Here are five really good reasons to consider hosting a golf event, or partnering with another organization to plan a golf outing.

1. The Earning Potential is High

The first reason your school should have a golf outing is that these events are money makers, if they are done right. Here’s a list of eleven ways you can earn money at a golf tournament:

1. Golfer/team fee
2. Corporate sponsorship fees
3. Underwriting opportunities (meal, beverage cart, course fee, etc.)
4. Merchandise sales (your organization’s t-shirts, hats, hoodies, etc.)
5. “On the Course” contests
6. Mulligan sales
7. Raffles
8. Auctions
9. General donations
10. Separate dinner tickets for those who don’t play golf but just come for the meal
11. Revenue from an add-on of a walk-a-thon (held at the same time as golf outing and both groups come together at a shared banquet)

2. People are Familiar with Golf Tournament, So It’s a Natural Sell

Another reason that your PTO/PTA or school group should have a golf tournament is because they have become so popular. As a result of this popularity, you will have an easier time convincing people to attend. Certain incentives like an awesome course, a good crowd to network with, the ability to win some cool prizes, and the chance to escape the office for a day are all reasons people will be very open to your invitation. Of course, people will also want to support your non-profit, as well.

When it comes to fundraising, it’s best to stick to known entities. For the creative people who run non-profits, I know it’s sometimes frustrating to do what everyone else is doing. Where’s the originality? Where’s the stamp of your own unique personality? “Everybody has a golf outing. How boring!”

While the spirit of this thought may have validity, the fact of the matter is that if you want to ensure you raise money, you should stick to the events that are proven to do that very thing. Golf outings are designed to do exactly this.

3. It Offers Opportunities for Parents to Network

This reason can be a real selling point when you are trying to recruit teams to golf. Not only will your participants want to support your school, but many of them will also look forward to networking with other golfers who will be in attendance.

I realized this point very early in my nonprofit career. I would be making calls, trying to get folks to commit to playing in our outing and more than a few people would specifically ask me if certain individuals had already signed up or if it was likely they would be signing up. I came to see myself as a kind of a golf tournament match maker.

At the time, I was relatively young and working at a summer camp, and I didn’t realize it, but many of the campers’ parents were very aware of who the other parents were in the camp community. Our golf outing was the perfect vehicle for them to get to know one another and potentially create some new business connections.

Once I opened my eyes to this reality, I saw it happening over and over and came to view our golf outing not only as an excellent fundraiser, but also as a service to the parents of our campers and the camp alumni.

Once we actively started to help people make these introductions, the value of our outing increased and in the long run, greatly benefited our nonprofit.

4. It’s a Great Chance for You to Have Personal Contact with Donors

From the moment you arrive at your golf tournament (as the leader), there are literally dozens of items that need your attention. It is very easy to get pulled into handling one crisis after another. Before you know it, half the day is gone and you’re already exhausted.

On the day of the golf outing, the best thing you can do for your school is to be an incredibly gracious host. Golfers will be looking for you when they arrive. They’d like to feel welcomed by the “boss”. So, this is exactly where you should be. Greeting people when they arrive, seeing foursomes off at the tee box, milling around the cart corral – these are the hot spots for mixing and mingling for you.

Once players are off and away, a good place to visit would be one of the contest holes, like “Closest to the Pin” or “Longest Drive”. There is always a lot of fun going on at these special holes. You can encourage the players to bet high and really have a good, relaxed time with the players. They will really appreciate the time you spend with them in this way.

(If it makes you feel better, you can take a walkie-talkie or cell phone with you so that you can be reached by your staff in case of a planning emergency.)

I’ve always found that golf tournaments provide an excellent opportunity to share a few quality minutes with my important (read: bigger) donors. I can run new ideas by them, ask them for advice on a particular project and just make myself exclusively available to them for a few minutes. This has always been well received.

It’s also a chance to build better relationships with those who could become bigger contributors. A few laughs and some sincere camaraderie can go a long way toward developing your donor base.

However, if you’re back at the club house, working on organizational details, you’ll miss these incredible opportunities and in the long run hurt your cause.

5. It’s a Great chance to Honor People at the Banquet Afterwards

Since golf tournaments usually attract a large number of people from your community, it is a fantastic time to use the banquet after a day of golfing as a time to hand out some of your organization’s most prestigious awards. In fact, if you establish the post golf-outing banquet as your organization’s premier ceremony, you could draw people just to this event itself.

The mood is perfect for it. Everyone is gathered, they’ve spent a day in the great outdoors, having fun, and enjoying each other’s company. At the banquet, all the participants come together to share a meal and swap stories from the day of golfing.

As the leader, you can first hand out all the golf-related awards from the contests like “Closest to the Pin”, “Longest Drive”, and of course, all the teams who won the different divisions. This will be a good segue into the more serious recognitions.

When I worked for the summer camp, this is when we passed out our “Thomas Bean” award, which went to the person who best exemplified the ideals of a servant leader for the year. We would always have some wives and even mothers who would come to the banquet just to see the “Bean” award passed out. It became a great tradition.

I would recommend that you have a volunteer whose sole job it is to take pictures all day long. Of course, many pictures should be taken during you award ceremony.

Conclusion

If a school golf tournament is planned and run correctly, it can be a day filled with joy, excitement, humor, good will, and generosity. You can improve existing relationships with donors and develop new friendships that could lead to future support. You can also help develop the bonds that exist between people inside your community, and at the end of the day, you can raise thousands of dollars for your non-profit.

If you’re not running an annual golf outing, I would strongly urge you to get in touch with some local golf pros and leaders of other non-profits to inquire about their experiences and suggestions.

For more information on planning a school golf tournament see: Three Important Steps to Planning a Charity Golf Outing

But, a football program is expensive to operate, and especially at the high school level, a significant fundraising effort is needed to provide essentials like uniforms, travel expenses, practice equipment, and assessment tools like video cameras and computers.

To address these specific needs, most schools have developed an active “Boosters” club, which is made up of people who have a strong love of football and school and who have committed themselves to making sure their team has what it needs to keep winning.

Last year WCVD Newschannel 5 in Boston published a report entitled “Student Athletes Forced To Pay To Play”, in which they highlighted a difficult situation at Hamilton Wenham Regional High School. Due to a serious budget shortfall in this district, they have been forced to adopt a “pay for play” policy, in which individual players and their families have to come up with the money to pay for all the season’s expenses.

According to the report, “It costs $282 per student for cross-country, $398 for golf, $409 for girl’s soccer, $508 for field hockey and $969 for football.

“Football started at $1,400 per student, but was reduced through private fundraising and gate receipts to about $969 per student,” Athletic Director Don Doucette said.

Obviously, this is a situation that most schools would like to avoid. But, that means a serious effort at raising large amounts of money must be made. And, it must be more than a few individual and separate fundraisers throughout the season. Football fundraising should be a sustained, coordinated, and multi-pronged attack that is carried out year round. The alternative to this aggressive approach is unfortunately seen in the fee structure above.

So, here are a few ideas on how to launch your football booster club.
Contests
Perhaps the most exciting and enjoyable way to raise additional money at football games is to hold contests for the fans in the crowd. Contests can be done at half time or before the game begins in an effort to increase attendance and raise funds at the same time. For instance, a numbered ticket can be issued to fans as they enter the gate if this is an effort just to increase attendance, or chances sold if this is a fundraiser. If used as a fundraiser, then sell tickets for several weeks before the event.

A grand prize and secondary prizes are donated by local businesses. Advertisements including newspaper ads promote the event and the sponsors. Tickets are drawn at random and 1-6 contestants will get the chance to win the prizes. Contests are a fun and memorable high school football fundraiser.

With an excited announcer, the crowd could really get into such a contest. I would even suggest trying to get the cheerleaders to generate some enthusiasm. Here are a few examples of contest that have worked well for many schools.

Field Goals and Football Kicks
Contestants have a chance to kick a field goal for the grand prize (donated by a local business). It can be a natural field goal, through the uprights or through a two-foot target hole in a sign.

Football Tosses
Contestants try to throw a football through a target hole in a sign from various yardages for a prizes. When it comes to high school football fundraising, with some creativity you can easily come up with a great event. Anything that relates to the sport, will likely be a fun and profitable event.

Scratchcards
Scratchcards are an unusual school fundraiser that can earn your school group up to 90% profit. A scratchcard is a small tri-fold booklet that contains a card of 60 colored “scratch-off” circles. Supporters are invited to “scratch” off one or more of the circles on the card to reveal how much they will donate, ranging from FREE to $2.50.

Scratchcards make it easy to ask people to donate to your school related group. First, the highest donation amount is only $2.50, which is a very small amount to request. It is easy to ask someone to donate something that amounts to pocket change.

No matter what the amount revealed, every person who donates gets a coupon with $75 in savings at national retailers, fast food and other merchants. So everyone gets a valuable thank you gift in return for their donation.

One of the advantages of scratchcards is that they can be completed in a very short time frame. Most participants can return a completed card to their organization in about a week.

Another advantage of scratchcards is that up to 90% of the money brought in is pure profit. This has several advantages. First, those who donate to your cause can feel confident knowing that almost all of the money they give goes directly to help your cause. It shows that you appreciate their support and respect their decision to donate.

Since there is very little overhead, a portion of the funds available could be used to provide prizes. Another option would be to request prize donations from area businesses, putting more money raised directly to the cause. The prizes could be something as simple as a coupon for a free round of miniature golf or a pizza party.

Consider offering a lot of small prizes to award those who get the cards done the quickest. It’s always better to reward many of your group members, rather than just a select few. That way they will be more open to take part in your next fundraiser.

Meat sales
From the website of the Vancouver Island High School Football team in British Columbia, Canada, I found a rather interesting fundraising idea- having a series of frozen meat sales! Here is what these folks have to say about this intriguing idea:

This (a meat sale) is a year-long activity. All you have to do is find a local restaurant or other supplier from whom you can buy the meat. They may want to make a small profit for their trouble or they may forgo that as a way of helping to sponsor the team. Nevertheless, you need to be sure they will be reliable and that you can get good pricing.

Be sure not to mark it up too much once you get it so as not to price yourself out of the market. Remember, aside from helping out your team people generally are attracted to meat sales because they are convenient and economical. Somewhere between 5% and 15% is probably workable. Remember too if you do this year-round it is continual revenue and not a “get rich quick” vehicle. It is not important to beat Costco or the supermarket pricing in every event. As long as you are priced comparably or lower than their everyday pricing you will do fine. When someone points out that a local store was selling its chicken for “a lot less” than yours it was probably a sale and you can point out that yours is “everyday” pricing.

The Whalers Booster Club has secured a “top quality” meat deal so it has the added benefit of pointing out the grade of meat one is getting. Make up a price list of what you’re offering and be sure to include how you can be contacted and any other ordering particulars. This is a really easy fundraiser to do and makes for continuing revenue once you get ‘em hooked.

Concessions
While I’m sure that every single football team in the country has a concession stand at their games, the real question is whether the stand is making as much money as it can or should. It is very easy to throw some dogs and burgers on the grill and maybe heat up some nachos and cheese, and think that’s good enough.

I contend that people go to high school football games in a good mood and are generally open to spending a little money. It is the job of the booster club or whatever group is organizing the event to make sure that they get as much money as possible from the fans in attendance.

Therefore, I would definitely suggest trying to find food items that will generate some buzz in the stands. When a person looks at other folks enjoying a deep friend pickle, an Oreo cookie freid in packake batter, frozen chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, or a walking taco, he is going to feel compelled to make a bee line for the concession stand himself. While nutritionists will cringe at these suggestions, if you want your concession stand to overflow with happy customers and money, I would strongly urge you to spice up your menu.

In fact, if you really come up with an interesting idea or even a special themed food night, you might want to start spreading the word ahead of time. A special indulgent treat is surely enough to lure people who may be wavering about whether to attend the game or not. A concession stand with an excellent reputation would be a terrific asset for a football program trying to raise much-needed revenue.

Online Magazine Fundraiser
An online magazine fundraiser uses a no-hassle email campaign to request that your supporters purchase magazines in support of your team.

The magazine sales fundraiser company processes all the orders so there’s no money to collect and nothing to deliver. Since there’s no upfront money required, there’s no risk. This fundraiser is one of the easiest wasy to raise funds available.

Spirit raisers
Your team members, families and/or booster club can sell t-shirts, spirit sticks, plush mascots and many other great spirit raising items. These are fun spirit accessories that your fans will love to have. Find out more about School Spirit Fundraisers

Conclusion
Football is one of those community building experiences. There are so many opportunities within the course of a game to raise the money that is needed to pay for the very high expenses.  Use a little marketing and creativity and your team will continue to find success, both on the field and off.

• You have commitment ahead of time so you know how many people to expect at the actual event.
• They are fun, competitive events that people enjoy participating in.
• You can hold additional fundraisers at the tournament: food/drink sales, raffles, auctions, etc.
• Tournament fundraisers are great for all ages!

Here’s a list of some of the most popular tournaments and links to resources to help you plan them:

Some of the best tournaments appeal to a wide audience:

Team sports tournaments are great for elementary to high school students (and even adults)

Volleyball: An Annual Volleyball Remembers a Special Girl

Basketball: A three-on-three basketball tournament or a Shoot for the Hoop game

Soccer: The Ultimate Guide to Running Your Own Soccer Tournament

Bowling: Bowling Tournaments for Fun and Fundraising

Not quite a tournament, but football contests can be fun!

Individual sports are also great… Tennis Tournaments a Successful Fundraiser in Any Season

And there’s golf tournaments of course: Three Important Steps to Planning a Charity Golf Outing

Think beyond traditional sports. How about…

Pool Tournaments are great for anytime of year: Annual Pool Tournament Fundraiser a Success

You could have a darts contest the same night as the pool tournament.

A horseshoe tournament might sound old-fashioned but it’s easy to add on to another outdoor event.

Dodgeball Fundraiser lets you re-live your school days.

or for summertime fun, a dodgeball tournament using water balloons!

For those who’d rather exercise brains than brawn:

Your fundraiser passes GO with a Monopoly game tournament.

Or choose another board game instead.

Bunko is a fun game that’s easy to learn.

A trivia night is sure to bring out the competitve spirit!

Imagine: football players scooping ice cream, cheerleaders doing face painting, basketball players running a free throw competition. Of course, all the players should be dressed in their team’s uniform.

It is amazing how much elementary or middle school kids look up to high-schoolers. And, if the high-schooler is the starting quarterback, captain of the cheer squad, or point guard for the hoops team, you’ve got a bona-fide celebrity on your hands.

You can include this celebrity attendance/participation in all of your marketing materials. It’s sure to draw a crowd.

I would also add that there is an additional revenue opportunity with the athletes there, as well. As long as it is very clear that the revenue generated goes to the school, think about charging for photographs or autographs from the players. This can be done in good fun and as long as the high-schoolers don’t get an inflated ego because of it, I know they’ll have a good time.

Everyone looks forward to the Burrito Bingo event. This can be either family or evening just for the adults. “That’s what is so great about it. Some bring their kids and they play bingo. Others want an adult night out so they don’t bring the kids. Everyone has a great time,” said Debbie O’Neil. O’Neil was an organizer of this year’s event.

Tickets for the event are $20 and this includes dinner and 20 games of bingo plus punch, coffee and then cookies for dessert. The group also sells soda, bottled water, beer, margaritas. They sell raffle tickets throughout the night for leftover prizes (3/$1 or arms length $10), extra bingo games, and also a 50/50 raffle.

The Secret to Success: Planning Early

Debbie O’Neil suggests that you start early if you would like to do this type of fundraiser. “You need to start early to reserve the hall for a date that will work best for you. An early start on prize donations helps too. We ask for donations from local merchants – we always purchase a grand prize for the last game of the night “black out”. This year we bought a Nintendo Wii,” said O’Neil. She tries to have at least 2 to 3 prizes per bingo game, so that if they have more than one winner they can “make everyone happy.”

“We usually have an A table (one prize list) and a B table (a second prize list) and each game is assigned to a table so the winner can pick from the prizes on that table. We sell raffle tickets thru out the night to raffle off left over prizes. I always try to make each game prize in the $30-$50 range,” said O’Neil.

Bingo Games Are Popular Favorites

To play the bingo games themselves, they just use the same patterns every year. “One is four corners, game two is Railroad Tracks, game three is any bingo and we always spell P, O, N, Y since that is our organization. Some game takes longer than others. We provide game patterns and a list of the prizes to each guest so that they can follow along and see what prizes are left,” said O’Neil.

Great Organization and Terrific Volunteers Make An Event Run Smoothly

Most of the shopping for the event is done the day before, because items need to be refrigerated. “We are fortunate enough to have a local Jimboys who provides us with our main dish; he does this in trade for a sponsorship. This is so nice because you don’t have to spend the day cooking,” said O’Neil. The group decorates the night before and preps as much of the food as possible. O’Neil has been very pleased because clean up usually goes really well because everyone always pitches in and helps when the event is over.

O’ Neil states that having a plan is essential to this burrito bingo fundraiser. “I would leave yourself enough time to have 2-3 meetings with your helpers. This year I had one person handling prizes, one handling decorations, one handled the food, 1 picked up the margarita machine, we always wear T-shirts that match and someone handled that and I was able to oversee everything and do the shopping. You can do all the shopping in 1 day,” said O’Neil.

“I always let people sign up for jobs so they do something they want to do. You need at least 6-7 servers and kitchen runners (restocking food). Usually 2-3 greeters are also needed. When the guest arrive we give them a ticket to provide at the dinner buffet, their bingo tickets, and they can buy drink tickets,” said O’Neil. They sell margaritas and beer which are “huge profit” items for the group. They also sell extra packs of bingo tickets in books of 10. The group uses their entire panel of board members. They have about 15 to 17 people. “Usually there are 2 greeters, 6-7 servers and kitchen runners to restock food. 1-2 people in the kitchen heating and filling bowls, 2 bartenders, then after everyone has eaten the servers move out onto the floor as ‘runners’,” said O’Neil. Runners sell raffle tickets, 50/50 tickets, check bingo cards, take out trash and do a little bit of everything.

Easy-to-do Publicity Makes An Event Popular With The Community

The event has been popular with just about everyone. For publicity they have used a number of sources that have worked well for them. “We rely on work of mouth, selling tickets thru the league, and the local paper. We actually have family members who come from out of town because they have so much fun,” said O’Neil. After running the event for four years, the group is confident that they have the logistics well-organized to create a successful and popular event. “I was told this year was the smoothest and most fun ever!” said O’Neil.

The event will take place on Tuesday, October 30th at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville. Funds raised will benefit eye care for residents of third-world countries. The World Health Organization states that approximately 75 percent of the people who are blind can be cured. The airplane they are pulling is the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital DC-10 which has flown around the world since 1982.

The football teams will be wearing their uniforms, gloves and football helmets for the special athletic competition. This event is considered a rehersal for another fundraiser planned in December of this year, five corporate sponsors will be competing and will pay $10,000 for the chance to participate.

Source: Aero-News.Net

“This is a great event that allows our parents and fans to come show support for our team,” Western Illinois head swimming and diving coach Nathan Mundt said. “We encourage everyone to come out and spend some time with us as a pre-tailgate to the homecoming football game.”

The event was open to the public and after the event, a reception with the team was held. The funds raised will be used for various team expenses for the Swimming and Diving Team.

Source: WIU Athletics.com

These specially shaped lollipops are great for junior high, high schools and even youth league basketball teams. They are an easy addition to your concession stands, can be sold at the ticket booth or at pep rallies.

These one-of-a-kind basketball lollipops come in 12 flavors! ~ Blue Raspberry, Bubble Gum, Cherry Snow, Cotton Candy, Grape Delight, Green Apple, Juicy Orange, Pink Lemonade, Strawberry Shake, Watermelon Slice, Wild Berry, Wild Cherry.

• 12 flavors available
• Retail price per pop = $0.50
• 576 pops per case (8 inner cases of 72 pops)
• Minimum order = 1 case
• Your group earns 50% Profit
• FREE Shipping

There’s lots of other shapes and flavors of gourmet pops available. All the pops can be ordered online for fast ordering and fast delivery. If you have any questions or want to order over the phone just call 1-866-249-0089 for more info.

Plus this stadium seat has a built in sponsor advertising program. Local businesses can support your team by purchasing advertising on the back of the cushions. Everything you need to sign up sponsors is included with the kit. Your team just sends in the custom artwork and the company does the rest.

With sponsor advertising when you sell these stadium seats, your sports team or school group will be able to keep more profits to help run your program. If you can get sponsors to cover the costs of the seats, every time you sell one to a supporter it is pure profit. You keep all the proceeds!

Find out more about the Flip Side Ad Custom Seat Cushions

These football shaped lollipops are great for junior high, high schools and even youth league football teams.

These one-of-a-kind football lollipops come in 6 flavors! ~ These football fundraising lollipops are sure to be a huge fundraiser hit on and off the football field. Fundraising flavors include Green Apple, Orange, Lemonade, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Wild Cherry.

Football fundraising lollipops are ideal to sell at games and events because they’re low cost, individually wrapped and easy to carry around for sales. Be a winner at your next football fundraiser with these fundraising lollipops in fun football shapes.

This is fast fundraiser item could be sold at football game concession stands, pep-rallies, or hey, why not send cheerleaders into the stands with them? This is a great add-on to other fundraisers like spirit items.

• 6 flavors available
• Retail price per pop = $0.50
• 576 pops per case (8 inner cases of 72 pops)
• Minimum order = 1 case
• Your group earns 50% Profit
• Free shipping

There’s lots of other shapes and flavors of gourmet pops available. All the pops can be ordered online for fast ordering and fast delivery. If you have any questions or want to order over the phone just call 1-866-249-0089 for more info.