giving campaign.

Here are six ideas to increase your nonprofit’s year-end giving results.

1. Set a Goal and Make It Easy for Donors to Track Progress.

Donors appreciate seeing, in real ways, how they’re contributing to mission fulfillment. When you set a specific fundraising goal for your year-end giving campaign—and give supporters a way to track progress toward that goal—they can immediately see how their gift is moving the needle. You don’t have to shoot for the moon; instead, make your target realistic and achievable. 

PRO TIP: GolfStatus event websites have a built-in progress bar feature that updates in real-time when someone makes a donation. Reactivate your event site to seamlessly collect donations and let supporters see how close you are to hitting your goal.

2. Make It Shareable.

It’s the snowball effect—perhaps someone who attended your golf fundraiser learned about your organization and completely bought into your cause. They’re excited to support you and want to ask their friends, family, and colleagues to do the same. An online donation option makes it quick and easy to share a link on their social media platforms, via text, or through an email. If you’re mailing printed appeals, include a QR code with a direct donation link for any printed pieces. It’s crucial to have a giving site that’s mobile-friendly, with an easy payment interface, so folks don’t get frustrated with the process and abandon their transactions before submission.

PRO TIP: Ask your golf event planning committee or volunteers to share the donation link with at least five people.

3. Capture Donor Data.

The importance of this can’t be understated—capturing this valuable information, at the time of donation, not only lays the foundation for additional donor stewardship and long-term support, but reduces stress on you and your staff. Just like with your golf fundraiser’s registration, relying on paper donation forms and having to process checks, cash, or hand-written credit card numbers is tedious and wastes a ton of your staff’s valuable time. Collecting this data online significantly cuts down your administrative time, making the dollars go further. Simply download this information and add batch notations or tags for tracking purposes and include it in your organization’s donor database. 

PRO TIP: Golfers are a valuable demographic to have in your donor database. They’re typically generous, affluent, and influential, with an annual household income twice the national average and a net worth of over $760,000.

4. Make It Tangible.

Help donors make a tangible connection to your end-of-year fundraising. Whether it’s a specific program or effort or unrestricted dollars, use your giving website to share how you plan to use their gift through words, photos, and even videos. Set custom giving amounts and describe what each will help your organization do, i.e. “A gift of $100 will provide books for two underserved classrooms in our community.” 

PRO TIP: Leave space for a custom donation amount if folks want to give more or less than the predetermined amounts—every gift helps.

5. Say Thank You (More Than Once!)

In the busy-ness of the close of a year, this step is easy to overlook or punt until the new year. Automate this process as much as possible, for a couple reasons: 1. Donors are thanked in a timely manner and 2. You save a ton of time. A prompt thank you reassures donors that their gift was received (and they get their donation receipt for tax purposes) and helps solidify the relationship. Think about other, additional ways to express your appreciation in the new year, whether it’s tapping your board or volunteers to make phone calls or send handwritten thank you notes.

PRO TIP: Donations made via a GolfStatus event website automatically receive a receipt via email, where you can input a custom message and images.

6. Use Giving Tuesday to Appeal to Supporters.

Giving Tuesday typically occurs the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving (following the retail-heavy days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday). The idea is to encourage people to do good, and in many cases, that means donating to their favorite nonprofit(s). It’s a great time to connect with your constituents and community members, highlighting what your organization is doing to address important issues and ask for their help in the form of a donation. Start by appealing to those that attended your golf fundraiser (those that played in it, attended as guests, or sponsored the event). 

PRO TIP: Social media is a great way to drum up support on Giving Tuesday, as well as targeted emails to your golf tournament attendees (or other donor segment) leading up to and on Giving Tuesday.

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How GolfStatus Can Help

Even if your golf event was months ago, your GolfStatus event website can help drive and easily collect end-of-year donations with the donate button. You can easily set and display progress toward your fundraising goal right on the site’s home page, as well as at checkout. You can choose to reframe the event website’s content to focus on the goals for the donation appeal or even create a new event site (that way, you retain the original golf site for future reference). 

Get in touch to find out how GolfStatus can help with your golf fundraiser from start to finish, from our powerful, user-friendly tech to industry-leading support and vast experience. Through our Golf for Good program, 501(c) organizations (and those planning golf events that benefit a charity) can qualify for no-cost access to the platform. Click below to get started or email us directly at [email protected].

Organization Snapshot

Million Meal Movement (MMM) goes beyond feeding the hungry, extending its impact to teaching the importance of volunteerism. By connecting with businesses, families, and community members in the Indianapolis area, the organization has packed over 32 million meals since its inception in 2007. In Indiana alone, over one million people—and one in five children—are food insecure and don’t know where they’ll get their next meal. Meals packed by MMM’s volunteers and corporate events go directly to local food banks where they’re distributed to families that need them.

For Chris Evans, who moved to Indianapolis in 2014, MMM was a way for his family to give back to the community in a meaningful way. “We wanted to do something more than just donate money, but volunteer to be part of something with a local impact,” Chris says.

The founder of MMM, Dan Hintz, was a client of Chris’s at American Century Investments. Intrigued by the organization’s dual focus, Chris and his family volunteered for a meal packing event on Thanksgiving and he found himself moved by the cause and wanted to get more involved. He’s served as a board member for the organization since 2018.

The Challenge

The Million Meal Marathon has traditionally been held each fall, which is a 24-hour event to pack a million meals and a major fundraiser for the organization. Chris and other board members wanted to bookend the year by adding a fundraising event in the spring. His passion for golf led him to explore a golf tournament fundraiser, though he had never planned such an event before. “I had golfed in a lot of charity tournaments in the past so I had a general sense of what was involved, but there were lots of nuances to figure out along the way,” Chris says.

Million Meal Movement Executive Director Nancy Hintz at the first annual Swing Away Hunger Charity Golf Classic in 2021.

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Tournament at a Glance:

Private Golf Facility

Woodland Country Club

Number of golfers

108

Add-Ons & Extras

Contests, Auctions

Tournament Format

4-person scramble

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The Solution

He teamed up with Chris Cimaglio, another MMM board member, who came across GolfStatus while researching golf tournament resources. The committee dug into it and decided the software was everything they needed. Since the golf event was a brand new endeavor, the committee leaned on GolfStatus to give the event structure, provide experience-based feedback, and above all, provide tools to save time and stay organized.

“Our fear was wasting time with having to use spreadsheets to keep track of everything,” Chris says, so using a golf-specific platform that kept everything—from golfer information to sponsor logos to hole assignments—organized in one place was a huge selling point. Plus, as a nonprofit, MMM qualified for GolfStatus’s Golf for Good program, which gave them full access to the platform at no cost.

The Results

In the fundraiser’s first year, the Swing Away Hunger Charity Golf Classic raised about $12,000. In its second year, the event doubled its fundraising, bringing in over $25,000. Perhaps most importantly, the golf event introduced MMM to new businesses and corporations that set the stage for transformational engagement and partnerships.

Using GolfStatus meant Chris and the rest of the planning committee didn’t have to spend their valuable volunteer time reconciling registrations and payments, processing a ton of checks and receipts, or managing multiple spreadsheets. Instead, they could focus on offering a top-notch event experience and stewarding sponsors. “We sent a lot of emails and letters and made a lot of phone calls!” says Chris.

The Swing Away Hunger Charity Golf Classic is held at the private Woodland Country Club in Carmel, Indiana.

Raising Money, Building Partnerships

As is typical with golf fundraisers, the bulk of the revenue was generated by sponsorships. “We didn’t raise a ton on the actual players, but hole and other sponsorships brought in dollars,” Chris says. The planning committee started by reaching out to companies that have participated in or sponsored meal-packing events in the past, then leveraging board relationships in the community to drive larger sponsorships.

Beyond the fundraising aspect, golf tournaments increase awareness for the benefiting organization and often lay the foundation for strong partnerships and relationships outside of the event. Such was the case for MMM. “The golf tournament has been a great way to introduce Million Meal Movement to people when they play,” Chris says.

MMM’s focus on volunteerism has been a draw for businesses looking to get involved with their community. Following the golf tournament, multiple companies signed on for corporate meal-packing events, further engaging with the organization and broadening the golf fundraiser’s impact.

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“The golf tournament raised a ton of awareness for the organization. It brought companies in to support meal-packing events throughout the year, helping fulfill the mission and get food to the people that need it.”

— Chris Evans, Million Meal Movement Board Member / Vice President of Sales at American Century Investments

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The planning team used social media to recognize event sponsors.

Leveraging Technology to Save Time & Create Processes

The GolfStatus team built an event website for the Swing Away Hunger Charity Golf Classic, working closely with Chris and the planning team. “The website definitely saved us a lot of time,” says Chris. “It made it easy for people to register and sponsors to see available packages, commit, and upload logos. Plus, it made it easy to run the event from an administrative standpoint.”

In the tournament’s first year, Chris notes how they were not only planning the event from scratch, but creating processes at the same time. “GolfStatus helped us create good processes from the get-go,” Chris says. “That made it easier in subsequent years, knowing the framework is in place—sponsorship packages, signage, software, promotion plans, and so on—so we could just execute.”

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“GolfStatus helped us create good processes from the get-go.”

— Chris Evans, Million Meal Movement Board Member / Vice President of Sales at American Century Investments

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GolfStatus worked with Chris and the planning team to build an event website to collect registrations, share information about the organization, and onboard and recognize sponsors.

Learning & Improving

Chris is preparing to step down from the MMM board and prepping another board member to take over as the Golf Event Chair. Having GolfStatus in place ensures a seamless transition for the new contact, who will work closely with the GolfStatus in-house customer success team to simply copy the event each year. “There’s no need to start from scratch, they can just take it and run with it,” Chris says. “The customer success team at GolfStatus is such a great resource. They were always available and got back to me right away, no matter how big or small the issue or question.”

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“The customer success team at GolfStatus is such a great resource. They were always available and got back to me right away, no matter how big or small the issue or question.”

— Chris Evans, Million Meal Movement Board Member / Vice President of Sales at American Century Investments

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With a couple tournaments under the committee’s belt, Chris says they’ve learned something each year and found ways to improve. A small silent and live auction were added for its second year, plus a raffle and more tailored sponsorship packages and better communication with golfers ahead of time about the live-scoring component.

“I think it’s really important to involve people on the planning committee who are well-connected in the community and those who have time to devote to the tournament,” he says. “GolfStatus was fantastic. The website, online registration, and golf-specific features made the details easy to handle.”

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Golf for Good

GolfStatus is committed to helping nonprofits do more good through golf. As part of its Golf for Good program, nonprofits and those holding events that benefit one can qualify for no-cost access to the GolfStatus platform, plus exclusive sponsorships, add-ons, and dedicated support to help you save time and raise more money. Click below to get qualified or email [email protected].

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