With a little time and thought your charity golf event could help raise much needed funds.
I would place charity golf days into two distinctive categories
A day that people closely associated with the charity will attend. As many would agree, it can often be the same faces supporting your charity events, be it a cake bake, a car wash or card evening.
What ever the event these people will support it, as they or someone close to them, have been effected in some way by the nature of your charity.
In this category of event, the marketing to a wider audience may not necessarily be of paramount importance. The prizes in particular may be of little or no importance to the competitor, they will support you mainly to help the charity. In this case prizes can be kept to a minimum in order to maximise the ability to raise funds
A day aimed at a wider audience than that of people effected by the nature of your charity. This type of event will need a greater marketing element.
In this category of event I feel that the prize structure is of a much higher importance. Large prizes and many smaller prizes should entice people to attend your event. The ‘prize table’ should form a major part of you marketing and advertising plan.
If you chose this type of golf day it will also give you the opportunity to educate a wider audience to the existence and the type of work that your charity does.
The very first thing you should think about is who will organise the event. It would be wise to set up an organising committee from the embryonic stages. Dealing with every aspect of the day will be time consuming and stressful for a single individual. Look at forming a committee, where individuals bring their professions experiences into play. You will need sufficient numbers and experience to make all parts of your golf day run smoothly. A keen and knowledgeable golfer would make an ideal chairperson.
The keyword is PLANNING
You need to leave a reasonable amount of time to allow for planning the event, in our experience, no less than 2 months. Any less than this will place stress and strain on the organisers. It will also leave less time for potential participants to place the event as a priority in their diary.
Marketing Suggestions
Leaflets and posters
Simple Leaflets and posters produced in house by a committee member with some experience in design or IT
Distribute these to existing supporters and friends of your charity asking them to gain permission to place them on notice boards-:
- Places of work
- Social Clubs
- Local shops
- Golf courses within a local proximity
- Doctors and dentist surgeries
- Libraries
Ask any one with schools age children to take one to school for the teachers notice board
Local Media
Get in touch with the local papers, the sports or news editor should be your first point of call. Ask if they can help promote the day with a news worthy item.
Does any one associated with your charity know a celebrity figure that will endorse the event and get local news exposure?
Other advertising opportunities
- Company intranet and internet sites
- Company magazines
- Your national charity magazine (if you have one)
- Our web site, we can promote and disseminate your event details on our web site
Additional event fund raising
An event auction or raffle during the prize giving
Have items donated for an auction and a raffle (and your golf prizes) your prize table). Approach local and national sports teams and celebrities for signed memorabilia etc, Ask other local golf clubs for vouchers for rounds of golf, local hotels to donate overnight stays, restaurants for dinner for two, the local flying school for a trail lesson! the list is endless. The idea is to incur no cost in acquiring items to be auctioned, raffled or given as prizes.
Hole sponsorship
Try approaching local companies to sponsor the entire event or an individual hole. If a company elects to sponsor the entire event, consider using their name in the competition title. Hole sponsors should be encouraged to display banners on their particular hole.
Organising the day
The course is available to you from 2pm at the weekends.
The course can take up to 32 players an hour going off the first tee. (our tee times run at 8 min intervals)
The course normally takes just over 4 hours for a four ball to play. On a charity day it is advised that 5 hours is estimated per round
When calculating the maximum golfing field possible, always consult a diary for sun set times
Time last player expected off the course is estimated at last tee time, plus five hours. This is the approximate time for the prize giving.
If required our staff will collect completed score cards and calculate points. If players names are submitted to the club at least 24 hours before the event we can arrange to have players cards prepared for them. We will also help in assigning tee times to individual teams if required.
Food
It is traditional that most golf days start with a bacon roll and coffee on arrival at the club, this can be pre ordered as part of the green fee that you are charging. Alternately it can be left for the individual to order.
Dependent on numbers attending we will provide a halfway house on the 10th tee, this will enable golfer to recharge themselves with a BBQ and a drink.
Food will be available to golfers as they finish their round. Again this can be pre ordered or pay as they order.
Prizes
Theses are what we feel should be the very minimum team prizes offered
1st
2nd
3rd
Remember that you will need four individual prizes of the same item or a prize that all four can share (a meal for 4, admission for 4 at the cinema etc)
Other Prizes
- Longest drive
- Nearest the pin
- Hole in one prize
- Worst team score
If you are aiming your golf day at the widest possible audience, enticing golfer to play because of the ‘prize table’, we would strongly suggest that you invest in this opportunity to attract more players.
At a cost of about £3 or£4 per competitor, all players have a fantastic opportunity to win some amazing prizes if they are lucky enough to have a hole in one. Last year, on no fewer than seven occasions our members and visitors managed this feat.
Hole in one prizes can be for a car, foreign holidays, luxury European golf breaks and golfing equipment. The opportunity to win one of these prizes brings more prestige to your event and without doubt will have an impact on event numbers. It is common practice to have a company sponsor this hole in one package.
The details of the event
The following details need to be set to enable marketing to take place
- The official event name
- Date
- Arrival time
- Food details whether provided or not
- First tee time (2pm on a weekend)
- Golf Format, it is recommended that a Stableford game is played. This format will give all ranges of experience a great day out. It will also be the fastest format. Golfers hate a slow pace of play.
- Maximum handicap allowances for ladies and men
- Prizes i.e., team winners, longest drive, nearest the pin, hole in one.
Post event
Take your own photos during the event, write a press release and send it to as many local papers and local business publications as possible. Ensure you include a ‘thank you’ to all sponsors and include the amount of funds raised. If you have already decided upon hosting another charity golf event include the date and invite other to play. Include other future charity fund raising days.
If possible we video salient moments of your day and post them on our web site in order for your guests to see what great players they are!
