Still looking for ideas to boost your golf tournament’s fundraising revenue? In this installment of the “golf tournament ideas that raise more money” blog series (check out the posts that focused on the pros at BackSwing Golf Events, hole-in-one contests, and in-kind donations), we’ll discuss how adding on-course games bring fun and fundraising to your tournament.

What is an on-course golf tournament game?

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.

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.

How Do on-course golf tournament games Work?

Games can be added to your tournament at any time, well in advance or right before the event. You can opt to have golfers pay to play when they register or pay the day of the tournament. Make sure you have an easy way to collect credit card payments in case golfers don’t carry cash. Your GolfStatus event website is a great option for this! An all-in games package is the easiest option—folks pay one flat fee to participate in all the games. Use wristbands or something similar to signal to the volunteers working the games on the course that those golfers have already paid.

Keep pace of play in mind when choosing the number of on-course games and their corresponding locations for your event. You don’t want teams piling up on a hole with a time-consuming game. Keep them easy to explain and quick to play to keep the round moving and golfers happy.

You’ll need to recruit volunteers to run each of the games. These can be staff or board members, other volunteers, or even sponsors. Depending on the length of the round, you might want to have two shifts of volunteers. They need to be comfortable explaining the rules and procedures, how to pay online via your event website, or collect cash payments.

how can we boost revenue with on-course golf tournament games?

Sell a games sponsorship! There are a few ways to structure a games sponsorship for your golf fundraiser. It’s up to you and what works best for your tournament!

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

You might consider offering an overall games sponsorship that encompasses every game on the course. This sponsorship would sell for more than the individual game sponsorships and provide premium exposure for the sponsoring business.

Front & Back Nine Games Sponsorships

Alternatively, you could offer two separate games sponsorships, one for the front nine and one for the back nine.

What Are the Benefits of Having on-course golf tournament games?

• 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.

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

What are some 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.

Connect Golfers to Your Mission

Games that connect golfers to your mission in some way have double the impact—they get a deeper appreciation for your cause and are more likely to chip in addition money. For example, Outlook Enrichment, a nonprofit that serves the visually-impaired, had a blind putt hole to help golfers better understand the struggles of vision loss. Golfers wore a sleep shade and relied on their teammates to help them line up their shot through audio cues. If a team made it, they could replace any score from the tournament with a hole in one.

Another example is 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. They also had a hole where golfers teed off using work gloves, and golfers could pay to opt out if they didn’t want to chance the gloves affecting their shot and corresponding score.

Golfers at Habitat for Humanity of Columbus putted with building tools as part of a golf tournament game.

beat the pro

Groups like BackSwing Golf Events will send a pro to your golf event to engage golfers with contests like beat the pro, long drive pro, glass break challenge, and more—and raise a ton more money in the process. There’s no upfront charge to adding a BackSwing pro to your tournament, and they take care of all the logistics.

A spin on a beat the pro contest, if you’ve got a willing sponsor or other golfer, is a beat the amateur” contest. It could work like this: The amateur goes head-to-head with golfers on their tee shot; if the amateur hits it further, the money paid to participate becomes a donation. If the golfer wins, they get double their money back.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How Can We Level up Our Golf Tournament games?

On-course games definitely boost golfer engagement throughout the tournament, but if you’re looking for ways to supercharge that engagement, try these ideas that level up golf tournament games:

• Leverage social media. Go live from one of the games, 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 in the games.

• 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!). 

• 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 special prize to the ultimate winner.

• Use real-time leaderboards. When you use a software solution that provides hassle-free live-scoring, you can use real-time standings as part of your games. Perhaps 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, wristbands, or individual game entries or collecting donations, the ability to collect payments online via your event website helps bring 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 super simple for golfers and your planning team, and you won’t have to deal with keeping track of cash payments.

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Golf for Good

Nonprofits, charities, and third parties planning charity golf tournaments can get started with GolfStatus at no upfront cost through the Golf for Good program! Get access to GolfStatus’ golf event management platform—with a robust event website, time-saving automations and built-in fundraising tools, premium sponsorships, trusted partners, and an A+ in-house support team—to make your next golf event the best one yet. Click below to connect with our team!

Ready to get started?

Click here to book a demo today!

Partner Snapshot

Named one of the top residential golf courses in the U.S. and top 10 courses in Georgia by Golfweek, Bear’s Best Atlanta is comprised of iconic holes designed by Jack Nicklaus from around the world. As such, the semi-private club in Suwanee, Georgia offers a unique playing experience, with hole designs from famous golf courses designed by Nicklaus, including Castle Pines, Muirfield Village, PGA National Championship Course, Sherwood Country Club, Shoal Creek, and Glenagles, all in one place.

“It’s a course that has something for every golfer, and that is part of the appeal,” says Jenni Tyler, Event Sales Director at Bear’s Best Atlanta. Recent renovations of the pro shop, clubhouse, and course bunkers give the high-end club even more appeal to members and other golfers in the Atlanta metro area.

The Challenge

Bear’s Best regularly hosts charity golf tournaments at its facility. Its unique course offering, attentive staff, and top-notch event experience make it a great choice for local organizations holding golf events. “At Bear’s Best, we’re all about enriching lives and building relationships, and charity tournaments are a big part of that,” Jenni says.

With so many onsite events to manage and execute, Jenni’s sales team and the golf staff needed a tool to streamline outside outings to maximize efficiency but still provide top-notch support for event organizers.

The Solution

Bear’s Best is part of the Invited Clubs family of clubs across the U.S. For years, Invited has worked with GolfStatus for each of the club’s Charity Classic events. At Jenni’s previous club, she worked with several event organizers who used GolfStatus to collect registrations, manage golfer and sponsor information, and pass off hole assignments to the club’s golf staff. When Jenni came to Bear’s Best, Invited’s existing relationship with GolfStatus and her previous experience with the platform made it the tool of choice for outside charity tournaments at Bear’s Best.

The Results

Efficiency & Organization

Outside events are key to golf facilities’ bottom line; but they tend to take a lot of staff time, both on the front end, educating organizers and helping with best practices, and in the days leading up to a tournament, collecting golfer information and creating printouts. “GolfStatus gives us more time,” says Jenni. Instead of spending hours tracking down and inputting golfer names, assigning holes, designing cart signs, and creating reports, “we just log in and are ready to go in about 20 minutes since everything is in one spot.” The platform auto-generates alpha lists, cart signs, and reports, so all golf staff have to do is hit “print” when they’re making their final preparations.

Jenni says the biggest value GolfStatus brings to Bear’s Best is saving time and creating efficiencies. A big part of that is having the golfer information available to the golf staff ahead of time. Because golfers register via an event website where they submit their information and payment, staff don’t have to take that information over the phone or bounce between PDFs and spreadsheets. Everything is tracked and organized in one accessible place. Online registration is great for organizers, too—they can spend their time attracting golfers and selling sponsorships instead of dealing with paper forms, checks, and receipts. “They don’t have to figure out how to get a website set up, set up a Venmo or other way to take credit cards, or deal with payments the day of,” Jenni says.

All tournament-related staff at Bear’s Best, from the General Manager, to Jenni, to the golf pro, and assistant pro, all have logins to GolfStatus so they can make changes and adjustments up until the last minute.

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“GolfStatus is such a timesaver for managing names, hole assignments, knowing how many guests to expect and carts needed. It lets us prepare for the tournament and have staff ready to provide a great experience all around.”

— Jenni Tyler, Event Sales Director at Bear’s Best Atlanta

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Live-scoring is another piece of the puzzle for golf tournaments at Bear’s Best. Golfers submit their scores in the free GolfStatus mobile app, which syncs to live leaderboards. Golfers can see current standings, use the app’s free hole-by-hole GPS to get accurate yardage to the pin, and even engage with the tournament’s host organization by making a donation to their cause. On the golf facility side, live-scoring helps staff track the round’s progress so they can be prepared for awards, a banquet, or other activity, and makes finalizing the tournament’s results a breeze. “Live-scoring is so much more efficient in finalizing scoring and getting things ready for awards,” Jenni says.

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success story: North Gwinnett Dugout Club

The annual North Gwinnett Baseball Golf Tournament has been held at Bear’s Best for years. Organizers signed on with GolfStatus for the 2023 event, and Jenni says they had tremendous success. The previous year, prior to using GolfStatus, only about five teams prepaid when registering for the tournament, which left organizers hunting down teams for payment the day of the event and dealing with no-shows. After signing on with GolfStatus (and qualifying to use it at no cost through the Golf for Good program), they increased their field size to 144, collected all payments ahead of time, and brought even more sponsors on board. “Overall, they raised double what they had in years prior!” Jenni says.

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best-in-class service

The organizations who host events at Bear’s Best run the gamut in terms of planning experience. “Some come to us and don’t know a thing about golf tournaments, some have been doing events for years,” Jenni says. The great thing, she points out, is that GolfStatus can help both types of events streamline planning from start to finish, stay organized, and seamlessly work with Jenni and Bear’s Best’s golf staff. “Being able to refer people to GolfStatus, who I know will be able to answer questions and provide the same level of service and support that we expect at Bear’s Best, takes so much off of my plate,” Jenni says, adding that GolfStatus also takes some of the pressure off of the organizer.

“We use GolfStatus as a selling point, quite honestly,” says Jenni. “Particularly for brand new event organizers who don’t think they can pull a tournament off, I tell them, ‘Go talk to GolfStatus, they’ll be your backup on things that are tedious so you can focus on networking and marketing the tournament.’” In fact, Jenni says several tournaments have booked with Bear’s Best and come on board with GolfStatus on the same day.

GolfStatus’ in-house support team provides backup to golf facility staff, helping guide tournament organizers as they make important decisions about event format, dates, add-ons, sponsorships, and pricing, with the ultimate goal to have a successful, lucrative tournament. “Both our team and GolfStatus are focused on making every event the best it can be.”

invited clubs charity classic

Each club under the Invited Clubs umbrella hosts an annual Charity Classic event, which raises money for Invited Clubs’ Employee Care Foundation and a local charity. Bear’s Best Charity Classic benefits the ECF and First Tee of Metro Atlanta. “We get really excited about the Charity Classic event,” says Jenni. She has personally benefited from the ECF, which supports Invited Clubs’ employees in the midst of crisis such as home loss, death, illness, or domestic situations, so the cause hits home for her. “It’s an amazing resource for employees, but we also want to help youth through First Tee as they’re going through life and learning about golf,” Jenni says.

Running Bear’s Best Charity Classic event through GolfStatus puts Jenni in organizers’ shoes, and she continues to see the value in the platform. “We’re able to be efficient and stay organized while we raise money for great causes,” she says.

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golf facilities & event planners save time with golfstatus

Golf facilities like Bear’s Best 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!

Your event website functions as the home base for your golf tournament, where folks can find out more about the event, learn about your organization, and register or purchase a sponsorship. Your event website also has a secret weapon—the donate button.

It’s a more-powerful-than-you-think tool that you can use to do far more than simply accept donations. You can collect payments for a number of tournament add-ons via the donation button. This keeps all payments and event revenue in one spot, making it easy to track income, simplify accounting, and run robust event reports.

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How Does It Work?

Simply send folks right to the donate page on your event website. If you’re sending information to participants electronically (via email or push notifications), include a clickable direct link. If you’re using any printed materials (like flyers or signage), add a QR code golfers can scan on their phone that takes them right to the donation page. Use the page to:

1. Collect Donations

Build strategic donation asks into your tournament day using emails, push notifications, social media, and in-person appeals. Challenge golfers to donate their final score or the score of the winning team or set up a donation station to collect gifts. You’ll onboard new donors you can further steward after the tournament!

2. Show Progress Toward Your Fundraising Goal

Donors love seeing the impact their gift is making. A quick and easy way to do that is having a bar that tracks progress toward your donation goal. Make sure donors can see it during checkout so they can instantly see how their gift has helped move the needle.

Event websites powered by GolfStatus make it easy for you to track your event day fundraising goal.

3. Collect Auction Payments

Particularly if you’re not using a standalone online auction platform or one that doesn’t process payments, you need an easy way for winning bidders to pay for their items. Simply direct folks to the donate page and make a note of the item or items they won for reporting purposes.

4. Pay for On-Course Games & Contests 

On-course games and contests are a great way to raise additional dollars the day of the tournament. Golfers can pay to have a pro take the tee shot for them, enter a putting contest, or participate in any other fun on-course competition right from the event website. Alternatively, you could set up specific packages for games and contests and direct folks to the registration page if you’re interested in separating those out for accounting purposes.

Golfers participate in a “blind putt hole” on-course game at a golf fundraiser.

5. Track Matching Donations

If you have a donor willing to match donations made the day of the tournament, sending everything through the event site makes it super simple to track the match. Highlight how donors’ gifts will be matched (if it’s a 1:1 match or other ratio plus the maximum match amount) and recognize the generous donor (if they want to be publicly recognized, that is).

6. Sell Mulligans or Raffle Tickets 

Allow golfers to buy these when they check in on tournament day, or consider setting up a station or stations on the golf course where folks can buy mulligans or raffle tickets. Setting up a station before a particularly difficult hole might boost your mulligan sales! You also have the option to build out mulligan or raffle tickets packages, like mentioned under on-course games and contests.

Golfers can make a payment or donation right from their mobile phone before, during, or after the golf tournament.

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Final Thoughts

The last thing you want to worry about on tournament day is hanging on to a wad of cash, manually entering credit card numbers, or reconciling Venmo payments. Instead, direct golfers to your event website and keep everything in one, unified place to simplify your post-tournament accounting.

GolfStatus’ tournament management software makes it simple. It starts with a professional event website, is powered by an industry-leading support team and an intuitive backend that’s easy for avid golfers and non-golfers alike, and ends with robust reporting and printouts. Best of all, nonprofits (and third parties holding golf tournaments to benefit a nonprofit or charity) can qualify to use GolfStatus’ platform at no upfront cost through the Golf for Good program. It’s not too good to be true! Click the button to find out more and get qualified.

organization Snapshot

In 1997, two families in Pennsylvania came together to find a solution. Their children with neurodevelopmental disabilities would soon be aging out of school-based assistance programs and they wondered what would come next for their kids as young adults. They made a connection with Ken Langone, one of the founders of Home Depot, who pledged to help these individuals and others like them find meaningful careers in Home Depot stores, and Ken’s Krew was born. “The cool thing about getting this started was how the customers and the other associates accepted them as workers,” says Karen LaPera, one of the founding families and current Chief Operating Officer at Ken’s Krew. “We’re so blessed that Ken and Home Depot gave us this opportunity.”

Over 25 years later, over 900 adults in nine states with disabilities have been trained and employed in Home Depot stores, many for 10 years or more. “It’s not just a job at that point, it’s a career,” says Terri Neipert, Executive Director at Ken’s Krew, reiterating the goal to help these individuals find purpose and meaningful careers. Ken’s Krew is working to expand into additional states and build partnerships with major employers in the retail and hospitality industries.

The Challenge

The original Ken’s Krew golf fundraisers were led by families in various states to raise money for programs that assess, train, and place individuals in employment and provide ongoing support services over the long term. “It’s harder to find funding for the long-term job retention support,” Terri says, which is why golf became such a valuable piece of the fundraising pie for this important work. The family-led events ground to a halt during the pandemic, and have since transitioned from being planned by families to Terri, Karen, and their team.

Ken’s Krew had also expanded its work into other states, launching golf fundraisers in those areas. With so many details to manage for multiple tournaments and a transition in leadership, they knew they needed some kind of tool to keep everything moving forward, as well as an easier way to collect and manage golfer and donor information.

The Solution

Terri had been on GolfStatus’ email list for several months, but it wasn’t until she saw a case study about Riverside Ranch’s annual golf tournament that she reached out to GolfStatus. “We get emails about different software and companies all the time,” Terri says. “But not all of them get the nonprofit side of things and come with a helpful team like GolfStatus does.”

She connected with the GolfStatus team to get things moving ahead of the 2022 slate of events and ease the transition from the families planning the tournaments to Terri and her team. “GolfStatus helped make the transition much smoother, making sure we had what we needed,” she says.

The Results

The Ken’s Krew team took full advantage of all that GolfStatus has to offer its nonprofit clients, including a free event website and no-cost access to its tournament management software through the Golf for Good program. “I kept trying to figure out what the catch was—but there really isn’t a catch!” says Terri.

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“I kept trying to figure out what the catch was—but there really isn’t a catch!”

— Terri Neipert, Executive Director at Ken’s Krew

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Ken’s Krew also tapped into GolfStatus’ one-stop-shop vendor Marketplace for pin flags, hole-in-one insurance, and on-course entertainment from BackSwing Golf Events. “Why would I look elsewhere when everything is there that I need?” says Terri. They also utilized a Dormie Network Stay and Play package, donated by the Dormie Network Foundation, as a high-end auction item that drove additional dollars. All in all, Terri says GolfStatus “significantly added to the overall value of the events.”

Ken’s Krew leveraged a GolfStatus event website for each of its golf events to collect registrations and donations, provide sponsor exposure, and share information about the organization.

Ken’s Krew had previously used a different, costly software platform for online registration and payment processing for the first post-COVID event, with frustrating results. “We actually lost money because people weren’t able to get their credit cards processed the day of the event and we got no support,” Terri says. “GolfStatus was super responsive when we had questions and helped us troubleshoot the day of the event as golfers used the app to pay for auction items.”

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“GolfStatus was super responsive when we had questions and helped us troubleshoot the day of the event as golfers used the app to pay for auction items.”

— Terri Neipert, Executive Director at Ken’s Krew

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GolfStatus’ in-house client success team was invaluable for the planning teams from start to finish. “We asked a lot of questions but they never once made me feel like I was a burden,” Terri says. “It’s not just the useful software but the people behind it. They responded quickly to any question or issue—I don’t know that I can say that about anyone else we work with.”

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Beyond the dollars raised from the tournament itself—golfer registrations and sponsorships, namely—Terri says the ability to collect donations right on the event website was invaluable. “People hear about the tournament and go check out the website even if they know they aren’t going to be able to play in the event,” she says. “But then they see the donation tracker and that they can support us with a donation and it prompts them to do so.”

connecting to the cause

An important part of successful charity golf tournaments is finding opportunities to create cause connection and engagement with the organization. For Ken’s Krew, golf events are of course about bringing in funds to provide their services at no cost, but they’re also a chance for workers’ families, partner employers, and the community more involved. What’s more, Ken’s Krew workers often help out or participate in the golf tournament, helping golfers and sponsors better understand and connect with the cause they’re supporting through golf.

There’s even a cause connection for Ken’s Krew staff. “When you’re sort of in the backend of an organization and away from the programmatic work, like Karen (LaPera) and I are, having a day where we can be out with our workers and see them be engaged reminds us why we do what we do,” says Terri. “It really is a moment that reminds us of our mission.” Karen echoes that sentiment. “There’s a lot of warming your heart at these golf events!”

Looking to the future

So far, Ken’s Krew has held golf events in New Jersey, Florida, and Atlanta, all as a means to feel out different markets, make connections, and bring in resources for their work in those states. Terri says they may expand further into other states they serve and bring on more partner employers. With 25 years under their collective belts, the organization is planning for what the next 25 years might hold. “DEI [diversity, equity, inclusion) has made employment for this population more commonplace, but we’re looking further into the future and what it means to employ people with neurodevelopmental disabilities,” Terri says.

Though neither Terri or Karen are golfers, they recognize the fundraising value of golf and have continued to invest their time and resources. “If I had to give one piece of advice for someone planning a golf tournament, it’s tapping into the resources you have at your disposal,” says Terri. “And that includes GolfStatus! I firmly believe that we wouldn’t have been able to hold these events without it.”

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Get qualified for Golf for Good

The Golf for Good program gives qualifying 501(c1) organizations and third parties planning golf events on their behalf no-cost access to GolfStatus’ tournament management software. Get an event website, online registration and payment processing, premium sponsorships, golf-specific tools, and an A+ support team there to help every step of the way. Click the button below to learn more and get qualified!

Organization Snapshot

Melwood’s six decades of serving those with disabilities began with a small group of parents and community supporters who had a bold idea—to create jobs and training for these individuals. They started by teaching plant care to young adults who were thought to be unemployable, and expanded into workforce development services that teach marketable, useful skills to adults with disabilities and provide a valuable workforce to partner businesses.

Based in the Washington D.C. area, the nonprofit advocates for and empowers individuals with disabilities to trans­form their own lives through unique opportunities to live, work, and thrive in their community. Sarah Boynton, Director of Corporate at Foundation Giving at Melwood, says their approach is individualized for each individual’s goals and to overcome the barriers to employment that they might face. “They have a ton of value in the community and are driven to find their purpose,” she says. “We look for ways to transform their lives through unique opportunities so everyone is included.”

The Challenge

The Melwood Champions Golf Tournament was originally an informal gathering of supporters who loved to golf and donated to support Melwood’s work. When Melwood decided to brand the golf tournament as an official fundraiser, they wanted to increase professionalism and elevate the entire event experience. Melwood’s newly-created fund development team heading up the golf tournament needed a way to easily collect registrations and payments, provide exposure to sponsors, and promote the tournament to its supporters.

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The Solution

GolfStatus offered an all-in-one solution for Melwood’s golf fundraiser, from registration and payment processing to tie-breakers and reporting. The nonprofit qualified for GolfStatus’ Golf for Good program, which gave Sarah and the entire planning team full access to the tournament management platform at no cost. After the first year of using GolfStatus, Sarah said it was a no-brainer to continue with GolfStatus. Beyond the software’s ease-of-use, GolfStatus’ in-house client success team was there to walk Sarah and her team through the software and troubleshoot issues every step of the way.

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“I talked to the support team more times than I care to admit, and they were always reassuring, like ‘We got you, don’t worry.’”

— Sarah Boynton, Director of Corporate and Foundation Giving at Melwood

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The Results

Making Everything Easier

When Sarah came on board with Melwood a few months prior to the 2022 golf tournament, GolfStatus was already in place, thanks to her boss, Heather Sherman, Melwood’s Vice President of Fund Development. An event website was actively collecting registrations and sponsorships as Sarah was tossed into the deep end of planning a golf tournament for the first time.

Thankfully, the GolfStatus client success team quickly got Sarah up to speed on the software, walking her through the back end to make sure she felt comfortable using each feature. “They showed us how to download reports and assign holes and what to send to the pro at the golf course,” Sarah says. She says check-in the morning of the event was super easy thanks to the pre-formatted printouts with all golfer information and team codes.

Online registration spared Sarah and the planning team from having to manually process payments and forms, saving a ton of time. “Having golfers and donors cover the fees really helped get us over our goal,” Sarah says. “As a fundraiser that’s huge.” Registrants could also round up their purchases to raise additional dollars. 

Unlike standard event management platforms, GolfStatus is built specifically for golf events, with tools to manage things like handicaps, flighting, and tie breakers. “I had a panic attack about halfway through the event about breaking ties!” Sarah says. She reached out to the client success team, who reassured her that the system is able to break ties automatically. “That was a relief!”

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“GolfStatus makes it easy for nonprofits to be successful. At the end of the day, that’s why we’re coming back.”

— Sarah Boynton, Director of Corporate and Foundation Giving at Melwood

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Carrying On A Tradition of Generosity

The Melwood Champions Golf Tournament had humble beginnings, starting out as some friends getting together to play golf and raise money for Melwood’s mission. The “Melwood Champions” are a group of longtime supporters and friends of the founding families of Melwood, who have supported the organization’s work for close to 60 years. The Champions led the golf event until the fund development team branded it as an official fundraiser in 2020. Since then, the tournament has grown and flourished, and with the help of GolfStatus, leveled up the event experience and raised even more money. In 2022, the tournament brought in $107,000 and is looking to raise even more for the 2023 event.

Proceeds from the tournament benefit different programs each year. For example, the 2022 golf fundraiser benefited the Camp Accomplish Scholarship Program, which provides financial support to attend the inclusive day and overnight summer camp for all ability levels. The 2023 tournament will raise money for Melwood’s Workforce Development and Career Exploration Programs, which supports over 2,800 individuals with disabilities achieve career goals in the greater Washington D.C. area.

Elevating the Event

GolfStatus clients have access to exclusive add-ons and sponsorships that take their tournaments to the next level. For example, Sarah said they knew they wanted to incorporate a hole-in-one contest to the tournament and were pleased when they discovered GolfStatus’ exclusive contest packages. The planning team originally wrapped the Technology Sponsorship into the tournament’s Title Sponsorship, but saw the premium value in the space and decided to purchase it themselves to provide to a longtime sponsor as a thank you, along with an accompanying stay and play package from the Dormie Network Foundation. “Dormie Network has opportunities to play golf at some pretty awesome places, and that just added to the high-end tournament we’re going for,” Sarah says.

The sale of the Technology Sponsorship combined with the hole-in-one contest also unlocked a cash donation from the Foundation. “The extra products and opportunities for our tournament that GolfStatus offered just made it so easy!” Sarah says. 

Sarah looked for other ways to make the event memorable, adding golfer swag bags with player gifts and items from sponsors (giving them even more brand exposure). They also used GolfStatus’ live scoring to give the tournament a professional touch. Sarah’s not a golfer, but says she lost count how many golfers told her how much they loved the live scoring. Teams would submit their scores via the free GolfStatus mobile app, which synced with live leaderboards that were updated in real-time. Golfers could check standings throughout the round in the app and on the screen in the clubhouse. “We sent golfer information ahead of time about where and how to download the app,” says Sarah, as a way to set them up for success. “Everyone loved how easy it was to keep track throughout the day.”

celebrating Success

Melwood is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2023 and 25 years of Camp Accomplish. “We’re celebrating all things Melwood!” Sarah says, and that the golf tournament is a big part of that celebration and a way to connect with donors and partners. “GolfStatus is a big part of making the golf tournament super successful.”

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Golf for Good

Looking to make your next golf event the best one yet? GolfStatus’ tournament management system streamlines and simplifies prep and planning, and exclusive sponsorships and add-ons help raise thousands more dollars for your cause. Best of all, nonprofits (and organizations hosting golf events that benefit one) can qualify to use GolfStatus at no cost through the Golf for Good program. Click below to learn more and get qualified.

When it comes to fundraising events, there are plenty of event management platform options out there: CRMs, event-specific platforms, ticketing platforms, peer-to-peer platforms, and more. But how will these work for your golf fundraiser? Can they handle the specific nuances of a golf tournament? Will they make your life easier or require workarounds and adaptations to make it function the way you need it to?

The last thing you need is costly, complicated software that drains your time and resources instead of driving fundraising. As you evaluate software options for your golf event, here are some crucial questions to ask:

1. Will it help raise money?

If the goal of your golf tournament is to raise money, you’ll want a platform that comes with built-in tools that help facilitate fundraising, including the ability to collect donations (plus a way to set a donation goal and track your progress), the option for registrants to cover any fees, exclusive sponsorships and add-ons that drive revenue, and easy ways to receive your funds. It should also feature an attractive event website that serves as the home page for the tournament and presents your organization and sponsoring businesses in a professional light, with user flows that make it easy to complete transactions.

2. Is it easy to use?

When technology isn’t straightforward and easy to use and learn, your attention isn’t where it needs to be—attracting golfers, connecting with donors, selling sponsorships, and providing a great overall tournament experience. Tournament management software should be intuitive, so anyone on your staff or planning team can create an event in minutes and make changes, additions, and updates as necessary. If your organization holds multiple events, be sure the platform can easily duplicate events and has organization-level tools to standardize logos and branding.

3. Will it save time & effort?

Technology can certainly automate time-consuming tasks and manual labor, but poorly designed software, or tools that aren’t quite what you need, can quickly offset the time-saving benefits of technology with additional training, troubleshooting, and complicated workarounds. Choose a solution that’s both powerful enough to meet your needs and simple enough that you won’t spend hours training staff, trying to work out adaptations, and fixing problems. Look for features that ease common tournament planning pain points, like online registration, robust reporting, one-click hole assignments, live scoring, and sponsor onboarding. Any software solution should keep you organized by tracking golfer, sponsor, and donor information in the platform’s backend. What’s more, you should be able to easily export donor data for seamless inclusion in your nonprofit’s donor database.

4. Does it help promote my tournament?

Experienced tournament organizers and event planners will tell you that every fundraising event you hold should come with an event website. When evaluating event management software, ensure that it can generate a clean, sleek, well-designed event website where players and sponsors can find more information, register a team or sponsor the event, and submit secure payment. With an event site, promotion becomes as easy as sharing a link in email campaigns, social media, your organization’s website, and even on printed pieces with a QR code. This way folks can commit to your tournament right when they hear about it, instead of filling out a paper registration form and finding a stamp to mail it back.

5. Does it make my event look professional?

Tournament software should enhance the overall look and feel of your event. The best software lends a professional experience to every aspect of your tournament and gives it instant credibility, which can be especially helpful for first-year events. Processes and materials that look outdated or unsightly can cheapen your event, which can influence the caliber of players and sponsors it attracts. The ultimate goal is to provide a professional experience from the moment someone hears about your tournament and visits your event site to when they submit their team’s score on the live scoring app.

6. Does it include live scoring?

A golf-specific feature—sometimes underrated and underused by tournament organizers—to look for in your tournament management software is live scoring. Teams input their scores on a mobile app, which syncs in real-time to live leaderboards that allows golfers to see hole-by-hole standings, helps organizers judge the round’s progress and keep the overall event moving smoothly, and expedites finalizing the tournament’s results because there’s no need for golf staff to hunt down paper scorecards. Look for a solution that offers professional, glitch-free live scoring with a leaderboard sponsorship that offers digital exposure that can be sold at a premium.

7. can i share access with my team & the golf facility?

Web-based platforms give tournament organizers, planning teams, and even golf course staff the freedom to access everything that goes into launching and organizing an event from anywhere. Be sure the software you’re considering allows user access permissions as needed so your team can easily collaborate with each other and the golf course using up-to-the-minute information.

8. how much does it cost?

With limited budgets, nonprofits need solutions that work well and don’t cost a fortune. Software that’s so expensive that it forces you to limit resources in other areas isn’t actually saving time or money. When choosing a tournament software platform, certainly consider baseline costs, if there’s a cost per user or for support, and look out for hidden fees, any upcharges, and tricky contracts. Many solutions offer extremely limited access at no cost and then charge substantially more for necessary features. Look for straightforward pricing, fees, and payout procedures.

9. what about the golf facility?

Golf staff at your host golf facility stand to benefit from tournament management software as much as you and your planning team do. You should be able to share access to the platform with golf professional staff, so they can assist with finalizing hole assignments, flighting, tie-breakers, and other golf-specific tasks in the days leading up to the event. Look for pre-formatted printouts, like scorecards, cart signs, and alpha lists, so golf staff can literally just hit “print” instead of having to create these pieces from scratch, saving them hours of time and allowing them to provide better service to you and your tournament’s golfers. Some golf facilities have an internal system in place they rely on to manage and execute outside events, but at your request, they should be willing to accommodate whatever platform you decide to use.

10. Will someone be available to help me?

Failure to provide adequate support is, unfortunately, common among software providers. Be sure to ask about the support you can expect to receive. Are support staff in-house or out-sourced? As a user, do you have immediate access to the support you need leading up to your event? During your event? After? Is support available seven days a week and what tools are available to assist your team and the golf facility during certain timeframes, such as in the evenings and on weekends when events are in full swing?

get qualified for tournament management software—at no cost

GolfStatus’ mission is to help nonprofits tap into golf’s given power by providing tools, resources, and support to plan and execute golf fundraisers. Through the Golf for Good program, nonprofits and those planning golf events to raise money for one can qualify to use GolfStatus’ tournament management software at no upfront cost. Get a professional event website, online registration and payment processing, live scoring, exclusive sponsorships and add-ons, and live support seven days a week to make your next golf event the best one yet. Click below to learn more and get qualified.

GolfStatus’ powerful tournament management software (TMS) has gotten an upgrade, with a refreshed, easily-navigable interface and additional features to make your next golf event the best one yet.

Track payments and donations and export robust reports.

Manage sponsor logos and assets right in the platform.

Easily navigate between workflows to make updates, additions, and edits.

View and modify rounds, hole assignments, and scorecards and create skins games.

Create a professional event website and build custom team and sponsorship packages.

View players and make hole assignments quickly and easily.

The software’s core functions remain the same, saving tournament organizers time and providing built-in tools to save more money. But the newest version of TMS has a number of notable improvements and new features to better streamline golf tournaments and fundraisers, including:

• Intuitive organization and workflows. The refined layout of the software makes it easier to navigate between workflows. Prompts and alerts help users move from section to section quickly and seamlessly.

• Work in TMS on any device! The new backend is completely responsive, so you can make edits to your event website, review registrations, check payments, and more, all from your phone, tablet, or computer.

• Custom event site URLs. Improve SEO and branding with a custom URL for every tournament’s event website.

• Improved image editing. There’s no need to hassle with graphic design programs or websites—now you can resize logos and images and make necessary edits right in TMS, saving you valuable time. Plus, you can customize the overlay on the event website’s hero image.

• Now processing Canadian dollars! Canada, we’re here to make executing a lucrative golf tournament easier and more efficient. 

• Simplified organization management. Manage user access and permissions and standardize settings, imagery, logos, and links across tournaments.

• Improved skins games management. It’s now simpler to start a skins game and manage players and teams that want in on the action.

• Additional paid features. Send sponsor invoices through the platform and set up discount codes for registrants. Tournaments can access these premium features for a fee.

All of this (with the exception of the paid features), plus GolfStatus’ professional event websites, live scoring and leaderboards, exclusive sponsorships, digital sponsor exposure, and more, is still available at no upfront cost for qualifying nonprofits and charity golf tournament organizers through GolfStatus’ Golf for Good program.

And like always, GolfStatus’s in-house support team is here with live support seven days a week to answer questions and troubleshoot issues.

Ready to Find Out More? 

Get in touch with the GolfStatus team to find out how you can start saving time and raising more money with your golf tournament today. Whether you’ve got a tournament on the calendar or are just exploring the idea, GolfStatus can help. Click here to connect with our team and get qualified for the Golf for Good program.

Already a GolfStatus Client?

Get in touch with your Client Success representative to learn more about the updates and make the switch to the newest version of TMS!

Surfing is part of the fabric of life in Palm Beach County, Florida. The Surfing Florida Museum was created to preserve and share the history of surfing in Florida. Its collection highlights the area’s rich surfing history through rare archive photos, club jerseys and memorabilia, a collection of historic surfboards, and curated local art.

As a completely volunteer-driven organization, the Surfing Florida Museum relies on donations and events to fund its pop-up exhibits and long-term goal of opening a permanent location. Several board members had been pushing the idea of a golf tournament fundraiser for several years, and finally decided it was time to make it happen.

First annual golf fundraiser

Susan French has a long history in the surfing industry, owning and working in surf shops before becoming the accountant at the Surfing Florida Museum. She worked closely with Scott McCranels, an orthodontist, legendary surfer, and a major backer of the museum, to make the golf tournament a reality. While Scott had played in several golf tournaments, he’d never planned one from the ground up, so they needed some guidance and infrastructure to plan the event.

The Surfing Florida Museum Golf Fundraiser was nominated for Play It Forward, a give-back campaign from GolfStatus and Dormie Network Foundation. Scott and Susan connected with the GolfStatus team and liked what they heard—particularly that the event qualified to use GolfStatus’ software at no cost through the Golf for Good program. They got set up with an event website where people could learn more about the organization, register to play in the event, or become a sponsor, plus access to GolfStatus’ entire golf-specific tournament management platform to handle all the golf details.

Getting a new fundraiser off the ground presented some challenges for the planning team, in terms of creating processes, building a base of golfers and sponsoring businesses, and finding effective ways to promote the event. “Next year will be easier in several ways, especially because people will have heard about it or already played in the tournament and had a great time,” says Susan. She and Scott reached out to companies in the surfing community to sponsor the event, and had a good response, both in terms of purchased sponsorships, playing in the event, or making a monetary or in-kind donation.

Overall, the first-year event raised over $28,000, a great haul for a small, inaugural event. With several team spots still open about a month before the tournament, the planning team decided to switch things up and open registration to single golfers or twosomes, which were then grouped together to create foursomes. “We found that some people didn’t want to commit to a foursome, so this was a good option to get more golfers involved,” Susan says.

Backswing golf events

Scott had chatted with a friend who had played in a golf tournament where they had a “beat the pro” contest featuring a pro from BackSwing Golf Events. BackSwing Golf Events is a group of lady professional golfers who provide on-course activities, contests, and additional fundraising. At the same time, BackSwing helps support female golfers trying to make it on the LPGA tour

The pros at BackSwing Golf Events

The museum board met with BackSwing and were impressed with what they had to offer, so they got on board to have them at the tournament. Pro Michaela Linn, who also plays on the Epson tour, was stationed on one of the course’s holes for a “beat the pro” contest. Golfers essentially bet on whether or not they could hit a better tee-shot than Michaela.

“Michaela was super professional and made the tournament more than just the usual 18 holes of golf,” Susan says. “We were really impressed. It was a fun addition to the event.” Susan says the BackSwing pro helped them raise over $2,000 extra dollars for the museum. BackSwing’s business model is a 50/50 split of whatever is raised through their presence on the golf course.

GolfStatus has partnered with BackSwing Golf Events as a vendor in its Marketplace. Susan says GolfStatus’ backing was a plus in making the decision to use BackSwing. “Knowing that GolfStatus has teamed up with BackSwing lets us know they’re a legitimate option to raise more money.”

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“Knowing that GolfStatus has teamed up with BackSwing lets us know they’re a legitimate option to raise more money.”

— Susan French, accountant at the Surfing Florida Museum

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leveraging technology

Susan and the museum’s CPA used GolfStatus’ reporting feature to track registrations, sponsorships, payments, and donations. Once golfers or sponsors registered via the event website, their information dropped into the software’s backend, where the planning team could see real-time participant information and quickly export reports for financial purposes.

GolfStatus’ in-house support team was available to help Susan, as well as golfers, with any questions or issues. “A couple people reached out with questions about registration and the guys at GolfStatus were there to help right away. The support team was great!” Susan says. She worked closely with her dedicated rep to update sponsor logos and event site content. “I had a million questions, but the support team was so helpful and responsive! GolfStatus was definitely a plus for our golf tournament.”

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“I had a million questions, but the support team was so helpful and responsive! GolfStatus was definitely a plus for our golf tournament.”

— Susan French, accountant at the Surfing Florida Museum

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The Surfing Florida Museum’s golf event was held in late October, with the holidays just around the corner. Because the museum’s website doesn’t have the capabilities to collect donations, Susan worked with the Client Success team at GolfStatus to tweak its event website to help a donation push around the holidays. “That was nice to use since we were already set up to process payments through GolfStatus and the site was there,” Susan says.

Surfing Florida Museum shifted the focus of their GolfStatus event website to collect donations over the holidays.

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Golf for good

GolfStatus’ Golf for Good program gives qualifying nonprofits, charities, and those planning golf fundraisers on their behalf access to its golf event management platform at no cost. GolfStatus streamlines prep and planning to save busy organizers a ton of time and its built-in fundraising tools and exclusive sponsorships help raise thousands more dollars. Whether you’re kicking off a new event or looking for ways to improve a decades old event, GolfStatus can help. Plus, our in-house support team has your back every step of the way. Ready to get started? Click below to get qualified!

Maybe you recently decided a golf fundraiser would be a great option to raise money for your organization. Or perhaps you held a spring golf event that was rained out or was so successful you want to add a second event this fall. You may be asking yourself—is it too late in the year to plan a golf fundraiser? Absolutely not! A successful, lucrative golf event can be planned in a matter of months. Here’s why now is a great time to plan an event and how to get started.

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Technology Makes Prep & Planning More Efficient

The right event management technology streamlines planning tasks and keeps you organized so you can successfully hold an event with less lead time. A web-based software solution built specifically for golf fundraisers keeps everything in one place, making it easy to collaborate with your planning team and the golf facility. You’ll spend less time tracking down and managing siloed information and more time focusing on attracting players and selling sponsorships.

You Can Start Promoting Your Event Right Away

An event website for your golf fundraiser can be built and launched in a matter of days, which means you can start promoting it right away. The beauty of using an event website for all of your promotion is that it makes promotion as simple as sharing a direct link to the website where golfers can register and buy add-ons and sponsors can commit to your event as soon as they hear about it. Plus, moving promotion online means you can skip the time-consuming process of creating registration materials and processes, collecting addresses, mailing flyers, and waiting for people to send in their information. Share the link on all your organization’s digital channels and ask your planning team, board members, volunteers, and supporters to do the same to cast the widest net possible.

Automated Workflows Save Tons of Time 

Online registration is a game-changer for busy event organizers. It eliminates the need for tons of spreadsheets, processing paper forms, cashing checks, sending receipts, and chasing down payments the day of the tournament. Instead, all pertinent information is collected right when someone registers a team or purchases a sponsorship and dropped into your event management software’s backend. Plus, when it comes time to manage hole assignments, team pairings, handicaps, and other unique details of a golf event, each golfer’s information is ready to go, right in the software so there’s no need to bounce between platforms or worry about working with out-of-date information.

Fall is a Great Time for Golf

In general, fall is an excellent time for golf events. You get favorable weather and appealing course conditions, plus lower, off-peak season facility costs. You’ll want to keep the shorter days that fall brings in mind when setting the tournament’s schedule, but can easily be addressed by a shotgun start or a shorter nine-hole event to maximize playable hours. If you’re in a warm-weather location, you have even more of the year to work with and can get a tournament on the books for November or December.

Resources Are Available to Help

Don’t worry—tournament planning resources are available to get you off on the right foot. Sample timelines, checklists, sponsorship packages, templates, and more can help take the guesswork out of planning, especially on a shorter timeline. When choosing an event management platform, be sure it’s supported by a knowledgeable, responsive client success team that knows the ins and outs of golf events and can respond to questions and resolve issues seven days a week. .

Getting Started is Easy 

GolfStatus’s golf event management tech is specifically designed to make golf tournament fundraisers easy to launch, plan, market, and execute. Our in-house customer success team is there to guide you every step of the way, from building your event website and creating sponsor packages to helping you select a tournament format and working with the golf facility. Through the Golf for Good program, qualifying 501(c) organizations get no-cost access to GolfStatus. Click below to get qualified!