Looking for Feedback !

I have been chosen tournament director for our non-profit organization to put together a golf event this year. Having played in many tournaments myself I only focused on playing and winning, not what goes into putting together a successful event.

My question to you guys who have played in fundraisers, is what were the pro's and con's of your tournaments? What would you do to make a tournament successful.

What type of raffle prizes would be good?
Best contests to hold.
What would you include in the goodie bag.
What door prizes would you have?
Silent auction?
50/50 raffle? etc, etc, etc

I am hoping for a lot of feedback from others, what they consider a great tournament. Any and all feedback, suggestions and tips would be appreciated. Seeing that I won't be playing (will be to busy running it) I want to make it a tournament that will keep them all coming back next year.

Thanks..
Ted

There are many websites out there to help with planning and provide tips/tricks. Just do a web search to start and get a general project plan idea to start laying out dates tasks need to be completed.
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First step, create a project plan/timeline with tasks. Pick a date for the tournament. Mondays are the cheapest and slowest day for courses.

Next step, create a commitee that you can assign different tasks to. Keep this group small.

Pick a course, send out bids to get the best discounted rate. Keep in mind the price range for the outing and your target market (executives, mail room, etc) resulting in the type of course you will try to get. How much are you going to charge?

Determine your budget (if you have start up cash) and target percentage of money to donate to the charity. ex. course costs $50, but you will charge $100 per person. How much of the profit goes to charity and how much goes to operating expenses (prizes, signs, promotion, etc).

How many golfers can you get (144 more or less). If you have a large number, think about morning and afternoon flights with lunch/dinner and seperate or overall prizes. Do not double up on par 3's since this will back up the course.

What type of tournament are you holding (scramble, handicap, flighted, shamble). Scrambles attact the most people since you do not have to play well and many golfers like to drink and have fun. It also is faster since you get the play the best lie and not have hackers all over the course backing it up all day.

Determine the rules of play.

Get a volunteer list, can not have enough volunteers that will not be playing or help with set up/tear down.

Have a committee just for prizes and donations. Sell hole sponsorships and create signs for them. How much will you charge to sponsor a hole. You can go as far as getting a company to sponsor the beer or dinner or snacks, etc. Try to get corporate sponsorships that will donate money or prizes.

Keep in mind this is for charity, so you want to maximize the profit and not blow it all on buying prizes for the winners. Get as many prizes donated as you can. Maybe only have large prizes for 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place and last place (I used golf lessons that were donated for the last place team in my last outing).

In terms of prizes, many people like non golf related gifts (bottles of good booze, sporting event tickets, etc).

Hold a 50/50 raffle. You can raffle off large prizes in a auction, have a putting contest for $5 an entry and winner gets a putter. Sell skins tickets for $20 a team and split the money with the skins winners, and keep a bucket out just for plain donations.

Try to get a celebrity to come and sign autographs for a small monetary donation from people wanting a signature. I had one of the Pittsburgh Steelers (James Harrison) at my last one with his newly obtained Super Bowl ring.

Give out prizes during dinner to prevent having a very long day turn longer by waiting until before or after dinner to hand them out.

I have planned several and raised thousands of dollars at my past events and they keep getting bigger each year. PM me if you need any more tips.

Biggest thing to remember, maximize your donations to the charity. People who will play understand that this is for charity and not looking to get hundreds of dollars to win the tournament.

have to get a Coozie made for the goodie bag and maybe a golf towel.....u can get them made for cheap esp. with a volume discount. But, lidomkj sumed it up quite nice.