FundClass Archives:

Don

I'm not sure if your question was intended to be rhetorical but...we are on our 5th Annual tournament. First year netted $14,300 to our organization. Our last tournament netted about $31,000. Next year's tournament is projected, in my budget, to raise $37,000.

Our tournaments are popular with staff, volunteers and the folks at the golf club. It engages all of our resources and while it takes a ton of energy, it is profitable and generates the intended exposure.

Tom

The question's not rhetorical.

If I may ask, what were the factors that made you decide to go ahead with your tournament the first time?

Anybody else feel free to put their oar in.

Don

In our case, we had a need for revenue. Our first tournament was actually produced by a local restaurant for "our benefit". They handed us a check for $5000 when it was all over. We saw many opportunities for improvement and determined to produce our own tourney "in house." The rest is history but...the decision was driven by my budget projection. But if your question is "why a golf tourney instead of some other fund raiser".... remember, that we live in Paradise and the weather is unusually favorable and golf tourneys are really BIG down here.

Sheri

We had a board member who was an avid golfer and very much wanted us to do this tournament. We have many fundraisers that only bring in a few hundred dollars and we were hoping to find an annual fundraiser that could generate more funds.

Tom

Different areas support greater or fewer numbers of golf tournaments depending on the length of the playing season and the number of golfers around. Florida and parts of Texas definitely will support an incredible number of tournaments. Some parts of the country may support fewer. I imagine there are a few places that would support more tournaments if only someone would host one.

Okay, everybody, now for a trip to the wailing wall!

At the risk of offending virtually everybody, we're going to talk about bad reasons for doing a golf tournament. Please don't feel bad if you've had a tournament go south on you. If you haven't ever had a disastrous fund-raiser, you just haven't been in the fund-raising business long enough. Sometimes, you the fund-raiser can find yourself in a position like one of those cartoon characters strapped to the front of a runaway locomotive, rocket ship or tent full of rhino's. You didn't ask to be here and you're pretty sure it's going to end badly.

Far too often, if we'll be honest, the motivation for doing a special event like golf is to avoid having to do basic fund-raising. We hate doing the calls. We hate asking for money. So, to avoid having to do things we don't like, we do a golf tournament because we do like that!

Time for your comments.

WHAT ARE SOME POOR REASONS FOR HOLDING A GOLF TOURNAMENT? (Feel free to include examples that begin with, "This one agency I heard about...." Don't forget your board chairman may be logged on).

Dottie

We don't do them because this area is already saturated with them. There isn't a weekend between now and fall that some charity doesn't have one going. Our close proximity to Atlanta and the many events going there doesn't help either.

Tom

This is a common problem. It's also true in our area. One way you can get into the golf tournament biz in a saturated market is to step into a well-established tournament that has lost its charity. This can happen in several ways.

1. The charity may have done a poor job of supporting the tournament for a variety of reasons and the organizers are looking for someone else with some "enthusiasm or a better cause that will draw more participants".

2. The charity may have closed its doors and left a civic organization without a charity for next year's "Moose Lodge Invitational".

3. A corporate tournament may have grown large and the organizers have decided to make it a charity event.

In a saturated market, that's probably the best way and maybe the only way to get a tournament, unless maybe some big name golfer wants to sponsor a local tournament for some reason. There would have to be a big draw before I would want to start a new tournament in a saturated market. Also remember you'll probably kill two or three other tournaments if yours does well.

Celebrities aren't always a lock on success. I remember one year two charity tournaments were scheduled for the same day. The one with the best organization had 250 golfers. The one with the celebrity had less than 50 and a lot of those played the afternoon flight at the bigger tournament that same day.

Needless to say, they check with each other on play dates now so they don't overlap.

Bill

I live near Vancouver, Canada -- I say that because I have found that the Canadian experience is often different than our American cousins. Having said that, I think our experience with a golf tournament, while not unique, is certainly not the usual method of getting one.

In our case, last year we were asked by a bank to be the recipient of half their proceeds. This came as the result of some discussions we had had with them regarding some other issues and they came to know the work that we do. Last year was their 14th annual tournament and when we met with them to do a post-event debrief, they informed us that they were considering the merger of their tournament with another one.

We decided to take a proposal to them. Our proposal was this: allow us to provide person power in the form of our Manager of Special Projects and some of his volunteers in exchange for the bank continuing on. They agreed. They also asked if we would accept the full proceeds for the coming event as our agency provided services to the community and it was their preference to support services. This was not something we asked for, but it certainly was something nice to receive.

Although it is too early to draw any conclusions, here are some of the things I like about the arrangement:

• the tournament is established with a fairly loyal base of golfers
• we have been asked to try and sell 30 tickets as opposed to 144 because they have a commitment for about 120 of the spaces from previous players
• the bank believes they are receiving in this arrangement as well as giving
• we don't have to hold any of the liabilities
• the bank is interested in co-promoting this event with our wine tasting event 5 weeks later
• our volunteers and staff get the benefit of working with people who have 10+ years of experience pulling this event off successfully and
• we can inject new energy and ideas into a format that may benefit from some "new blood"

I'm sure that there are other things I will add to this list later on.

In short, I think it is a terrific relationship -- one that in essence combines a golf tournament with corporate sponsorship.

I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Tom

Chapter I. Summary

There are lots of reasons for doing a golf tournament. Some poor ones include:

An organizational budget crisis

• Because you have always done one
• Because a golf tournament will make your organization look classy
• Someone else will do all the work for you (they promise)
• The board wants to make money quickly
• Everybody likes golf
• You want to build you organization's reputation
• To avoid basic fund-raising

There is only one reason to do a golf tournament

TO MAKE MONEY!!

That's it. Even though the only reason to do a golf tournament is to make money, the event should not be an outgrowth of pressure from within the organization to make money. REMEMBER: A golf tournament should support your basic fund-raising program. Your basic fund-raising program should not support your golf tournament. Case in point.

One year the board appoints a golf tournament chairperson who succeeds in making the media sponsor angry. The media sponsor drops the tournament 3 months into the organization of the event. In desperation, the board turns to the development department and says, "Save our golf tournament". You know that the golf tournament will make less than a third of what it did the previous year. The development department has to take over the organization, find a new media sponsor and do much of the organizational legwork that the committee had previously taken care of. The tournament will absorb almost all your efforts for half the fund-raising year. You warn that you can "save" the tournament, but that it will make considerably less money. You are prophetic.

Want to bet whether you still have your job next year?

Special events are at the bottom of the pyramid of giving. They should be low effort, for by and large they will yield only a small part of your annual budget. Unless you are a very small organization with a very big golf tournament, it doesn't make sense to put most of your development staff time into an event that doesn't make much money.

If you have to raise $120,000 a year and you make only $10,000 on your golf tournament, then you should figure on putting about 1/12th of your time into it. In other words, don't spend more than a month total on the tournament.

Golf tournaments are fun and flashy, but don't fall into the trap of spending more time on them than they are worth. The next chapters will deal with some techniques for making your tournament fun, successful and profitable.

Tom

What do I do if I've inherited a golf tournament?

Answer: Feed it or shoot it!

(Nelson's Law of Special Events Planning)

Do not leave a dying tournament on life support. Fix it, build it up or pull the plug.

Tom

1. The Cause

You've got to look realistically at how good your cause is at drawing in supporters? Some issues are just more poignant than others are. It's a lot easier to get people fired up about a tournament to help abused or sick children than say the endangered Floridian snails we talked about in a previous class. So what if your cause requires a more sophisticated understanding of the issues you address to appreciate its importance?

A friend of mine works with a nonprofit that offers training for school districts and small npo's on how to create collaborative grant teams. While they've done a lot of good (their students brought in more than 15 million dollars in new funding in the last couple of years), it's too hard to explain what they do. You can't put it on a poster and make people understand.

An idea we've toyed with for this cause is holding a "demonstration" charity golf tournament. The alumni from the organization's workshops could bring teams of their own volunteers and board members to the tournament to see how it's done. We'd do a pre-tournament workshop and bring together golf tournament vendors, a panel of seasoned volunteers who already organize successful charity tournaments and a couple of hundred development people and volunteers and learn about golf tournaments. The next day, the students would work as "volunteers" in order to get a feel for how golf tournaments work. A lot of people we've talked to want to come to the workshop because they're getting pressure from their golfing board members to host a tournament and they've never done one before. We plan to set it up so that for every team of board members and volunteers that signs on, a staff member gets into the pre-game workshop for free! For the charity, it marries their mission to teach other nonprofits how to better support themselves with their need to "sell" their golf tournament to participants and sponsors and thus make money.

It's one way to create a draw where the cause may not have the "gut" appeal that another does.

Has anyone else out there got a tough cause to market? Or, maybe you have an easy cause that for some reason you're having trouble selling? Speak now. This is a priceless opportunity to sample the collective wisdom of hundreds of development professionals.

Liz

Hooking the cause and who's involved together: some women's organizations here golf for women's charities

Tom

Good example of matching the targeted golfers to the cause.

Tanya

While we are not quite ready to start a golf tournament, you could use our organization as an example. Our organization serves people with mental, physical, and developmental disabilities. We provide a full spectrum of community residential and periodic services for adults with disabilities in North Carolina. The program provides developmental and cognitive programming toward goals of training each participant to reach his or her maximum physical, social, emotional, and intellectual potential. The ultimate goal of each participant is to have him or her acquire those skills that will enable the individual to function as independently as possible and allow him or her to live in the least restrictive environment that is appropriate to his or her needs.

This does give that "gut" feeling for some but for others who do not want these individuals living next to them, it does the opposite. Who would want a "mental patient" living next to them? It strikes fear in a lot of people. We see this on a daily basis. I do hope in the future to increase our fundraising efforts, but for now have to stick with the basics due to budget $0.00 and lack of help in fundraising. It seems there are only 1 or 2 people other than myself who take this seriously.

Tom

I have the same sort of problem with the folks I work with. They are not always very pretty. By and large most of them are not people with "cute" disabilities. (How many times do we pick our "poster" kids for that reason?) For folks with developmental disabilities, it's the cuter, child-like appearing Downs Syndrome adults that are "up front" more often even than some of the folks who look more "normal". People respond more positively to them, so we use them. Let's face it, we have to sell our programs and simple advertising and public promotion does not always lend itself well to engaging the public at large in supporting services for people with disabilities.

When people find out what you're doing, you often get the Scrooge response "Doesn't the state have places for 'those people'", so I understand what you mean about people being uncomfortable with your agency's mission which is to support people with disabilities living in the community.

Your first step is to wage a guerrilla marketing campaign. Figure out ways to get the people you work with out into the public and begin the process of 'desensitizing' people to disabilities. One of the challenges I've faced working with the Association for Retarded Citizens as a board member has been resisting the "protective" urge of families and pushing for greater integration with the community for our programs. One well-meaning group wants to build a big building and do all our programs in one place. Currently we use facilities throughout the community to host our programs. Doing so has helped many community people to become acquainted with our clients with developmental disabilities and helped them see past the disability to the people underneath. This has been very positive and pulling back to a central building for all our programs would be regressive. But back to golf tournaments.

Our Arc's one experience with a golf tournament a few years before I joined it was disastrous and they've vowed never to do another one. I understand their feelings. They weren't ready and they didn't have a clue what they were doing.

The only way I'd do one right now is if I could take over an existing one that has a following already. But then, my market's pretty well saturated. If you're in a smaller area that doesn't have a lot of tournaments, you might be able to start a new one. First you need a champion that believes in your cause and can bring sponsorship dollars to the table. It may be a cable TV company, radio station or local TV station. It may be a corporation that wants to turn their corporate tournament into a charity event. Those would all be good, because they put you ahead of the game.

Be wary. Sometimes Good Samaritans that offer to organize a tournament for you, fade over the stretch and leave you stuck with the lion's share of the work. Don't be afraid to cancel the tournament if it's not fully paid for with sponsorships before you hold the tournament. Better to return sponsor money than to lose money on the event.

To sell your cause you absolutely need someone who does "get it" and feels passionate about your cause and who DOESN'T WORK FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION! Some internally driven tournaments probably do quite well, but my bet is on the one that is organized by volunteers and true believers outside the agency. The odds are just better. Remember, a golf tournament supports your fund-raising. Special events should not drive your fund-raising.

Don

OK...guys! I see my role here. I'm the guy that has to toss a wrench into the whirling gears.

I've been listening to this discussion and have to say that I disagree with the concept. My experience has been that it really isn't necessary to target individuals who are "warm and fuzzy" about your cause to play golf.

Golfers just like to play golf and well-run tournaments just offer those folks another opportunity. Many of the golfers that have played in our previous tournaments also play in 4-5 other charity tournaments throughout the year. I've never heard any of them say how great is was to support the ABC Charity. What I always here is ..."great beer babes, nice hole-in-one prize, great banquet, great raffle prizes, good food, nice course...." etc.

I'm not suggesting that there aren't those who will play to support your particular cause. What I am saying is that in my experience, in our full field of 144 golfers each year...99% of them aren't playing for any other reason than to have a good day of golf. The benefit to the charity is incidental.

Pat

When it comes to golf, I agree with you 100% Don. It's the perks, the fun, the fellowship, food, etc., charity is at the bottom.

Joel

I agree with Don wholeheartedly which is one of the many reasons I was against our starting a golf tournament a couple of years ago. One of the many things I look at when looking at a fundraising event, mailing, major gift solicitation, etc. is how the "fundraising" will be integrated into my fundraising picture. In our organization's case, it didn't seem to fit into it. If I'm going to hold an event I want it to raise more than money. I want a list of prospects for my other mailing lists, the people at the event to hear about our organization from our board members, committee members, staff members, etc.

However, I'm not saying a fundraising event won't fit other organizations. It just didn't fit with our needs at the time. There are many places (Florida, Texas, etc.) where it's warm and golf tournaments can be held constantly and will make lots of money. Our city is just saturated with golf tournaments. A couple make decent money (not outstanding money) and many make a couple of thousand in net dollars. If I'm coordinating a golf tournament and I'm putting lots of time and effort into a golf tournament that's only netting a few thousand dollars I would be asking myself what the other benefits to my organization are.

Is the golf tournament getting our organization good publicity? If so, what kind?

Is it at least netting our organization 50% of the gross?

What type of people are attending the event? Are they prospective donors for other projects (or as Don said are they incidental donors?)

Is my committee a bunch of golfers who have the potential to become donors and/or board members or are they just avid golfers? (I think event committees are a perfect testing ground for future board members and future donors).

There are many other questions I'd be asking, but I'll get off my soapbox now. Tom, the information you're providing (and others are answering to) is extremely valuable and educational. I'm actually passing on your class to an organization that doesn't have e-mail and is in the third year of their golf tournament and trying to save it.

Tom

Don's right.

In the case of golf tournaments, THE CAUSE is unfortunately, one of the least effective of the hooks we use to fill up our tournaments. It means you're organizing an entertainment event and not a "charity" event - except that if you make money, the charity gets it.

Thanks for the wrench, Don. We were going a bit astray there. The most important thing here, as I've said before, is that you have an event that is really really FUN! Then make sure your executive director doesn't embezzle from the trust fund and escape to Brazil or something. Just keep your cause out of the news in a negative way and let the tournament be the hook. THE CAUSE is the excuse for the tournament. Public perception of your cause can hurt you more than it can help you where golf tournaments are concerned.

HOWEVER, I will add a caveat. Don't let the event get out of control and become a force unto itself. I know of one tournament that grew to a point where it cost $4,000 per team to play in the thing. It was a celebrity pro-am and everybody had a marvelous time. It's just that every year it began to get more complicated and the two charities made less and less money until the tournament actually began losing money. Everyone agreed it had turned into a monster and ought to be ended, but everybody had so much fun that they didn't want to let it go. So, it was reincarnated under another name with fewer celebrities and a lower budget. No way would the committee let the tournament die. They just bumped off one of the charities that nobody understood anyway and went on with the show. They even made a little money this last year.

Behold the power of "fun" golf!

Chuck

Two years ago two of our Board members suggested we have a golf tournament in order to acquaint a large group of wealthy sportsmen with which they are involved, with our organization.

I picked a very expensive and classy course, hired a reputable golf tournament firm, organized some great course prizes and awards, catered a great awards dinner, hired a celebrity to play and be MC, and went for it. The event went well - but I found that the players really could have cared less what organization the proceeds went to - they were just excited to play in a great tournament.

The second year I picked through the players and what businesses and corporations they represented, and keyed in on getting foursomes from those businesses and firms for the second tournament, as well as the individual players who had enjoyed the year before. I upped the registration fee, duplicated the great day, and we cleared five times what we did the first year.

We are now planning our third one and our "hook" is based on a great day of golf with the proceeds going to a great organization. I am sure that the players will sign up primarily because it is a great tournament, and only secondarily that it will benefit our organization.

I'm convinced that most of the players won't play for any other reason than to have a great day of golf.

Tom

Chuck is absolutely right about the players who come to his tournament. You may have a small group at your tournament that comes for "the cause". In some areas you may get more "cause" motivated golfers than in others. For the most part, however, I'm sure you will find that most of your golfers, in the words of that immortal philosopher Cyndi Lauper, "just wanna have fu-un!"

Michael

I'd like to chime in and agree with the sentiments of those who say that most golf tournament participants are motivated by the event rather than the organization and the cause. My argument would be that that's the way it should be.

[I've never had to organize a charity golf tournament, but I've played in a lot of them. Also, I have served as member and chair of a country club Golf Committee when we hashed out a club policy on hosting charity tournaments at our club. So, my perspective is a little different from those who have been on the organizing and planning side.]

Remember that, often, the cause's supporters are the core "recruiters" for your event. Those core supporters will recruit three of their friends to make up a foursome and play. That means that, likely, 75% of the people there are NOT "friends and supporters" of your organization. By "spreading the wealth" by allowing each of your supporters to recruit one or more foursomes, you're increasing the participation, visibility, and (we hope) net revenue to your event.

Tom

Good point, Michael. The cause is seldom the primary reason that golfers will be attracted to your tournament. Let's face it, there are guys out there that spend every moment possible playing golf. For them, your tournament is a chance to enjoy a little guilt-free fun. Your cause is merely the reason playing golf on a workday is guilt free. After all, it's for a good cause, you take a few clients out with you and the boss picks up the bill. Which brings us to our second "hook" -

THE EVENT

Don't get me wrong here, golf is a powerful hook all by itself, but I need to point out that even GOLF is not a sufficient reason for someone to choose your tournament over someone else's. The event is seldom the only reason that people choose to attend your fund-raiser. They can get better dinners, cheaper rounds of golf or less expensive T-shirts elsewhere. Think of a golf tournament like a cake in a bake sale. The charitable cause is why you've got the cake there in the first place. But what draws people to your cake is the frosting and trimmings that make it special and delicious. So let's look at the other "hooks" I mentioned:

LOCATION & WHO'S INVOLVED

The things that makes your golf tournament THE event to go to this spring, are the things that make your event different and fun. There are a lot of neat ideas out there that can make your tournament special. Some of these ideas are costly. All of them require extra work. Sometimes tournament committees decide to go with a bare bones tournament in order to make more money for the charity, reasoning that everyone will want the cause to make as much as possible from the event. These tournaments seldom come back for a second year. That's because most golfers come because the tournament looks like fun, not because they have a burning desire to give money to your cause. If you don't believe that, hold a cheap, dull tournament and see how many golfers come back next year.

There are a lot of creative ideas out there that can make your tournament a big draw. Some possibilities include:

• Location: Play at an exclusive country club that few people can get in to except by playing in your tournament or maybe at a new course that hardly anyone has played yet. Golfers are suckers for new courses.
• Location: Play some place strange. Host an "extreme golf" tournament out on a ranch where cow chips are a natural hazard and sand traps are gullies. Throw a huge barbecue afterward and have a bunch of oil guys and football players host the thing.
• Who's involved: Make sure a bunch of high-roller V.I.P.'s are there that everyone wants to hobnob with at lunch. Invite famous celebrities. Pay for them if necessary (and it usually is).
• Event extras: Ten Thousand Dollar Putting Contest, Million Dollar Hole-in-One Contest, Cars as Hole-In-One prizes, interesting side bets, closest to the pin, longest drive, lousiest score, etc.
• Who else is involved: The Kilgore Rangerettes drill team (in costume) as hostesses and hole sitters.
• Barrels of free beer out on the course.
• An awesome pre-game dinner and silent auction that your spouse may enjoy so much that she doesn't mind that you spent $200 to play a round of golf tomorrow.
• Great raffle and door prizes, really big prizes for the winners (of course, then you'll have to have enough course marshals to make sure people don't cheat).
• Media attention: Players have a chance to be on the evening news because you invited the local TV news editor to bring a team for free.
• All your buddies are playing.
• Your team has a "ringer" and you're pretty sure you'll win the wall plaque and it would look great in your office.

There are probably a lot more I haven't thought of. The point is that the entertainment value is critical in making your tournament popular. If your tournament is popular, you'll get more sponsors. That's how it works. It can be tricky, of course, striking a balance between making sure you have lots of goodies and not spending so much you don't make a profit. We'll talk about that in a later chapter. Till then, what else can you think of to give your tournament that edge that draws in a big crowd?

Mark

Great discussion, I think the golf approach attempts to get the donor who has the wealth or the contacts to the wealth. Since most give to religious or educational causes more, some organizations, not in those fields, may not generate the leads or revenue. Ultimately, the question is "did the fundraising team ask for the money, business, donation?" I am constantly surprised how people don't ask for the business yet expects it. It is a cultural struggle in this area at our facility.

Michael

With all due respect, golf MAY be a way to attract wealthy or potentially wealthy donors, but most people who play the game are not wealthy by any conventional definition. The explosion in play since 1985, and especially the "Tiger Woods phenomenon" has attracted many so-called "non-traditional" (read: middle-class, younger, and female) golfers to the game.

Of course, it's possible to craft a tournament to cater to the wealthy golfer. However, many charity tournaments I've been associated with were played on public or municipal courses where a modest entry fee was charged, prizes were donated or paid for with corporate sponsorships, and most of the participants were not affluent, much less wealthy.

The event (golf) doesn't, in and of itself, qualify participants as wealthy or affluent. Figure out who you want to attract then design an event that will be attractive to that intended audience.

Mark

Michael, I agree, golf in itself doesn't attract the wealthy. The private courses here in Los Angeles have more of the donors that we are trying to access. Some clubs require a $100,000 membership fee and a select number are interested in our cause, so we target them. All this golf talk makes me want to go out and hit a few balls!

Tom

Michael, you've done this before, huh?

Identifying what your tournament is going to look like includes deciding who you want coming to your tournament. You CAN make a little money running a simple tournament at a municipal golf course. That's one group. You can also go for more elaborate and hold it at an exclusive country club where the $100,000 membership crowd hangs out and you'll draw in wealthy people as well as people who want a chance to rub shoulders with the "movers and shakers" (i.e. wealthy). You may attract some of the same people to both tournaments, (golf is, after all, GOLF), but their reasons for coming may be somewhat different for each tournament. The classiness of the tournament will definitely affect their willingness to pay premium prices for entry fees and sponsorships.

One club here in East Texas has two courses. One is a "premium" course and costs more to play. The other is an "old duffer's" course and doesn't cost much. Same parking lot, but I guarantee you'll draw a different crowd and earn a different amount of money depending on which course you select for your tournament.

We'll go into that more in a later chapter. To conclude our discussion of the "hooks" you'll use for reeling in your players, let me add one thing. Figuring out how much extra attraction to add to your tournament is very like the challenge faced by Goldilocks. Goldi had to figure out which bed or chair or bowl of porridge was "just right". Not too much, not too little. Just enough to attract players, but not so much that it cuts into your profits.

The only way to figure that out may be to do as Goldi did. Try different things different years. Keep the effective stuff and toss the ineffective things you do. If the putting contest is a bust, drop it next year for something new. If it's everyone's favorite part of the event, make sure you do it next year. That's why you have annual events. That's why you evaluate your event after you get done every year. More on that later.

Which brings us to........

Pam

Being somewhat of an "obsessive-compulsive" type myself, I can totally relate to this. Having this disorder on any scale really comes in handy when it comes to organization! I tend to be really nit-picky about the "little things" when it comes to putting on events, but those are often the things that people will notice - i.e. the flowers, candles, place cards on the dinner tables, the door prizes, the signage etc. I've never organized a golf tourney but have done other types of corporate events. I've also done a certain amount of "drumming up the door prizes" part of the exercise, though I don't consider myself to be a "sales type" but when it comes to asking for free stuff - I'm in there like a dirty shirt! It gives me a certain satisfaction.

Tom

Every team needs a good compulsive on the event staff and they make great scavengers. They do both jobs quite well in my experience. They'll also micro-manage your tournament into the ground if you don't balance your team with "big picture" people as well. As my grandmother used to say, "It takes all kinds."

If you deal up front with the fact that people on the team have different talents and you make it okay that people have different styles, you're team will work far more efficiently. Avoid making a virtue out of being "picky" or making a character flaw out of being forgetful of details. Just be sure and put everyone in the right job. Put the obsessive in charge of the details and the scatter-brained "jolly good fellow" out there wooing sponsors and selling your advertising. Be sure you have someone check his paperwork, but make it okay to do so. Point out the strengths of any team member that becomes the target of criticism and rally the team members in support. You choose each team member for a reason. Be able to articulate that reason to the rest of the team because as the task of putting together the tournament becomes the behemoth it can be, you will have rebellions and personality conflicts arise.

Be able to say, "You know, he may not be very careful with his reports, but he brought in three thousand dollar sponsors last year." Could you kind of gently remind him about the paperwork. He means well, but he gets so busy schmoozing sponsors, sometimes he forgets."

Every group has two types of leaders. One is the task leader. Remember the Enforcer. He or she is the one that keeps everybody on the job, squashes rebellion and enforces rules. The task leader makes sure the job gets done no matter what. This person is essential, but not adequate alone.

The other sort of leader you need is the sociometric leader. This dear soul is adept at feeding egos, soothing hurt feelings and patting people on the back. The sociometric leader makes people feel good about the project. Their attentions help keep up the enthusiasm of the team. They are the salve that heals the marks of the task leader's whip.

Occasionally you get a rare individual who is both types in one body, but these people are rare and precious. Usually you find them in command of starships or small island countries during horrific wars. They often thrive on these kinds of projects, but don't bet on finding one who has the time for it. If you as development person are going to be thrust into a leadership role, figure out which type of leader you are and find a tournament chair who is your opposite number. At the very least, gauge the chair you've got. Figure out if he is a task or sociometric leader. Whichever type your chairperson is, you will have to become the other type. If he or she is a whip cracker, you become the nurturer. If the chairperson can't bear to hurt anyone's feelings and just loves and appreciates everybody, you will need to bird dog deadlines, push volunteers to complete tasks and keep the committee moving along by sheer force of will!

Okay, it's not all that cut and dried. Stereo-types help only so long as you realize they are stereotypes. As your committee grows, consciously look for the types of people you need. Make notes. If you see you've got lots of "staff" people and not very many "sales" people, you have to go do some recruiting or you'll be in trouble.

And always make sure you've got some nice compulsive-types who'll keep the process orderly if you'll let them.

Tom

The 8 people who responded to the survey on when you have your tournaments all tended to schedule theirs in August-September or May-June. For more northerly climates that's about as expected. A tournament in August would be hellish in Texas. We run our fall tournaments in September-October to beat the heat. June is pushing it and forget July. In November we have a few rain date replays every year, but not much after that. You can expect a lot of competition during these two periods, so be forewarned.

Finally, we need to look at what day of the week you want to play on. Almost every tournament committee's first instinct is to schedule their event on Saturday. Resist the impulse. Too many things are competing with you on the weekend. True, a lot of volunteers work and aren't available on weekdays, but you're not out to attract volunteers. You want GOLFERS! Golfers want to skip work. The best days are Fridays and Mondays and I'd give the edge to Fridays.

Friday:

Advantages

• By Friday, most of us are ready to get out of the office. The week has wound down and we are ready to blow off the office.
• Since it's a charity event, players can use the tournament as a way to snag themselves a sort of three-day weekend.
• Volunteers can rest up the next day - they will be exhausted! You have the weekend to recuperate.
• People coming from a distance won't be rushed to get back in time for work the next day.

Disadvantages

• It's the end of the week and volunteers may not be as energetic.
• There's a lot of competition with other tournaments on Fridays.
• It's hard to get people to stay for a post-game awards banquet or silent auction (you may have to do the dinner on Thursday night before the tournament and do awards at the end of the day.

Monday:

Advantages

• You have the weekend free before the tournament to get your volunteers together and make last minute preparations.
• The fatigue factor may not be as much of a factor on Monday.
• People hate going to the office on Monday and would love an excuse to put it off a day or shorten their day.
• Fewer competing tournaments on Monday.
• Easier to get people to a post tournament dinner/silent auction.

Disadvantages

• You ruin your weekend worrying about the tournament,
• The difficulties for executives of getting their staff lined out for the week may prevent some from coming. Everybody's going to be pooped at work the next day.

As for other days, mid-week is almost impossible for people trying to get away from work. Sundays are not very likely because of competition with church unless your players are all Jewish, Muslim or Seventh day Adventists. I do know of an Adventist college that runs a very successful Sunday tournament on alumni weekends. They have no competition from any other tournaments so they usually have their choice of country clubs.

Saturdays can work, but it's not the best day for some reason. If I had a choice, I'd run my tournament on Friday.

What day of the week is your tournament on?

Michael

Another advantage to scheduling a Monday tournament is that, if you're looking for a private country club or other "prime" venue for your tournament, Mondays are traditionally the slowest day of the week for members. Members are more willing to open their course to "outside groups" like charity tournaments because it causes the minimum inconvenience for members.

Club staffs also like Monday tournaments because it provides an additional revenue source for the Pro Shop and dining/banquet facilities when they are traditionally "slow."

Tom

You're right. I'd rather use a "hot" course and accommodate them a little bit.

Often there is a membership committee at courses like this and they have to approve whether you are allowed to hold your tournament at their country club. This can be tricky, and a willingness to work around their needs a little bit can go a long way toward getting you that approval you're looking for.

Don't neglect to include the club membership on your tournament committee if they are willing to help. It never hurts to develop a feeling of 'ownership' of your tournament among the members of the host country club. They can help you fill up your player slots and may be able to draw some high powered sponsors to your event.

Sheri

Thursday. It is the only day we could get.

Tom

To summarize Chapter 5:

The question was: Where do we play?
The answer is: Where you'll make the most money!

Don

HI Tom...Great Class! Here are some compound answers to your simple questions.

How many committees do you have?

Only one committee. We divide the responsibilities among 6-8 members.

What are your sponsorship levels?

This has changed as our organization and tournament matured. The first year...the Title Sponsorship was $2500 with descending sponsorships all the way down to $100 for a Tee Sign. Last year (Our fifth annual tournament) ...the Title Sponsorship was $10,000. The next level was $7500, then $5000, $2500, and $1500. We still maintain the $100 Tee Signs as it permits opportunities for practically anyone who wants to assist to also be acknowledged.

What do you give your sponsors for their money at each level?

Honestly, I can't remember all of the incentives but the Title Sponsor carries Top Billing in all media releases and printed material. They also get "Podium Time" at the Banquet and the cocktail reception the evening before the tournament as well as getting to play with a "celebrity."

The other sponsor levels have progressively less exposure as determined by the committee. Sorry I can't be more helpful with this.

Tom

The first year...the Title Sponsorship was $2500....

Last year (Our fifth annual tournament) the Title Sponsorship was $10,000

Don shows us an excellent example of a tournament that has grown. A lot of timid neophytes keep their tournament sponsorship levels low in an effort to keep sponsors from bailing out.

It's frightening, but the way to find out how much your tournament is worth is to raise prices till they quit paying. Then you know how much the market can bear.

I worked with one tournament where the lead sponsor paid $30,000. We had a media sponsor (a cable company) that offered the lead sponsor a nice package and gave us a third of the money ($10,000) off the top. The sponsor received the following:
- $30,000 worth of cable TV advertising
- Lead sponsor name on all tournament advertising (TV, billboards, Golf shirts, Golf towels, direct mail, newspaper ads, etc.)
- Two teams (8 player spots)
- Exclusive car dealer in tournament
- Acknowledgement from podium during awards ceremony & luncheon

The cable company practically gave the tournament sponsorship to one of their biggest advertisers as an incentive. We didn't have to hustle any of the big sponsors that way. The cable ad salesmen handled it. It gave us a lot of stability.

Chuck

Tom - in answer to your questions:

1) We have one committee - composed of staff and volunteers that oversees everything. We hire a golf tournament management firm to do the work.

2) Our sponsorship levels are:
$25,000 title sponsor
$6,000
$3,000
$1,500

We also have a group of $2,000 level sponsors for sponsoring specific items such as photography, beverage cart, longest drive, etc.

3) The title sponsor gets main billing and the tournament name includes the sponsor's name. All sponsors get a certain number of paid green fees, invitations to attend a sponsor networking breakfast, entry to a $10,000 Putt for Cash Contest, media recognition, lunch, beverages, and dinner tickets.

The specific item $2,000 sponsor gets premier signage at the applicable area of sponsorship, recognition during the awards dinner, mention in the event placard, etc.

Tom

Chuck,

A couple of questions?

How many golfers come to your tournament?

How many years have you been doing it?

How much per player?

I like the one committee approach. A couple of special event gurus I know never have more than one committee per event. If you can eliminate subcommittees, great! The simpler the better, since most of the time a handful of people do 90% of the work.

John

What experience and/or benefits have you found with any software products for golf tournaments? It would seem that their use could eliminate a lot of the repeat work and lessen the load on staff and volunteers.

Tom

You can use most fund-raising software to track volunteers and players. You can often set up your golf tournament under your existing software as a separate trackable project.

Gene. Want to jump in here anywhere?

As for the materials we used like flyers, registration forms, etc., I just create a separate director for all the stuff we use and store it safely there. When I get a printer to produce flyers for me, I try to get copies of their Postscript files if I can. If you ask in advance they'll even give you the Quark or PageMaker files and picture files. You want to have a Zip drive or CD burner if you're going to share files with a printer. They are BIG! I make my printer use PageMaker, because I got it cheap from Adobe under their grant program and I can make changes for subsequent years at my desktop. They whine, especially the Quark heads, but they go along because they want my business. They even toss in the posters for free most of the time.

I'm putting together a syllabus of this course afterward that will include sample forms, charts and stuff like that if you want to contact me separately.

Other than that, I'm not aware of any Golf Tournament specific software. Someone else might be, though. We'll see.

John

I agree but software plays a great role. If anyone is interested, including you Tom, we have an evaluation copy of a comprehensive golf tournament software program that does everything including advertisement on scorecards, tracks all golfers with all data pertaining to the tournaments and provides full financial reporting.

Anyone wishing a sample, please reply.

Gene

It depends on how much you want do with that software. There is specialized tournament software, as one other FundClass subscriber offered, that is designed to do a lot more than fundraising software can, like helping you to manage and organize the tournament.

If all you want to do is track who your players are and how much they paid (so that you can invite them again next year) then any fundraising software package can handle that.

Some fundraising programs can also track volunteer hours and activities. Most can also record donations of prizes and other in-kind products by businesses.

Typically, the most important thing to do when recording this information (ticket purchase, volunteer hours, and prize donation) is to identify the golf tournament as being the Project or Campaign or Source of that donation. Then you can easily print a report showing all donations for that Project/Campaign/Source. You can also print thank you letters to the participants, listings for newsletters, etc.

That is the least you would want to record. I would suggest also recording personal notes about prize donations (who made the contact, what incentive was offered, etc) to help next year's team when they approach these same businesses. Again, any fundraising program would enable you to do these minimal things.

Tom

One advantage to working the kind of information Gene was talking about into your regular fund-raising software is so that you can integrate it with everything else you're doing. Remember, a golf tournament supports your basic fund-raising program. Check the golf programs you review carefully to make sure you can share information with your fund-raising/donor tracking software easily and don't wind up having to retype everything to get it into your regular software after the tournament.

You want to have those golfers and sponsors on your newsletter list and in tickler files that help you nurture that donor all year long. If the people who play in your tournament see your newsletter and know what you're doing, they're more likely to develop loyalty to your tournament and choose it over some other charity event.

Make sure you don't lose information in transferring it over and try not to bury your secretary (God willing that you should have one) with computer work.

Don

Tom and Gene,

I agree. I manage our tournaments and for that matter...the entire donor base and all other events with Fundraiser Jr.

John

True but software devoted to a specific function, such as a golf tournament or auction, can do so much more than just keep track of people and their donations.

In fact our software products export donor information to most fundraising software while providing a host of other services. Many of them can result in substantial improvements to the bottom line and a significant reduction of volunteer effort. There is a distinct advantage in its use.

Gene

I agree. If you do just one special event a year (that's enough for most), and it's a golf tournament, then golf tourney software can make a lot of sense. If you're one of those who do a variety of events, then special event software that is not specific to a particular type may make more sense for you.

I found likely looking software prospects when searching under these terms:
special events software
event software
event management software
auction software
golf tournament software

Good luck,

Tom

In a private aside, one of the class members asked me a question that applies at this stage of things. Often, especially as a first time tournament gets under way or a regular tournament cranks up for another year, you have to deal with a sudden personnel change at the charity or with the loss of a heavy hitter volunteer for one reason or another. Something similar happened in this case, so I'll pass it along.

The question concerned an ethical dilemma faced by the charity staff and board working with a first time golf tournament. One of the board members (who had originally proposed golf as a fund-raiser) has assumed full responsibility for the tournament after the departure of key development staff. As a result, in the absence of a staff member to ramrod the project, the board member in question has assumed almost full time responsibility for the project.

In recognition of this, the board feels the need to compensate him for his time. Because he is a professional, his time is not inexpensive. The board hit upon the idea of paying him a percentage of the take (a big no-no). If the accountants didn't approve of that, then the board agreed to pay for the board member's staff member who was devoting nearly full-time, plus expenses to the project. But when it became clear that the tournament would not really take place without an event coordinator, the board decided they would have to come up with the funds to hire the work done. Since the board member who was already leading out was also the only one who knew anything about how to do it, the board decided that, only fairly, it had to pay him for his virtually full-time work.

As often happens in this situation, concerns about how much the tournament would make entered into the decision. Since first-time tournaments are unpredictable as to how much they earn, the board is back to considering paying this gentleman on a sliding scale with some sort of minimum and a percentage increase if the tournament makes more.

The class member asked if we had any thoughts on the ethics of this, and how to do something that will recompense the board member for the substantial time spent in lieu of earning his regular income? The person is apparently not independently wealthy, and there are still a couple of months of heavy work left to make the tournament come off. The board member is willing to resign, but this doesn't seem to answer all the ethical questions they have.

HERE'S MY REPLY:
This kind of stuff comes up a lot. Some of your sponsors would likely have ethical problems with a board member making money on your golf tournament. To guarantee his independence and to deal with conflict of interest issues, he should resign from the board. I know you don't want to lose a good board member, but if his skill at special events is worth paying for, he may be worth more to you as a consultant than as a board member. Stay away from percentages and sliding scales based upon the "take". There are several very good reasons for this.

1. The organizer may be pressured to make short term decisions about sponsorship that may cost your organization money in the long run. For instance, he might pressure a sponsor to take a larger sponsorship so the tournament will make more money. Without that pressure, he might avoid pressuring that sponsor because he knows the sponsor gives a large donation to your annual fund at Christmas time. The increase in tournament sponsorship may cost you the bigger donation at Christmas because the hired gun style event organizer needs to make more now and short-term gain will be his motivation, not the good of your organization.
2. Outside factors over which the organizer has no control can adversely affect the "take" from the tournament. In that case your organizer takes a bath despite putting his heart and soul into it. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," says the Bible. It's a good principle.
3. By tying profits from the tournament to the director's pay, you create an attitude among your board that they've done all they have to do since they've hired the guy. You absolutely need full participation from your board to make the tournament fly. They tend not to work as hard when the organizer is getting a cut of the take. They tend to let him take all the responsibility.

What you need to do is figure out what it is worth to have somebody do the tournament. Maybe a couple of months of a development person's salary.....Or ask him what he would charge you - flat rate - to do the tournament. That way he gets fairly paid for his work. The incentive is that he gets the job next year if he does a good job.

That's the ethical way. I lost our media sponsor at the last minute one year (and with them a $30,000 lead sponsor and damned near the whole tournament) because we had two board members that they thought were making money off the tournament. I had nothing to do with it and didn't know it was going on, but I got full blame when we made $27,000 less on that year's tournament even though the board told me to focus on saving the tournament any way I could.

Anyway, I make sure now that whenever I do a tournament, I avoid having the board provide any sort of paid services, even if I get a "cut rate". Also, if board members buy sponsorships, I make sure we get the money up front.

Protect your tournament's reputation any way you have to. You'll regret it if you don't. Pay your organizer just like you would a development person or a hired organizer - flat rate. True you don't know how much you'll make, but that's the risk with special events. If he loses money, he may be willing to rebate you the difference or something as a donation. That's acceptable, but should not be demanded in the contract. Also, get a written contract agreement outlining all the specifics. Do everything businesslike. As part of his job, he should also provide you a financial report outlining every expense and every donation, sale of items or in-kind gift. Maintain a professional relationship or you very likely WILL be sorry. A written, legal contract protects everyone.

This is a fairly common problem that comes up. Would anyone else like to weigh in on this ethical dilemma. I'm sure some of you out there have had to solve the same problem?

Tom

The holiday weekend's over and it's back to class...

Haven't had much response lately. I suspect most of the class is either in the middle of their spring fund-raiser or recuperating from it. I will forge on.

In addition to the tournament itself, many tournaments pick up extra bucks with special "side show" events. Some of the more popular add-ons include the $10,000 Putt for Cash, The Million Dollar Hole in One, Mulligans sales, longest drive contests, raffles, etc..

Many of these events can be purchased pre-packaged very reasonably from vendors. Others are more creative and can be whipped up by your volunteers for little or nothing. Before we discuss how some of these work, let's look at why in the world you'd want to do them in the first place.

If you've ever been to a circus, fair, football game or Renaissance Festival, you've probably experienced what I call the "vacuum cleaner effect". The vacuum cleaner effect is the phenomenon whereby every last dollar gets sucked out of your wallet before you can get out of the building, stadium or off the fairgrounds. There is something to buy at every turn at these events and the sellers are experts at making sure you don't get away with whatever's left in your purse after you buy your ticket. I like to think of it in terms of gleaning the field. P.T. Barnum thought of it as fleecing the sheep. Either way, the net effect is to get all the cash you can from people attending the event and to increase your profits accordingly. You can inexpensively double your take with these side shows.

A couple of cautionary rules about this though.

1. Don't spend a lot of money on things to sell. They might not sell. You're not like carnival barkers. You can't just pack up and sell your wares in the next town. This is a one shot deal. Whatever's left - you're stuck with it! Don't try to sell things like hats and t-shirts. Pay for the shirts with sponsors and give them away. Sell the leftovers if you want, they'll be pure profit. Just don't take the risk on merchandise you could be stuck with.
2. Don't invest in something you don't have the staff to do properly. Many of the Putt for Cash or Hole-In-One contests require a lot of documentation and that means staff to handle the setup. The golf pro can help, but you still have to have video cameras, marshals, signage and record keeping. Don't have so much going on that you can't do it properly.
3. Makes sure each side event is the specific responsibility of one trustworthy volunteer.

I'd really like to get some input from the class here. I know you're all desperately trying to finish up preparation for the spring fling or whatever right now, but I'd like each of you that has a few minutes to contribute to write a short description of a successful side event that you have been a part of. I'll go first.....

FIVE DOLLAR CLOSEST TO THE PIN SHOT:

How it works:

Members of a local college drill team staffed this fun event. The girls came out in uniform and took turns running the contest on one of the par 3 holes. For $5 you got to take a shot from the tee. Your ball was marked where it landed. Another Apache Belle waited on the green with a tape measure. She marked the final resting place of the first ball shot and measured it's distance to the pin. If it beat the closest ball shot up until that point, the golfer's name was entered and the marker flag moved to the place his ball landed.

The Finances:

The fun part of this (at least for our accountant) was that after your first shot was marked, you could pay another $5 to take another shot. These didn't count toward the game score.

Prizes:

At the end of the day, whoever was marked closest, won the television set that a local appliance dealer had donated. The only expense was for a tape measure and marking chalk $10. The TV was donated. The appliance dealer leant us one of his sales banners, so we didn't even have the cost of sponsor signage.

FIVE DOLLAR BET I CAN HIT THE CIRCLE:

How it works:

In another variant of this game, a four-foot circle was drawn around the pin with chalk. You paid $5 to take a shot. If you landed in the circle, you won $20.

Finances:

One enterprising miss kept the cash in a garter worn underneath her skirt. A lot of guys spent a lot of money trying to win that $20 prize. This was entirely her idea. We didn't find out about it till she turned in the $800 plus she'd made at the end of the day.

Prizes:

The shot looked easy enough, but she only gave out 5 prizes all day. Everybody enjoyed showing off for their friends. We even gave a closest to the pin trophy to the guy that made the best shot. We were out $100 in prize money and a $10 trophy on the day for better than an 800% return on the investment.

ANYBODY ELSE HAVE AN INTERESTING SIDE EVENT?

Don

Let me be the first to say that I, too, would have spent an extraordinary amount of money with the "garter girl" and I don't even play golf. Great idea and I'm certain I'll use variations in our tournaments!

As you suggested, Tom, our tournaments make a good deal of "extra" revenue from many of the events you discussed. Mulligan sales are done at registration. Again, we utilize a "babe" to hawk the mulligan tickets. Flirting is encouraged and boosts sales tremendously. (I don't defend male behavior when it is clearly indefensible. I just exploit it.) We also do "hole-in-one" contests, longest drive, and closest to the pin. However, our greatest "side event" comes from the shameless volunteer "beer babes" whose job it is to drive all over the course, passing out free beverages. While there is no charge to the golfers for all the beer and soft drinks they want, the "beer babes" always manage to generate about $2500 dollars in tips. (I'm afraid to ask how this is done but I presume there is, again, much flirting involved.) Hey...come on! It's for charity!

Tom

We're going to get e-mails, Don. You know we are, so let me do a little proactive qualification.

While the flirting stuff works famously with a largely male crowd, it might not be appropriate for cheerleaders to work the crowds in this manner at an event for, say, a religious organization or for the Business Women's Association or for some other "women's" event. If you're doing an event aimed at women golfers, however, you might enlist the help of volunteers from the local male college football, basketball or baseball programs. Women do respond to "flirting" male volunteer staff, but in my experience, you don't make nearly as much money off of them.

In an ideal, politically correct world, we'd just play golf and you could get nuns and Trappist monks to drive the Perrier cart. But, the ultimate purpose is to make money for your children or abandoned animals or whoever benefits from your charity.

"However, our greatest "side event" comes from the shameless volunteer "beer babes" whose job it is to drive all over the course, passing out free beverages."

NOTE: If this is going to be a lucrative side event for you, you have to make sure when you choose a course to use one where it's legal for you to do this. Around East Texas, many golf courses don't have a liquor license, so you can pass out free beer. If they do have a license, you can't. Just make sure it's okay for you to do this before you close the deal on the course.

The beverage cart can work with soft drinks, but doesn't make as much money for some reason. Here's a situation where cheaper isn't necessarily better. You can save money on beverage cart rental by putting out self-service beverage barrels on the course. If you do, you miss out on the tip money.

And make sure the beer cart is manned by someone cute. I did a round on the beverage cart once when the girls took a break. I didn't get one single dollar in tips. The girls made around $75-100 per lap around the course (and this was a relatively small tournament and the temperature was in the 100's).

Again, the point of a charity golf tournament is to MAKE MONEY!

Don

I know...I'm a self-confessed dinosaur when it comes to these things. Sorry! Feel free to chastise me.

Michael

My example:

I attended a fundraising golf tournament to benefit the sports programs of the local public high schools. On selected tees where long drives were beneficial, high school golf team members would hit your drive for you for $2.00. These teenagers routinely hit 275-290 yard tee shots, farther (and straighter, I might add) than the average duffer! Many of the participants willingly paid the money just to see the kids "grip it and rip it." By the way, both boys and girls participated -- girls hitting off the ladies' tee can sometimes outdistance the boys on the regular men's tee.

Tom

Great example of a low cost way to make a few bucks on the side.

Tom

MULLIGANS:

How it works:

Mulligans are little tickets you sell at the registration table that allow you to pay for a "do-over". If you slice your ball into a lake, you can use one of your mulligans and take the shot over without a penalty. Some tournaments actually make little tickets. Some mark the number of mulligans purchased on the scorecard. Most just use the honor system (a laughable concept for a charity tournament without hole marshals, but who cares, you're making money!). You usually limit the number of mulligans you sell to between 2 and 5. Any more and it slows the tournament WAY down. You can also sell mulligans from the beer cart to the people who didn't buy enough in the first place. There's always some guy whose game falls apart in mid-tournament that will buy extra mulligans in sheer frustration.

Finance:
The most you can be out is the cost of tickets (if you even bother with them). Other than that, this one has virtually no up-front cost.

Prizes:
There aren't any. All you get for a $5-$10 Mulligan is a chance to take the shot over without having to lie about that first shot you sent flying out into the woods being "just practice".

PUTTING CONTEST

How it works:

There are several variants of this game. Contact an insurer who will bid you insurance on this event. You can spend anywhere from $100 to $1,000 or more depending on how high the odds are of someone making the shot. These contests average prizes of $10,000 and take place before, after or during the tournament. We made the putting contest an extra "hole" between the 9th and 10th holes. Players stop in, take their shots and try to qualify for the semi-final at the end of the day. If you have two flights, you might want to insure two separate contests.

Finance:

You have to find an insurer who will charge you a flat premium against the unlikely event someone sinks the final putt. You'll probably have to videotape the shot for verification purposes. Some require a law enforcement officer or other "official" witness.

Prize:
The person who wins the elimination process gets one long shot at sinking a putt. If he or she makes it, they get however much money you insured for. If the golfer misses, it's a good idea to have a small consolation prize or trophy you can hand them.

CHIPPING CONTESTS

How it works:

From 20' to 100', hole out a chip shot and win. Rules and setup vary depending on the requirements of your insurer. Expect smaller prizes or higher insurance rates from this one since it's more likely someone will sink one. You can also offer special prizes donated by sponsors like dinners, vacations, televisions or things like that instead of cash prizes. This type contest lends itself well to groups that hustle a lot of donated prizes. If nobody wins them, you can unload them at the silent auction or use them for door prizes.

Finances:
This can be done with cash prizes through an insurer. If you go this route, get a sponsor to pay the insurance. You can charge an entry fee or include it with the package.

Prizes:
Donated goods or cash. Make sure you are either insured or have the item donated. 100% of proceeds should be profit. Don't try to sell tickets to pay for the insurance.

BUNKER SHOT CONTESTS

How it works:
From Greenside to 100 yards, hole out a sand shot and win prizes or cash depending on how you set it up.

Finances:
As with chipping contests, either get prizes donated (in case of multiple winners) or insure the contest for cash prizes

Prizes.
Donated goods or cash

SKILLS COMPETITION

How it works:
Have your players try to make a 20' putt, 40' chip shot and a greenside bunker shot. Hole out 2 out of three and win a grand prize. Closest total distance to the hole wins a sponsored prize, also! Measure each shot's distance from the pin to get the players total distance. You can also offer a prize for the closest to the pin on each skill.

Finance:
The committee has to scare up donated items as prizes or you can get a sponsor and buy a prize package from a tournament vendor. Avoid buying a prize and trying to recoup the cost through ticket sales. This type event makes a good value add-on freebie for players who pony up the dough to play in your tournament.

Prizes:
Donated or purchased prizes. This one's not a good cash contest.

LONGEST DRIVE

How it works:
On the longest fairway, station a marshal to mark where each drive comes to rest. Starting with the first drive, place a flag to mark the spot. If someone hits a longer drive, move the flag and keep track of the new leading golfer. It might be fun to connect the marshal by cell phone or radio to the clubhouse and keep track of the longest drive leader on the leader board.

Finances:
Small investment or no investment required if you use donated stuff as a prize. Otherwise, you're out a few bucks for a trophy.

Prize:
In-kind prizes and/or a trophy or plaque. This is a good place to give away golf stuff for prizes. You almost always get putters and (rarely) drivers or irons donated by local golf shops. You can do trophies or plaques, but golfers like prizes better for these events.

CLOSEST TO THE PIN

How it works:
Often, all three par three holes have hole-in-one marshals already assigned to them. These marshals can mark each tee shot to determine which player is closest to the hole for the day. At the end of the day, the player who made the closest shot to the pin is announced.

Finances:
Little up-front money is needed if you can get donated prizes. They don't have to be huge, but they should be nice enough that you don't look cheap.

Prizes:
This is also a good place to give away golf stuff for prizes. As with the longest drive, you can do trophies or plaques, but golfers like prizes better for these events.

BEVERAGE CART

How it works:
A couple of pleasant volunteers circle the course (in reverse order to speed up the process) distributing free beverages donated by your sponsors. A sign on the cart notifies golfers that tips are accepted. The tips go to the charity.

Finances:
Since you'll want to get beverages donated, you won't have much capital outlay except for the rental of the beverage cart. This may be included in the cost of the tournament or you may have to pay a little extra to rent it. Also you'll have the cost of the ice. Often an icehouse will haul out a trailer load of ice for your event at a flat rate.

Prizes:
Sunny smiles from the beverage cart volunteers and a tall cold drink.

MILLION DOLLAR HOLE-IN-ONE

How it works:
This depends on the package you purchase. It can be a weeklong event prior to the tournament or it can be a one shot deal you do at the tournament. In the weeklong version, you stake out a place convenient to town to set up a qualifying tee. Players pay a per shot entry fee to try and qualify. Qualifiers must land their ball within a specified distance of the pin to advance to the semi-finals. At the end of the week, a semi-final shootout takes place. The closest drive advances to the final round on tournament day. The finalist amidst much hoopla attempts to sink a hole-in-one to win the million dollars. It's all very exciting and depending on turnout and cost of entry can be very lucrative. A cheaper version gives the hole-in-one shot to the winner of a shootout on tournament day or to someone drawn by raffle or however you want to do it that meets the insurer's requirements. Because only one shot is taken the odds are significantly higher and the insurance significantly cheaper. Either way the idea of someone winning a million bucks certainly adds excitement to the tournament.

Finance:
This is an insured event with strict rules about verifiability, distance and circumstances of the shot. You can purchase insurance from a golf tournament insurer or even from some local independent insurers.

Prize:
One million bucks

HOLE-IN-ONE PRIZES

How it works:
Again, you or a sponsor buys insurance against a prize like a car, motorcycle, boat or even a home. If someone, observed by official marshals as required by the insurance companies, makes the par 3 hole in one stroke, he or she wins the prize.

Finance:
The best way to do this is to let a car dealer, motorcycle dealer, marina or builder/developer purchase the insurance package (don't forget to add a little extra so that your charity makes some money). The beauty of this is that if a golfer wins the prize, the sponsor makes money because he sells a car, motorcycle, boat or house to the golfer with the insurance company picking up the tab.

Prizes:
Almost anything can be a hole-in-one prize. Insurers will give you bids based on the value of the object. Golf tournament insurers often throw in extra prizes for each hole as well. These include vacation packages, golf clubs and other classy items that make the hole look even more valuable. Be creative. One local builder's association offered a home on every par 3 hole. Not only were they great prizes, but three builders got to show off their house plans on big signs at the Tee box.

To finish off this chapter, you should within the first couple of weeks after you meet the first time, have done or decided the following:

1. Where to hold the tournament.
2. When to hold the tournament.
3. What side events you will be holding.
4. What sponsorships you need to sell.
5. Who is responsible for each task.
6. Worked up a rough budget with a targeted fund-raising goal.

In working out these details, some of the following websites may be of help:

http://www.progolfoutings.com/
http://www.tsius.com/
http://www.cgainc.com/home.html
http://www.anasazisports.com/insurance.htm
http://www.bfgolfservices.com/
http://www.greatgolfevents.com/frames.html
http://www.mygolfouting.com
(The above site has a downloadable Excel golf tournament budget spreadsheet - very handy)
http://www.golf-tournament.com/turnkey.html
http://www.hio.com
http://www.hioi.com
http://www.hole-in-won.com
http://www.floridagolftour.com/main.htm

Michael

This is an excellent class. Thanks so much!

One point I'd like to make about prizes. Some of your participants may be serious golfers who participate in USGA (United States Golf Association) events or club events where USGA rules are enforced by the Club and Head Professional.

One of the rules is that, for a golfer to retain amateur standing (and a legitimate handicap card), s/he may not accept a golf prize over $500 in value. This applies to cash and/or goods. If the prize involves a golf skill (putting, chipping, long drive, hole-in-one, etc.), it's included in the restriction. Raffles, 50/50 drawings, etc., are not included since they do not involve a golf skill.

From the USGA web site (http://www.usga.org/rules/amateur_status_link.html):

4. Prizes, Testimonials and Gifts

1. Acceptance of a prize or testimonial of the following character (this applies to total prizes received for any event or series of events in any one tournament or exhibition, including hole-in-one or other events in which golf skill is a factor):

i. Of retail value exceeding $500; or

ii. Of a nature which is the equivalent of money or makes it readily convertible into money.

Exceptions:

1. Prizes of only symbolic value (such as metal trophies).

2. More than one testimonial award may be accepted from different donors even though their total retail value exceeds $500, provided they are not presented so as to evade the $500 value limit for a single award. (Testimonial awards relate to notable performances or contributions to golf, as distinguished from tournament prizes.)

1. Conversion of a prize into money.
2. Accepting expenses in any amount as a prize.
3. Because of golf skill or golf reputation, accepting in connection with any golfing event

i. Money, or

ii. Anything else, other than merchandise of nominal value provided to all players.

Most amateur golfers are unaware of this. Most golfers don't care about having a legitimate handicap card and competing in sanctioned events. However, using the publicity associated with the BIG PRIZE is the perfect way for a rival to disqualify someone from a Club Championship, Member-Guest, or Invitational tournament -- not to mention the USGA tournaments!

The chances that a problem like this will arise are remote, but a single occurrence could unfairly wreck a tournament's reputation.

Now -- what to do about it? Should this remotely possible situation arise:

Allow the golfer to refuse the prize. BE SURE to run this past a tax accountant and/or tax attorney to be sure that income taxes don't apply to a refused award. In the case of a refused award, the golfer would not be able to deduct the award as a charitable contribution. If s/he did, they would have to accept the award first, violating USGA rules and incurring income taxes.

Allow the golfer's spouse or another person to accept the award. This is a circumvention of the USGA rule, and income taxes would have to be paid by the named recipient (if not by the golfer him/herself). Again, be sure that competent tax advice is secured on this point.

Finally, consult the PGA Professional at the hosting club. S/he should be up to speed on the USGA requirements and the contingencies.

In conclusion, this is written from a US perspective. The Rules of Golf are administered elsewhere in the world by other governing bodies, most notably by the R&A -- the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland. Their rules website page is: http://www.randa.org/rules_of_golf/default.sps

Tom

Good point Michael!

I've never seen a problem like this either, but it's a good idea to check with your insurer and the golf pro regarding this problem, especially if you get "serious" golfers who play regulation amateur tournaments. You may be able to work out some alternate arrangement with the insurer. Most of them are likely to know their way around problems like this.

This brings up another point. Ask yourself, "Do you REALLY want to mess with handicaps and the hassle of dealing with a regulation amateur tournament. The only charity tournament I know of that lost money was a pro-am. It cost more to put it on than it made. You may have had a better experience, but for me a nice four-man scramble works fine. The simpler, the better unless you have a very experienced staff. We'll talk more about tournament formats later, though.

Michael

Let me reiterate (or clarify, perhaps) the point that "serious golfer" and "skilled golfer" are not the same thing. Many "duffers" play in country club tournaments and other "sanctioned" events where USGA rules are enforced.

It doesn't matter whether the golfer has a 3 or a 36 handicap; if they win a $500+ prize, they could be in for problems when they play in the country club couples' events. Believe it or not, and as remote a possibility as it may be, it's real when it happens.

Oh, yes -- on hole-in-one competitions. Did you know that a hole-in-one is only "official" when made as part of an 18-hole round of golf played under the USGA rules? Otherwise, it's an "exhibition" and not an "official" round.

Evidence, perhaps, of how many lawyers have played golf through the ages.

Michael

Addressing the "Did I leave anything out?" question:

1. Picking up on the "thank everyone profusely" comments, please remember to include the tournament host -- the country club/golf course's manager, board, and the head professional. Yes, you probably paid for the privilege of using their facility, but courtesy goes a LONG way to bolster your organization's reputation, whether you're planning next year's tournament at the same course or another. Golf pros, country club board members, and managers talk among themselves and will be frank about positive -- and negative -- experiences with a charity's golf tournament.

2. The importance of ceremony. The wrap-up meeting should be a celebration of the event's success AND the hard work put in by the committee. It's a milestone, and should be recognized as such. In fact, I personally believe that if no one recognizes the event as a milestone, or begs off attending the wrap-up meeting, it's a big red flag indicating lack of volunteer satisfaction and possible reluctance to continue in a responsible role.

3. You mentioned a great idea for the tournament day -- having a "floater" volunteer whose sole job is to help identify all the little problems and crises and "fix" them before the attendees notice. That person may be your best "observer" of the overall "flow" of your event. Be sure they are an important part of the wrap-up, and perhaps even ask them to submit a written report or checklist summarizing their impressions.

4. If the raffle ticket can be tracked to the participant, then adding a checkbox might be a good idea. Something like, "Would you like to talk with someone about the tournament?" Few will check "yes," but it indicates a willingness to solicit feedback without asking people to write essays on raffle tickets. The tournament chair or a senior staff person (someone in authority -- not a note-taker) can call the person within two weeks and follow up on their concerns. These people may also be potential new volunteers or sponsors/donors.

Tom

Good point. That might have solved my problem with the deacon and the beer barrels in a little more timely fashion. Providing a quick vent like that for someone who has experienced a real frustration could help preserve a lot of good will. If just one golfer is unhappy, his whole team hears about it and if they each mention it to one person and so on and so on and so on......

As Churchill said once, "Bad news can travel around the world while truth is putting its pants on."

He must have grown up in East Texas.

Don

WHAT'S THE BEST THING EVER TO HAPPEN AT YOUR GOLF TOURNAMENT?

First Tom, congratulations on a great class, as well as the upcoming release of your book. Save me an autographed copy! The best thing that ever happened at one of our tournaments wasn't particularly newsworthy... but it was when a major sponsor and his team commented that the tournament was so much fun that they wanted to sponsor it again the following year. Now that was GREAT to hear.

TELL ABOUT AN INCIDENT (EMBARRASSING OR OTHERWISE) THAT TAUGHT YOU A LESSON ABOUT GOLF TOURNAMENTS?

Without revealing the incidents in order to protect the guilty...let me just share the lessons learned.

1. Keep the reporters/photographers away from a drunken mayor.

2. Keep the microphone away from a drunken mayor.

Thanks again for the great class!

Katie

TELL ABOUT AN INCIDENT (EMBARRASSING OR OTHERWISE) THAT TAUGHT YOU A LESSON ABOUT GOLF TOURNAMENTS?

First, I want to thank you for such an interesting class. I am currently assisting one of our local non-profits with their annual golf tournament and have taken many notes to share with them. One lesson I learned in planning a tournament was in the placement of the individuals who were hosting certain holes. One year, a group was placed close to a little creek that ran along side the fairway. This group had set up a game for the tournament participants to play as they were waiting their turn on the tees. For a price, they had a chance to win a very nice wine basket and a weekend at the coast, but of course there was a challenge involved. The group had the greens keeper place a hole in the rough and the participants took turns trying to putt into the hole. Lots of fun, lots of participants wanting to play, lots of dollars to be collected. The group set their large awning up the night before and was ready to go when the tournament began. Out of each foursome, whoever was closest to the hole won dinner for two (which turned out to be a bag of microwave popcorn.)

What we had overlooked were the mosquitoes in the creek. While our happy-go-golfers waited their turn to play the game... the swarms attacked. Everyone stood slapping their arms, smacking their legs, and running as far away from the hosts as possible. I sent one of our runners to find mosquito repellant, but there was none to be found in the pro shop. Into town the runner went, but what could have been a promising fundraiser within a fundraiser, turned out to be a disaster. As the awning came down, the hosts scrambled for a new location to setup, a search went out for the greenskeeper to make a new hole, and the participants avoided the whole thing.

Tom

Great idea for a sidebar event, Kate! In addition, your experience at the creek points up the importance of remembering the 3 Cardinal Rules of Commerce - location, Location, LOCATION!

Tom

TELL ABOUT AN INCIDENT (EMBARRASSING OR OTHERWISE) THAT TAUGHT YOU A LESSON ABOUT GOLF TOURNAMENTS?

I told the class earlier about the incident with the deacon and the beer barrel. What I don't think I mentioned was why there weren't any Cokes in the can in the first place. It's a typical "Volunteer from Hell" story.

At this particular tournament, we had lost a whole raft of sponsors because our media sponsor had bailed out on us in the middle of the tournament. The reason I was to find out later was because they were having trouble collecting advertising fees from two of our board members. That had already raised their hackles, but then the board made one of these two individuals the tournament chairman. The media sponsor (a cable advertising agency) dumped us like a hot potato.

It gets better!

The board says, "Save the tournament!"

I say, "We aren't going to make as much this year."

They say, "We don't care, we'll make it up next year!"

(Four months later they say, "How come YOU made $20,000 less this year than last year on OUR tournament?"

So, tournament day, my volunteer coordinator has the volunteers working like clockwork. We have just enough golf carts to keep the volunteers moving to and fro, giving each other breaks and to keep the beverage girls busy filling up the barrels.

Along comes the tournament chairwoman. She wants to watch her husband play (by the way, we never got the player fees from his foursome either - she told us she'd send us a check - yeah, right!). She decides she NEEDS a golf cart and swipes the beverage cart while the girls are unloading ice. She disappears for two hours during which our new media people, trying to be helpful, load up the barrels with beer and ice (they rented their own golf cart).

Along comes the thirsty Baptist deacon and his Sunday School men's group and there's nothing but beer in the barrels. And we live in a DRY COUNTY! The rest is history.

It may be cheaper to rent a special golf cart for obnoxious "big shot"volunteers that you can't get rid of any other way. If you let them putter around in a cart looking official, you can often limit the risk that comes with letting them "help out". Give them a cheap disposable camera and make them the official photographer or something. Just don't let them mess with your volunteers and staff people.

It's really a delicate problem, especially when the person is a board member who can recommend that they fire your behind (and all that is attached to it).

By and large, most of my volunteers are angels and I love them and am amazed at how hard they work for us. Nurture them and at the same time try to move your problem people to jobs where they can't hurt you.