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!

Golf’s ongoing popularity has led nonprofits and charities of all types and sizes to jump into the sport as a fundraising mechanism. But as popular as golf has been over the last few years, there are parts of the population—non-golfers, beginners who might not feel confident enough to register for a tournament, or individuals that have another barrier to participating—that might be left out of a standard golf tournament.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can structure your golf tournament to make it more inclusive, involving those missing folks who can be converted into donors. No matter how you choose to make your event inclusive, a golf-specific event management platform is a necessity to streamline planning for you and your team. Here are five ideas to consider for your next golf tournament.

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1. Choose non-traditional events

Not every golf tournament has to be 18-holes at a traditional golf course. Yes, the vast majority of charity golf tournaments fit that mold, but you might consider an additional golf event, this time with a non-traditional spin. You’ll connect with new segments of your community to raise awareness about your mission and bring in funds for your work. Consider these examples:

• Putt Putt / Mini Golf Tournament: A mini golf tournament can have many of the same elements as a regular golf tournament, just on a smaller scale. With fewer barriers to entry, a putt putt event is a great option to involve families, non-golfers, and the community at large. The Putt Putt Fore Puppies event, a first-year mini golf tournament, raised over $9,200 for the Capital Humane Society. The tournament sold out both teams (41 four-person teams) and sponsorships (21), with the top sponsorship selling for $4,000. The planning team incorporated on-course games and a raffle to raise extra dollars.

• Golf Simulator Events: Golf simulators like TopGolf are extremely popular among golfers and non-golfers alike. Much like a mini golf event, there’s a broader audience for a golf simulator event and options to sell sponsorships, charge an entry fee, and leverage add-ons like a raffle or auction. Avery’s Hope, the 2023 winner of Play It Forward, chose TopGolf as an inclusive option to allow the families they serve (those dealing with rare and undiagnosed pediatric GI conditions) to participate.

A putt putt or mini golf tournament is a great addition to your fundraising calendar, involving those who aren’t able to participate in a traditional golf tournament.

2. include adaptive elements

If your nonprofit serves an audience or has a supporter base that requires specific adaptations, there are ways to incorporate them into a golf tournament. The key here is to know your audience. Start by thinking through any barriers they might face to participating in a golf tournament, physical or otherwise. You could even survey a subset of your donors or constituents to gather information to help guide you in what adaptive elements to offer.

For example, Outlook Enrichment is a Nebraska-based nonprofit that serves the visually-impaired. They paired sighted golfers with visually-impaired golfers to serve as their eyes on the course. What’s more, they offer a blind golfers clinic in conjunction with the golf tournament, with coaches that specialize in working with the blind and visually-impaired. They worked with GolfStatus to make their event website and the entire registration process as accessible as possible to those with vision impairments.

Outlook Enrichment is a nonprofit that serves the visually-impaired. A blind golfers clinic is held with the annual golf fundraiser to help those with a vision impairment try their hand at golf.

When choosing a golf course for your tournament, you might also consider accessibility for those that have mobility issues. Ensure ramps are available, restrooms are handicap accessible, and work with golf facility staff to have golf carts available to accommodate different abilities.

3. use beginner-friendly tournament formats

The vast majority of charity golf tournaments utilize the scramble format. Here’s how it works: Each golfer tees off, then the team chooses the best shot and each player hits their ball from that spot. This continues until the ball is holed. The beauty of this format is that it makes the tournament approachable for golfers of all skill and experience levels, from beginners to scratch golfers. One roadblock to participating in a golf tournament, particularly for those who have never played golf before or don’t play often, is the intimidation factor. They have the perception that they’re not good enough to play so they don’t even consider it. The scramble format, whether it’s two or four-person teams, levels the playing field a bit and makes the round much more fun for all golfers.

Another way to encourage beginners or non-golfers to participate is by flighting your tournament. There are several approaches to flighting, which organizes teams into different groups, or flights, based on skill levels so teams or players of similar skill levels are competing against each other. This can happen before or after the tournament, depending on your preference. You might offer a women’s flight or beginner’s flight so folks can choose those options when they register, or you can flight results at the end. Whatever way you choose, flighting can help create an inclusive and enjoyable experience for all golfers. You’ll want to use a tournament management software that allows for easy flighting, so golf staff doesn’t have to manually sort through paper scorecards at the end of the round to finalize the results.

The scramble format is a great choice for charity golf tournaments because it makes the event more approachable for golfers of all skill and experience levels.

4. offer golf clinics or lessons

Tacking on a golf clinic or lessons to your golf tournament is a great way to target beginners. Whether you schedule it for immediately before the tournament or a day or two prior, a clinic working on basic golf skills gives beginners the confidence boost they may need to commit to playing in your golf fundraiser. You have the option to include the cost it in the registration fee (after all, even more experienced golfers can use a few pointers to improve their game), charge an additional fee to participate, or find a sponsor to underwrite the whole thing (and give them exclusive naming rights to the extra event!).

Work with the pro at the golf facility you’ve chosen to see if they’re willing to lead the clinic. You could tailor it specifically for beginners or offer a series of clinics for beginner, intermediate, and advanced skill sets.

5. add other activities 

To include non-golfers in your golf tournament, consider adding supplemental activities that attract families, spouses, partners, or friends of those playing in the event or members of the community who want to support your organization but don’t want to play golf. Some ideas include:

• Putting contest

• Live and/or silent auction

• Wine tasting event

• Cocktail hour

• Movie screening

• Musical performances

• Crafts

• Volunteer activities

• Meet and greet with nonprofit beneficiaries

• Speaker or workshop

A musical performance can help attract non-golfers to your golf tournament.

These add-ons can occur during the round or just prior to any post-golf awards ceremony or banquet. Pitch the add-on activities to a local business as a sponsorship and highlight the additional exposure they’ll get—both to golfers and to the non-golf attendees.

Final Thoughts

Inclusivity is a big deal, especially for nonprofits. Making your golf tournament more inclusive not only gets more folks involved to support your mission, but shows that your organization seeks to involve all segments of your community. As you start planning your charity golf tournament, think through how you can incorporate these ideas to remove barriers for people to support you through golf.

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Hit the easy button for your next golf fundraiser

GolfStatus’ tournament management software makes golf fundraisers—of all types and sizes—easier and more lucrative than ever. Save a ton of time with online registration, built-in automations, and auto-generated printouts and raise even more money by leveraging GolfStatus’ exclusive sponsorships, add-ons, and built-in fundraising tools. Plus, our industry-leading support team is here to help every step of the way. Click below to get qualified to use GolfStatus at no cost through the Golf for Good program.

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.

As summer draws to a close, your nonprofit is likely turning your attention to year-end giving campaigns and begin planning for 2024 fundraising initiatives. If a golf tournament is a regular part of your fundraising event calendar, or you’re looking to add a spring or summer golf event to your fundraising portfolio, now’s the time to get started.

Keep your planning team organized and on track for a successful golf fundraiser by focusing on these six key planning tasks yet this year:

1. Book the Golf Facility

As the height of golf season winds down, facilities are also beginning to plan for next year. It’s a good idea to get a date on their calendar sooner rather than later, especially if you’re eyeing a high-end facility where your organization might be competing for a limited number of open dates for fundraisers and other outside outings.

2. Secure Your Tech Stack

Nonprofits are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient, stay organized, and streamline operations. Planning and executing the annual golf fundraiser are no different. Because golf tournaments come with unique details that must be appropriately handled to ensure a flawless event, finding the right tools and resources and getting them in place as soon as possible is crucial. Look for an event management platform that’s built for golf and can natively manage critical components like handicaps, flighting, hole assignments, and scoring without clunky workarounds.

3. Launch an Event Website

Getting your event website up early makes it easy to begin accepting registrations and donations and selling sponsorships now. Ideally, your website should be up before the first communication about the event goes out, including save-the-dates. In fact, it’s a good idea to open registration for next year’s event on the heels of the current outing if at all possible so folks can commit when the golf event is top of mind. An event website is also a great place to display pertinent information and updates. The sooner your site is live, the sooner you can communicate about the event in a context that makes sense. 

4. Market the Event Early 

Start marketing your event as far as four to six months in advance, especially if the golf tournament is a new fundraiser for your organization. Early communications can be quick and straightforward (such as a simple save the date that links folks to the event website). Start with donors who have supported the golf event in the past, as well as general organization supporters and those who have attended other fundraising events.

Early communications also allow you to get on sponsors’ radars ahead of their annual budget planning. For this reason, it’s a good idea to send save-the-dates for spring and summer fundraisers ahead of year-end. Also be sure to target not only veteran donors and year-over-year event participants, but the new supporters they’ve invited to fill out their teams; these attendees provide an opportunity to target new sponsors and garner additional support. Make an announcement on social media, and if you have some dollars available, consider running paid ads to cast a wider net of potential new golfers and sponsors.

5. Leverage Your networks

Your organization likely has some powerful connections in its collective personal and professional networks. Give yourself plenty of runway and start calling on your planning committee, board of directors, staff, regular donors, and dedicated volunteers and asking them to tap into their networks to:

• Identify contacts at local and national businesses that should be targeted as potential tournament sponsors.

• Invite friends, family, colleagues, and peers who might be interested in playing in the event.

• Solicit in-kind donations for auction items, raffle prizes, pin prizes, other giveaways, event food and beverage, or post-round entertainment.

BackSwing Golf Events is a great option for on-course entertainment and contests, like beat the pro and glass break challenges.

6. think about add-ons & extras 

How are you going to make your tournament stand out? What can you do to make it memorable for golfers and sponsors? Golf tournaments come with a ton of options to boost revenue while elevating the overall experience to keep supporters coming back year after year. Fun add-ons are sure to leave a lasting impression and bring in even more dollars for your cause. Start thinking about ways to connect any on-course games to your cause, get pricing and details for on-course entertainment, and secure hole-in-one contest insurance. Getting these pieces in place early in the planning process gives you more time to secure sponsorships (and cover hard costs) for these add-ons.

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Get Qualified for No Cost Golf Event Tech

GolfStatus’ robust tournament management software streamlines and simplifies golf fundraisers to save busy nonprofit event organizers time and effort. Its built in fundraising tools, exclusive sponsorships, and premium add-ons help raise even more money for your cause. Nonprofits and those planning a golf event to benefit one can qualify to use GolfStatus at no upfront cost—including an event website, online registration, custom sponsor packages, live scoring, and much more—through our Golf for Good program. Click below to learn more and get qualified!

Golf balls have certainly come a long way since their 14th century beginnings as lopsided pieces of wood. The 17th century saw particularly incredible innovation, when the sport’s enthusiasts stuffed pouches with dense wads of wet leather to create a hard core, then added feathers that dried into a denser outer layer. Today’s golf balls are virtually unrecognizable in comparison and, let’s face it, infinitely better.

Golf balls must address the golfer’s every need, providing distance on drives, spin and trajectory on the approach, and control on the green. Balls try to solve for a lot of factors and objectives to optimize its performance on any shot the golfer can imagine, making its construction a key factor. Here are seven things you probably don’t know about golf balls.

1. A golf ball can’t weigh more than 1.62 ounces (or 45.93 grams).

Modern golf balls are made from a range of materials and methods, but to be recognized in tournament play, they can’t weigh more than a mere 1.62 ounces or 45.93 grams. Taken together, the elements of a ball’s design and construction have a profound impact on its overall performance on the course. The golf ball is perhaps the most important piece of equipment in the golfer’s bag—it’s the only piece of equipment that golfers use on every single shot.

2. Golf balls are made of layers.

At its most basic level, a golf ball includes an inner core made from pressurized rubber or synthetic rubber, surrounded by one or several outer layers, and a characteristically dimpled cover. Each of its collective elements contribute to its performance on a shot, and even subtle changes to one or more elements can make a drastic impact. Their construction increases the ball’s spin that lends itself to greater control, especially in the short game.

3. The core is crucial.

The core is often considered the ball’s engine, influencing not only its speed and distance, but its spin in the long and short game. The force used to strike the ball is transferred directly into the injection-molded rubber that is a ball’s core, where it is stored and released to propel the ball forward. For this reason, the core is often considered the ball’s engine, influencing not only its speed and distance, but its spin in the long and short game. In multi-layer construction, where another layer is positioned between the ball’s core and its cover, the inside layer is made of rubber thread compressed to varying densities.

4. A golf ball’s compression is a factor in speed and spin.

The ball’s compression is a reflection of how hard or soft the ball compresses against the club face when hit. While the influence of compression is a hotly debated topic among golf experts and equipment manufacturers, the general consensus is that a harder ball (with a higher numerical compression) compresses less on the hit, while a softer ball compresses more. Golfers with a faster swing speed are typically more apt to prefer a harder ball, but it’s more of a matter of personal preference for feel. Compression has an impact on general performance. For example, as a broad rule, if you have two golf balls that are identical with the exception compression, the higher compression ball will have more speed and more spin across the entire range of shots while the lower compression ball will have lower speed and lower spin. That being said, this relationship is not universally true. Some higher compression golf balls have lower speed and spin because of other components of their design.

5. The cover impacts the feel and the ball’s spin off of the club head.

The exterior surface of the golf ball is referred to as its cover and is constructed either of Surlyn (a thin, plastic resin created and trademarked by DuPont) or urethane (a slightly softer, slightly less durable synthetic compound). All else being equal, Surlyn can contribute to distance, but tends to inhibit spin. Urethane covers, while typically more expensive, have a tendency to deliver higher spin rates off irons and wedges, providing more control in the short game. For golf ball manufacturers, the cover is another crucial opportunity for innovation that impacts its overall performance.

6. The ball’s dimples have a purpose.

The dimples on the surface of the golf ball play a surprisingly complex role in its flight, speed, lift, and spin. Compared to a smooth ball, the small indentations make golf balls more aerodynamic, manipulating the airflow around the ball to create a tighter vortex that effectively decreases the ball’s drag and increases its distance, speed, and lift. Like the other design and construction components, these dimples can be manipulated by manufacturers that increase and decrease their size, quantity, and pattern to impact the speed, flight, spin, and overall performance of the ball. They’re also an important consideration when it comes to weather and other playing conditions to provide consistency in how a golf ball performs in all types of conditions.

7. Manufacturers are always innovating.

Given the leaps and bounds of innovation across golf ball construction, materials, and performance over the last several decades, the industry’s focus on research and development should come as no surprise. Most manufacturers look toward TOUR players for feedback on prototyped and developing products, but investments in innovation run far deeper, including divisions and teams of engineers, technicians, chemists, aerodynamicists, and other scientists. R&D teams spend time working with golfers to understand their performance needs. With every innovation, consistency remains central, given the slightest deviation in quality can have a dramatic impact on a golfer’s game. It’s especially important for amateur golfers, who have a tendency to assume a flaw in their swing when they hit the ball the way they wanted to hit it, but it doesn’t perform as expected.

Final Thoughts

In all, the right ball is unique to each individual golfer’s goals and preferences. Still, the surprisingly complex science behind the sport’s central component plays into every piece of a golfer’s game—from the way it feels off the tee to the moment it hits the cup. The golf ball is an important equipment decision that makes a huge difference for golfers at all skill levels—perhaps the most important of all.

Golf has a ton of giving power. For nonprofits, a golf tournament is the chance to raise mission-critical dollars, engage supporters, build relationships, and ultimately, do more good. And while planning a tournament isn’t a small undertaking, the good news for nonprofit event planners is that the right technology can make it easier, more efficient, and more lucrative to organize a successful golf fundraiser.

So whether you’re planning your first golf tournament or your fiftieth, here are seven ways tournament management tech can upgrade and improve your golf fundraiser.

1. It Makes It Easier on Everybody

Golf tournaments come with a number of moving parts and specifics to handle that are much different than those that come with a gala or auction. Using tech tailored specifically to a golf event makes it simple to handle the golf details, like flighting, handicaps, tie-breakers, and live scoring. You’ll keep everything organized in one easily-accessible place, so you, your planning team, and even the golf facility staff are all on the same page and working with up-to-the-minute information and not bouncing between multiple platforms and spreadsheets.

Golf facilities love tech that makes it easier on them, too—they’ll spend less time in the back office creating cart signs, rules sheets, and alpha lists and more time out front assisting you and your tournament’s golfers.

2. You’ll Save Time, Resources & Effort

It starts with an event registration website with secure payment processing, where golfers, prospective sponsors, and supporters can learn more about your organization and event and commit to participating with just a few clicks. So instead of creating a costly promotional mailer, then asking supporters to fill out the form, track down a stamp, and mail it back, you simply share a link where folks can register online with a few simple, secure clicks.

Online registrations should automatically flow into the software’s backend, where you can instantly find golfer, sponsor, and payment information. That means no processing paper forms, checks, or receipts and no entering and re-entering information in different spreadsheets. What’s more, when it comes time to make team pairings and hole assignments, it can all be done right in the software. Your administrative burden is cut in half

3. Sponsors Get Better ROI

Sponsors get a ton of value out of the digital exposure provided by tournament management tech. Instead of being limited to signage on the golf course the day of the event, it’s amplified with the exposure throughout the platform before, during, and after the event. So every time someone visits your event site to register or just learn more about the tournament, sponsors get eyeballs on their brand.

Combine that with hole-by-hole exposure and push notifications in the live-scoring app, and businesses see even more value and ROI in supporting your tournament. Plus, sponsors can browse available packages, make a purchase, and upload logos and links right through the event website, eliminating time-consuming back and forth to collect assets and providing instant exposure.

4. You’ll Raise More Money

Any tournament management tech should come with tools that boost fundraising. At a minimum, you should be able to collect donations via the event website, but look for additional fundraising features like a donation tracker on the event site, multiple donation calls-to-action throughout the platform, the ability to round up and donate at checkout, exclusive sponsorships that can be sold at a premium, and fun add-ons that drive revenue (and bring fun and excitement to your charity golf tournament).

National Ag Science Center placed banners around the golf course to help golfers better understand their mission.

5. It Engages Golfers, Donors & Sponsors

Engagement—prior to, during the round, and following the tournament—is key to donor onboarding and stewardship. Instead of just sending golfers out on the course and not interacting with them again until after the round, look to technology to engage them in a variety of ways throughout the day. Live scoring is a great way to keep golfers engaged every time they check the current standings on the tournament’s live leaderboards (which also provides additional sponsor exposure and another opportunity for folks to make a donation).

Direct folks to the event website at the end of the tournament and challenge folks to make a donation, perhaps equal to that of the winning team or what their team shot. You can also leverage push notifications and email communications to share information and updates throughout the day. After the event, export your golf tournament donor data for inclusion into your donor CRM for additional follow up and stewardship.

6. You’ll Be Ready for Next Year

Rather than starting from scratch, you can simply copy your event in the golf tournament software platform, update the date and key details, and push it out to your audiences to save the date and keep it on their radar for next year. If you have a date set, include the link to your new event website in any post-tournament thank yous and follow-up communications to get a jump on promotion and sponsor sales.

7. You Don’t Have to Know About Golf

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never picked up a golf club, you hit the links a few times a week, or fall somewhere in between, you can plan a successful, lucrative golf fundraiser with the right tools and resources behind you. Your tech platform should come with a responsive, knowledgeable support team that’s there to coach you, answer questions, and troubleshoot issues for you and your event’s participants.

Golf for Good with GolfStatus

GolfStatus works with nonprofits and charities of all types and sizes to launch or level up their golf fundraisers. The robust platform streamlines the process from start to finish and is backed by an in-house support team available seven days a week.

Through the Golf for Good program, qualifying 501(c) organizations and others planning golf events that benefit a charity can use GolfStatus’ tournament management software at no cost, including an event website, online registration and secure payment processing, digital sponsor exposure, robust reporting, and more. Visit golfstatus.com/demo for more information or to get qualified.

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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.

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!

When golfers decide to play in a charity golf tournament, they often reach out to their friends, family members, neighbors, or colleagues to fill their team. This is good news for your organization—not only does it fill your tournament’s field, but your mission gets exposure to a brand new audience of potential new donors and supporters.

Take full advantage of this opportunity to introduce your organization to a captive audience at your golf event. Create a cause connection by helping golfers understand what your organization does, who it serves, and how their participation is a key part of fulfilling your mission. They may have come to golf, but when they see the tangible impacts of what the tournament is raising money for, it’s easier to convert them into donors.

Here are 10 ideas for your next golf fundraiser to connect golfers to your mission:

1. Add compelling photos and videos to your event website.

A picture is truly worth a thousand words, so take advantage of your event website’s customization features to add photos that illustrate your organization’s work and impact. If possible, add video too—anything from a simple slideshow of photos set to music, an impact story, or a polished marketing video are effective in telling your organization’s story visually.

Help golfers connect to your cause with powerful images and videos on your event website.

2. Invite a guest speaker to share their experience.

Kick off the tournament with a speaker who has benefited from your nonprofit’s services. Or add a presenter to a luncheon, banquet, or awards ceremony. Hearing first-hand from a beneficiary drives home the impact of your work. For example, Riverside Ranch, a therapeutic horse riding program, invited parents of riders to speak at their golf tournament’s luncheon and share what the Ranch meant to their family.

3. Include promo materials in player gift bags and golf carts.

A one-page flier, brochure, annual report, or other collateral can help golfers understand the depth of your mission. Be sure to include QR code on any printed materials with a direct link to the donation page on your event website where folks can donate right from their phones! Drop these in player gift bags or leave them in golf carts for golfers to peruse at their leisure. If your golf facility has carts with video capabilities, inquire about showing a video or photo slideshow on the screens. RiseUp Malawi, which provides educational opportunities in the African country of Malawi, played a video with a welcome message from some of the children the organization serves. They also provided each golfer with a book about Malawi with handwritten notes from the kids and on-site staff.

4. Place signage and banners around the golf course.

These pieces should be placed strategically around the course for maximum visibility. High traffic areas such as registration, driving range, putting green, and inside the clubhouse (near the bar or front door are good choices) are all guaranteed to get golfers looking. You can also place smaller signage unobtrusively on the golf course with information about your organization, facts related to your cause, or ways to take action. QR codes are a great addition to these as well to solicit donations.

National Ag Science Center placed banners around the golf course to help golfers better understand their mission.

5. Highlight your organization’s beneficiaries.

Depending on the work your nonprofit does, you could invite beneficiaries to attend or participate in the event. Personal connections are incredibly powerful, so provide opportunities for them to engage with golfers and sponsors throughout the day. For instance, if your golf tournament benefits a school, teachers or administrators could greet golfers as they arrive or even be added to teams. This isn’t limited to human beneficiaries, either! For example, pet rescue organizations could have adoptable pets at the golf course and an accompanying adoption drive.

6. Take advantage of downtime.

Downtime is a great chance to engage with a captive audience! Whether folks are waiting on the tee box, to check in, for a turn on the driving range, or for final results to be announced, your organization’s staff, board members, beneficiaries, or even volunteers can mingle with golfers to chat and have a conversation about your mission. You could also strategically station these folks on various tee boxes throughout the golf course (perhaps on a par 5 that might take groups longer to play through) to talk with golfers as they play their round or rethink your format to add in more opportunities for face time with participants. For example, Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center, an organization that removes barriers to outdoor experiences for those with special needs, used tee times rather than a traditional shotgun start to give them a few minutes to visit with each group as they waited for their turn to tee off.

7. Hold an accompanying event.

If it makes sense for your organization, hold an event in conjunction with your golf fundraiser that drives home your mission. Outlook Enrichment, a nonprofit that serves the visually-impaired, holds a blind golfers clinic alongside its annual charity golf tournament. The clinic features instructors and volunteers helping visually-impaired golfers putt, chip, and play a few holes. Many organizations also hold events targeting non-golfers, such as golf lessons, a wine tasting, blanket-tying or meal-packing event.

A volunteer coach helps a participant line up their shot during Outlook Enrichment’s blind golfers clinic.

8. Send push notifications.

Your golf event management platform should be able to send push notifications to golfers via a mobile app for easy communication. These notifications can help connect golfers to your mission by including a link to your website, testimonials from beneficiaries or volunteers, or even solicit donations for a specific program or outreach effort. Keep the notifications short, impactful, and time them strategically.

9. Display photos or memorabilia on the course.

Golfers want to know what the tournament is raising money for—what better way than to display photos or related memorabilia on the golf course. For instance, the Pat Neal Memorial Golf Tournament raises money for brain cancer research in honor of the tournament’s namesake, Pat Neal. A photo of Pat was placed on the course and golfers were encouraged to sign the photo as a keepsake for Pat’s family.

Pat Neal’s three children post with his picture on the golf course at his memorial golf tournament fundraiser.

10. Provide opportunities to take action.

The ultimate goal of helping golfers understand your mission is to have them take some sort of action, so give them the opportunity to do so. You could set up a donation station where folks can contribute, solicit volunteer sign ups, have a pop up shop to sell branded merchandise or products, or let folks start the process of adopting a pet.

Wrapping Up

First and foremost, technology is a major asset in creating cause connection. From your event website to push notifications to impact videos, leverage tech tools to be effective (and make it easier). Use tech to tell your organization’s story; engage with golfers before, during, and after the tournament; and ultimately, compel golfers and sponsors to further support it through a donation or future events. In doing so, you can demonstrate the impact your organization has on your community at large.

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Get Qualified for No-Cost Event Technology

GolfStatus’ Golf for Good program gives back to nonprofits by providing access to its full golf event management and fundraising platform at no cost, so event planners can focus on building relationships, stewarding donors, and doing more good. Get qualified by clicking the button below!

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