Partner Snapshot
The Collin County Chapter of the Texas Tech Alumni Association had been defunct for several years when a group of local alums decided to resurrect it. As the chapter began to get back on its feet, the primary goal was to engage alumni and raise funds for a scholarship program.
Collin County is located in North Dallas, Texas, with a large population base of Texas Tech alumni. The newly active chapter started out by hosting watch parties for Red Raider athletic events, but wanted to do more to build connections and replenish their coffers.
Though Sam Clark wasn’t a member of the initial board, he quickly volunteered to head up a golf tournament that would help the group reach its goals of alumni engagement and fundraising. “It was basically a done deal that we were going to have a golf tournament,” Sam says. “Everyone on the board plays golf or is a member at a country club, and everyone knew it was a great way to raise money.”
The Challenge
Right off the bat, Sam had questions. Though he had played in charity golf tournaments, he’d never planned one from ideation to fruition. “I wondered how we should handle registrations, payments, leaderboards, pin flags, and so many other details,” he says. Much of the initial planning phase was spent determining the overall approach to the golf tournament: target audience, the type of golf facility (public or private), price points (high-end or mid-level), and a budget.
Next up? Determining processes and tournament operations. Sam knew they’d need a website of some type to collect registrations and handle payments, which he knew could end up being a hassle if they tried to build something from scratch or went with the wrong event management platform. What’s more, Sam wanted a one-stop shop for quality tournament add-ons so there were fewer vendors and moving parts to manage.
The Solution
Another member of the chapter’s board, Russell Hall, had run several tournaments through GolfStatus, and told Sam it was just what he needed. Once the major decisions were made about the host golf facility and team pricing, Sam connected with the GolfStatus team to get an event website up and running.
“Since we were starting a tournament from scratch, I wanted one place to manage everything,” Sam says. “GolfStatus got us up and running quickly. It would have been a major headache to have to spend hours and hours trying to get a site built and payment processing set up.” Sam worked with the GolfStatus team to build the event website, share access to the software with members of the planning committee, and set up everything in the platform’s back end.