Imagine showing up at a charity golf tournament and finding Titleist reps standing in bunkers fitting everyone for new wedges, altering grinds on the spot. Or striding up to the swag table and seeing clothiers Alex Holderness and John Bourne discussing the apparel gift set—long-sleeve polo, quarter zip and vest—they created in special colors just for the event.
When it comes to high-end and abundant swag, the Carl Bennett and Daniel Tully Corporate Invitational, locally known as the Stamford Hospital charity golf event, at Wee Burn Country Club in Darien, Conn., is the stuff of legend. Its point man, Chris Riendeau, senior vice president for fund development at the hospital, has become an annual visitor to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando each January to source the newest, coolest stuff.
This year, in addition to the Holderness & Bourne ensemble, the people paying $12,000 per foursome also each received a Turtlebox speaker customized in blaze orange and royal blue to celebrate the Knicks NBA championship. In this swag fest for the who’s who of the corporate set just northeast of New York City, this gift hit the mark.
However awesome the merch, every corporate outing must answer the question: How do I know if the outing is successful? First, you must determine whether you’re operating a fundraiser—focused on dollars that day and potential new donors—or a friend-raiser, which cultivates top donors.
Riendeau sees the annual hospital outing as the latter.
“I’m one of the fiercest advocates of the friend-raiser because it works for multiple reasons,” he says. “Special events are a wonderful portal into the mission of your charity. They also have an important function beyond fundraising, and that’s stewardship of your existing donors.”
Riendeau still has to make the numbers work. His expenses are high as nearly 60 cents of every dollar raised the day of the event goes toward funding the tournament. Expenses for more traditional outings hover near to 40 to 45 cents per dollar raised. This fits with Riendeau’s philosophy. “Don’t give away anything that doesn’t have value,” he says. “If you give away good stuff, you create good relationships.”
Paul Courter is the chief operating officer at Perfect Golf Event, which charges between $4,000 and $7,000 to run a tournament. For a fundraiser, he says the gift bag should top out at no more than 10 to 12 percent of the foursome cost. While managing expenses is important, the main lever in planning a successful event is volunteer involvement. “The outings that fail don’t have the resources in place when they get started,” Courter says. “They don’t have a strong committee or a database. You can’t go out to the general public and recruit participants. People come because they’re invited, and they come to support their host.”
Phil Immordino, president of Golf Tournament Association of America, says, “The No. 1 reason people are doing golf tournaments is fundraising. If you look at the 500,000 golf tournaments out there, the average event raises $8,000. That’s a lot of work for not a lot of bucks.”
Getting sponsors increases the return. Event organizers say selling foursomes typically covers costs, but sponsors generate the profit for an event.
“If the car dealership or the bank sees potential in marketing to those golfers, they’re going to get involved,” Immordino says. “You need to show sponsors what they’re getting for that investment, so they will say, ‘I can sell cars or bank accounts to these golfers.’”
Expenses for more traditional golf outings hover near to 40 to 45 cents per dollar raised.
If expenses are too high and the event only breaks even, the charity needs to create connections with the participants for later. “Seventy-five percent of people who play in a charity golf event are guests invited by the person who bought the foursome, so they have no idea about the charity,” Courter says. “That’s where some nonprofits are weak. You don’t want to overdo it, but you want people to understand what your organization is about.”
Some organizers miss easy ways to connect, like getting email addresses of all the participants. Courter always collects people’s emails or phone numbers at signup in order to send photos.
For Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut, costs matter at its two annual golf events. Combined, the events raise $175,000 and net around $120,000 after expenses, says Andy Fleischmann, president and chief executive.
“We’ll have 150 golfers at each event,” Fleischmann says. “From our vantage point, more attendees mean a better event.” Part of the reason is financial; part is more potential donors stay for dinner and hear the stories from adults and children involved in the program.
The challenges around the events, he says, have always come in years when the organization didn’t build a volunteer committee early enough. Organizers like Courter say you need between six and nine months to plan a golf event successfully. Volunteers also need to step up in wrangling their connections for an event to work.
“Success is net dollars raised, media impressions, and new donors and sponsors added,” says Jeffrey Stewart, chief executive of Member for a Day, which works with charities to host events at private clubs. “A golf fundraiser is the top of a funnel, not the finish line.”
Stewart notes that even one person donating a round at an exclusive club can have an outsize impact. “That member gave you a $1,000 gift on paper, but in front of the right audience that experience can raise 20 times as much,” he says. “Demand for access to great experiences is national and deep.”
Small organizations can conduct successful golf outings, but fundraisers demand vigilance on the bottom line.
The Susie Foundation provides financial support for families with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease with no cure. Now in its ninth year, its golf outing has grown to upwards of 250 people. There aren’t extravagant tee gifts, and the host course is public. Still, the cause and the camaraderie get people to come out and raise around $100,000 with about $60,000 left over for grant recipients. Entry is $200 per golfer. It costs $97 to host each person, including greens fees, lunch and drinks. Usually, $25 to $40 is allocated for a gift.
“We net $60 a golfer, and then there’s the auction items and their 50/50 raffles,” says Ryan Matthews, who named the foundation for his mother who died from ALS. “We don’t have other funding streams. We can’t give away money if we don’t raise it.”
That’s the surest motto for any charity event.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
