Golf Tourney Vs. Dinner

[robk]

I just got off the phone with a golf course in my area that might (if im flex on dates) let me org a fundraising tourney. Some of the obsticles are a guarantee of 130+ golfers (Do i know that many golfers?)(there are alot of other tourneys to compete with) at $130 a head. $65 goes to F/B and $65 to greens fees. There is another $2000 in other fees. I cant see charging much more than $130 for a round so where does the bottom line $$$ come from?
sponsorships? 50/50's, Mulligans? selling ads in a program? all good ideas but do they add up?
Is this level of fundraising better left to the Boniconti's?
How about a dinner? It seems many more people would shell out $100-130 for a nice evening. (much of that goes to the bottom line). Guests would bid and purchase auction items (donated) and 50/50. one could still sell sponsorship of music/ flowers/program/.

Both are huge efforts, i am willing to make to raise $$$ for our cure, but I want to be sensible about where the ROI (time) nets the best results. Am I missing something?

[Chris Chappell]

I've never run a golf tournament but those that I've been involved with typically carry some local / national celebrities as well as a charitable organization, well known cause. Unless you have some assistance it could be a tough road.

Conversely, I am in the midst of helping with a fundraiser dinner in which we've raised over $300,000 net for sci research.

A couple of pointers. Sponsorship / beneficiary / cause is important. In our case Craig Hospital. Cause is sci research. Plain and simple.

Committee members are well know civic and community leaders with varied backgrounds. Also, very important that each member of the committee either has an sci immediate family member or friend / associate. Therefore they are very motivated and connected to the project.

Give yourself plenty of time. We took about 6 months. Try to get local celebrities to help you. We recruited Brian Griese and two tv newscasters as mc's. We were also able to secure a videotaped message from CR. Pick a location convenient, central and appropriate. We chose a Marriott. Price to suit your audience. We charged $250 a head for dinner and corporate tables of 10 ranging from $3,000 to $25,000. Mailings are useful but referrals, who people know and word of mouth seem to work the best.

There's more but I think you've got the idea. Remember that every $ dollar $ helps our cause and these events take time.

Good Luck. Any further questions, please ask.
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/cool.gif

[KLD]

RobK, are you doing this on your own or with an organization? I suspect you will run into problems if you are not part of a recognized non-profit organization with a non-profit number for use by donors. If you are not, you might want to approach an appropriate organization to work with on this.

Our local PVA puts on several events each year for cure research fund raising as well as wheelchair sports activities. The golf tournament is in the spring, while there is a surf tournament in the late summer. At the golf tournament they have both sponsors ($500+ each) and team fees ($300 per two person team). Local businesses often sponsor a team. They find that attorneys and doctors as well as urological supply, wheelchair vendor companies, etc. make good candidates to recruit for participation. In addition there are donated prizes such as autographed baseballs and footballs, team jerseys, etc. from local celebrities. A number of professional baseball and football players attend and provide word of mouth support. It is a lot of work to put this on!

The Tony Mezzadri surf tournament covers two weekends. The first is a spagetti dinner (not a fancy dinner...attended by many people in chairs as well as the general community) at a community hall, and includes a silent auction with many items donated by local businesses, autographed items from sports teams and movie stars, etc. etc. The surf tournament is the next weekend and raises money by both entry fees and raffle (surf boards, skate boards, T-shirts, etc.).

The main thing is to get the non-profit status. Most businesses and many individuals will not participate without this on your advertising,etc. It is better to work with an organization that has done a lot of other similar activities too. They will often have contacts and know how to go about setting this up without wasting a lot of money.