Case Study: Technology Helps West Virginia Nonprofit Safely Host its Golf Fundraiser amid COVID-19

Howell’s Mill Christian Assembly is a scenic year-round camp and retreat center located in Cabell County, West Virginia. Founded in the late 1940s, the assembly’s 25 acres come alive as spring wakes its landscape and the camp prepares to host thousands. Its Christian camps, retreat programs, outreach events, acts of service, and partnerships with other local parachurch missions and organizations impact the lives of teens and adults alike. And while its massive campus is equipped to host up to 188 guests, this year has been quite unlike any before it.

Like other camps and retreat centers nationwide, Howell’s Mill struggled through early spring with empty facilities and lost revenue amid COVID-19. By April, the camp's executive director, Tim Yankey, was faced with another challenge: What to do with the annual golf fundraiser at a time when resources and budgets were squeezed especially tight. With mounting uncertainty, Tim set out to determine if and how he could safely move forward.

A Crucial Time to Fundraise

COVID-19’s impact on Howell’s Mill and other area camps has been substantial. “I’m close with a number of other camp directors and some have been hit harder than others,” says Tim, citing an organization that was forced to cancel all of its summer programming, and another that, by the onset of Spring, had already lost close to $200,000. “By that time, we had only lost about $15,000, so we were in better shape than other camps, but we really did not want to have to cancel our golf fundraiser.”

In addition to helping raise mission-critical funds, the annual event is a way for Howell’s Mill to engage with the more than 35 churches that send volunteers and campers to the facility each summer—helping to develop relationships that are central to the assembly’s mission and ongoing work. “We’ve run the golf fundraiser for the last 17 years as a way for us to keep those volunteers in the tri-state area connected, but also as a fundraiser,” explains Tim. Proceeds from the event are typically funneled into designated capital campaigns, aimed at renovation projects and other clearly outlined needs like replacing mattresses or remodeling showers. “We try to do something tangible so we can show participants exactly how their support has helped us,” notes Tim. This year, however, with the assembly in dire need, the outing’s revenue was designated to general funds.

Adapting for Safety

For the last six years, Howell’s Mill’s golf scramble has been held at Sugarwood Golf Club in nearby Lavalette. Owner Ed Allen was especially flexible amid this year’s challenges, working with Tim on modifications and waiving contracts to help the organization avoid risk amid the uncertainty. “Ed has a heart for our ministry,” says Tim. “He’s really great to work with and we’re grateful for his flexibility and accommodations.”

To safely host this year’s event, Tim worked with Ed to make some important modifications, starting with upgrades to the registration process that moved it online through GolfStatus.org’s event management platform. “We hadn’t made any changes to our registration process for the last 17 years,” explains Tim, noting that for as long as he could remember, Howell’s Mill had sent paper registration forms and asked participants to mail in checks. “It’s funny—every other event we do has an online registration option to make things easier, but I had never considered looking for an option for our golf event,” explains Tim, who worked with GolfStatus to quickly and easily launch a custom event website for the event.

“It’s funny—every other event we do has an online registration option to make things easier, but I had never considered looking for an option for our golf event.”

— Tim Yankey, Executive Director at Howell's Mill

The process is simple: Event organizers connect with a member of GolfStatus’s in-house customer success team to set up a registration website that includes all the information pertinent to the event: Event description and cause information, event date, facility location and scorecard, tournament format, available sponsorships, and more. Event organizers like Tim work with that specific member of the GolfStatus team (in this case, customer success rep Nick White) to put together specifics on sponsorship packages, including add-ons like mulligans, raffle tickets, and additional donations. GolfStatus’s technology also makes a number of digital sponsorship packages available to event organizers to list as part of existing packages of separately—providing additional opportunities for sponsor revenue. These include but are not limited to exposure on the event website, digital in-app hole sponsorships, live leaderboard sponsorships, and sponsored in-app communications during the outing.

Contact-Free is Just the Beginning

The event website makes promoting the outing easy and cost effective, notes Tim: “Instead of printing the paperwork, putting it in the mail, hoping they got it, and then processing it after waiting for everyone to return the form with a check—I just sent everyone a link and they registered and paid online.” Once linked to the event website, players and sponsors can purchase teams, choose from a variety of custom sponsorship packages, and purchase add-ons, securely submitting payment quickly and easily. Player and sponsor information drops instantly into GolfStatus’s back-end event management software, where organizers and golf facility staff can manage teams, drag and drop hole assignments, organize flights, do handicapping, and automate other time-consuming logistical tasks. At any time, event organizers and course staff can call on their GolfStatus customer success rep when they need a hand. “The support is second to none,” adds Tim. “Nick was absolutely great to work with. Quick to respond and help with anything we needed. It was great to have someone there to lend a hand when we needed it.”

In the age of social distancing, online registration is more than a convenience—it’s a necessity. Online registration enabled Tim to avoid the traditional physical touchpoints of registration, payment, and check-in the day of the event. “We let people know that we would not allow pay at course this year with COVID-19,” notes Tim. “I didn’t want my staff out there working at the course in close contact with players and we didn’t want a line or people congregating to pay ahead of the round. The golf club also doesn’t have very strong WiFi, so it was easier to not have to process the transactions onsite and keep people waiting,” he explains, noting that the value of online registration certainly extends beyond these peculiar times. “This is something we plan to take advantage of from here on out.”

The Advantage of Live Leaderboards

Tim skipped a hosted lunch, tee gifts, and merchandise giveaways in an effort to rally through these challenging times, but also to keep participants safe. Players also skipped pencils and paper scorecards, avoiding the need to collect them at the end and tally scores by taking advantage of contact-free live scoring via the GolfStatus mobile app. Once players arrived at the course, they simply downloaded the free GolfStatus app, which automatically prompts users to check into the course and enter their unique team code. After each hole, one person per team uses the app to quickly enter the score, which is then displayed on the live leaderboard for the event. Importantly, the live leaderboards make it possible for tournament organizers like Tim to extend play over multiple days—another feature he plans to take advantage in the years ahead. “People have always told us that they’d play if we held the event on a Friday or if it were on a Saturday,” explains Tim. “GolfStatus’s technology opens us up to extend next year’s tournament to multiple days, maximizing our profit and allowing people who couldn’t play based on work, family, or sports schedules to still participate. I could foresee doubling our fundraising revenue if our event spanned two or three days!”

Results that Speak Volumes

With a little technology in place, Howell’s Mill’s 2020 golf fundraiser went off safely and without a hitch. The event fielded 15 teams—60 golfers in total—and attracted 12 sponsors at various levels of support, including a national sporting goods store, a car dealership, two banks, an insurance agency, a financial service provider, and a number of area businesses. “We typically have closer to 18 or 24 sponsors, but we expected those to be down with so many businesses on pause,” notes Tim. “Our prizes were donated, and the only real overhead expense was paying the golf course.”

Best of all, Howell’s Mill was able to meet its fundraising goals for the event, which it originally expected to have to cancel—effectively salvaging the spring golf fundraiser at a time when its funds are badly needed. “We were extremely impressed with GolfStatus! We would have had to cancel our event, but this technology allowed us to salvage our golf fundraiser while also providing some useful and exciting features that we’ll definitely use in the future.”

“We would have had to cancel, but this technology allowed us to salvage our golf fundraiser.”

GolfStatus’s golf fundraising and event management software is available to nonprofits at no cost through our Golf for Good program. To learn more or get started, submit an inquiry online or email us directly at: