Your next golf tournament can produce more than one grand prize winner! Consider benefiting a charity organization or cause to make a difference in many people’s lives! Charity golf tournaments are known to be a very lucrative fundraising strategy. They can also be intimidating and their costs can also be a little higher than your average fundraising event. It could be your first time planning a charity golf tournament or you want to find new strategies to improve your planning, budget and execution. Either way, we want to share tips to make your next tournament a success and raise money for your cause.

Pick The Right Golf Course For Your Event

Make sure you do thorough research and find a golf course that is just as excited about supporting your cause as much as you are. Don’t reach out to just one course, compare costs and services between a few different courses to ensure you are getting the best deal.

Pick The Perfect Date

This tip coincides with finding the right course. As your decision for picking a course may stem from whether courses are available. Our best advice is to be flexible. Courses may offer discounts for off-season or mid-week golf dates. You also want to find out when other golf tournaments are taking place in your area. Too many charity events could lead to low attendance and unattainable financial goals.

Determine Your Budget And Goals

How much you plan to raise effect’s how much money you need to budget. The costs of that go into meeting your goals will certainly influence your planning. Create a budget outline and that spells out goals, roles and responsibilities.

Provide Additional Contests & Activities 

Golf may be the bread and butter for your event, but it’s always important to look at different ways to raise money. Have you considered including fundraising ideas and contests. They add excitement to your golf fundraiser by giving golfers an opportunity to win money and prizes.

Here are some ideas:

• Mulligan Packages. 
• Fundraising Raffle.
• Silent Auction
• Hole In One Contest
• Cash-Bar Golf Cart
• Helicopter Ball Drops

Provide A Variety Of Sponsorship Opportunities

Not every sponsor wants to contribute in the same way. Be flexible with your sponsorship packages. Give your sponsors a variety of options to get involved in your charity golf tournament. Some sponsors may want to sponsor the entire event, others might want to be a food or prize sponsor. By broadening your options, you’ll have tons of opportunities to reel sponsors into your event. 

Make Sure Sponsors Are Marketed & Branded

Ensure all sponsorships are well represented at your event. This includes signage, cart magnets, logo inclusion on printed materials, thank you’s, and more. 

Hire A Photographer

Hire an on-site photographer to take pictures at the event. For those that wish they could have made it to the event, photos will be a great post-event recap on your social media, website and newsletter. It can also create more of a pull for registrations for the next event since people can see in the photos how successful the event was. 

Establish A Cancellation Policy

An event can get cancelled for many reasons outside of your control. One of the main reasons an event is cancelled is due to weather. Inclement weather can heavily impact your tournament with high winds, rain, snow, and/or lightning. Weather insurance can be a great safety net to protect your investment. Our sister company US Weather insurance can provide coverage for your next tournament. Visit their website for a free quote.

Whether you are planning a small or large event, we hope that this content has helped you get started organizing your charity golf tournament. Good luck!