Corporate golf day

Corporate golf day

Events, functions and fundraising activities

Corporate golf day fundraisers are an extremely popular fundraiser with the potential to raise significant funds for your club. There is something about a golf day that is very attractive to the sporting public. The lure of prizes and a day ‘networking’ all on a golf course.

Golf days can be a simple or sophisticated fundraising event.
It can be as simple as organising a group of mates from your club to play with the lure of a prize or trophy at the end for the lowest scoring individual or team, or it could be a day that is open to club members, business networks and sponsors with a fully catered dinner to finish off the day where prizes are awarded and auctions and raffles are held.

When done right and aimed at the right market, a golf day offers the potential to draw major funds to your club as well as establishing new networks and uncovering potential new sponsors.

Why a Corporate Golf Day?
Corporate Golf Day is a great fundraiser to use when you are looking to create interest in the community and when you are looking to raise strong funds.
It is important to take into account if your members or sponsors enjoy golf as this will effect if they will want to attend.
This fundraiser can work for all sports clubs (not just golf) and in both city and country clubs.

When should I hold this fundraiser?
A Corporate Golf Day is an outdoor fundraiser and shouldn’t be held during extreme heat or cold weather. It can be held at anytime during the season but if your club is hoping to gain more sponsors, holding it towards the start of the season is best.

Key Activities
These are the tasks you will need to consider assign to volunteers at our club:

Before the day:

• Decide the date of the Corporate Golf Day.
• Book a gold club and discuss your needs and how they can help you.
• Promote the event.
• Organise volunteers to help on the day.
• Organise any food and beverages that will be for sale.
• Organise any raffles, activities, competitions or auctions that might run at the same time.
• Sell tickets.

On The Day

• Ensure the golf club and venue are set up.
• Ensure food and beverages are ready to sell or serve.
• Brief volunteers on their roles.
• Enjoy the day!
• Monitor the event.
• Take lots of photos.
• Present the winner with their trophy.

After the day

• Publicly thank everyone involved
• Announce the amount of money raised and the winner

Who can help?
It is important to engage your members to help in the running of your fundraiser.
For your Corporate Golf Day you could approach them to help:

• Promote and sell the tickets
• Help source prizes for any additional activities you may be running like a raffle or auction
• Help logistically on the day

You could also approach current club Sponsors for prizes.

Recruiting your people
It is important to create a culture of volunteering at your club to help not only with fundraising but also across the day to day running of your club. For more on how to create this at your club, click here.

Using technology to making it easier

You may like to consider using technology to reduce the workload on your volunteers and increase your fundraising dollars. For an event like this, you may like to sell tickets using a platform like TryBooking.

TryBooking lets you sell tickets, take payments and donations for events online.

This takes care of a great deal of the work that is usually left to volunteers and automates the ticket selling process.

You can set up and customise your own event page and a unique URL in minutes. This lets you easily share the event online and engage members and supporters. Your club may also like to use social media, email newsletters and your club website to promote the event.

Financial Considerations
Most golf clubs will work closely with your club to organise a fundraising day as they realise it is good business with the potential of attracting new members. If you plan to hold a fully-catered event then seek to work with a golf club that has a function organiser otherwise you will have a heavy volunteer workload for tasks such as invites, table and room setup, catering and so on.

You should also seek to work with golf clubs whose Pro will be actively involved on the day helping with organisational tasks like managing tee off times and equipment requirements.

Up front investment for a successful golf day can be substantial as most golf clubs will require a deposit and there are prizes to consider. Clubs should seek to mitigate costs by pre-selling tickets to participants to cover all costs and offering naming-rights sponsorship for the day and for selected holes where mini-competitions such as ‘closest to the pin’ are held.

Clubs can raise revenue through selling individual tickets for participation in the Golf day at a price that will cover green fees and catering requirements as well as adding a premium which will go to the club. Clubs can also sell tables to corporate clients. Naming rights sponsorship packages for the day with signage can be sold to corporate participants, as well as naming rights for particular holes where mini-comps are held. Clubs can also seek naming sponsorship for trophies and prizes – “The XYZ Company Longest Drive Trophy”, “The ABC company Closest to the pin prize”.

Also during the event your club could organise a snack and drinks cart to do laps of the course. A presentation dinner at the end of the day is a perfect setting for raffles and auctions and another lucrative opportunity to raise funds.

Promotion
Promote your golf day through your club resources including your website, newsletter and social media pages. It is important to utilise existing networks within your club by producing flyers and other promotional material and asking your members to distribute at their workplace or to their networks.

Clubs could also seek to recruit a celebrity to the golf day as this will help to give the event a higher profile. Many sporting celebrities look for a way to give back to grassroots sport so don’t be afraid to ask.

Communication considerations
As a Corporate Golf Day may also double as a social event at your club, you can use social media to build excitement. You can use social media to sell tickets and countdown to the day. You can also live stream parts of the event on the day so that those in your community that can’t attend can still be part of the event.
Also consider how you will invite corporates, sponsors and potential sponsors.

What can go wrong? (Risk Management)
Financial Risks
There are obvious financial risks if enough tickets aren’t sold and the prizes and set up costs more than is made.
Weather
The weather can make the day difficult to run should their be extreme heat or extreme rain. Alternative arrangements should be discussed and decided on prior to the day should they be necessary.
Participant Safety
The health and wellbeing of those who attend your event should be a focus at all times. It is important that your club takes time to consider all possible risks and how to minimise these.

Licenses and Permits
Food handling and service laws need to be considered. Liquor licencing and RSA requirements for serving drinks also need to be adhered to. If in doubt, check with the liquor licensing and food safety authority in your state or territory. Your club should also consider security to promote legal and responsible drinking.
It is also important to contact your insurance company to ensure your public liability insurance policies cover the event.

Additional Factors to consider
Allergies
When catering food ensure you cater for those with allergies and these are clearly labeled. Allergies can be life threatening and need to be considered seriously.

Additional Revenue Opportunities
A Corporate Golf Day provides an opportunity to run a raffle or silent auction to help build your club’s fundraising dollars. However it is important not to take away from the event by overdoing it on the extra fundraising activities.

Suppliers/Links
Any specific suppliers or links for this particular fundraiser. Could be used for 3rd party advertising in the future.

Disclaimer
This procedure should be treated as a guide only. Your club should seek advice specific to the needs of your club and event. Seek further details from authorities and service providers; especially in regards to insurance, licences, permits, spectator and participant safety.