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A few weeks ago I was at a conference co-leading a workshop on fundraising. The attendees were a mix of people from around the U.S. who are on nonprofit boards, are executive directors, or work for nonprofits in a program capacity. The topic of events came up and, of course, someone talked about how successful their golf outings are.

One attendee mentioned that they do their golf outings in the winter as there is less competition for golf tournament fundraisers – I think they call it polar bear golf or something. The gentleman was from northern California, so it wasn’t as challenging as it could be in, say, West Michigan where I live.

“What is this, the 70s?” a friend of mine asked when I told her about the plethora of golf events represented at the workshop. Alas, I did not have time to go into a full event management spiel. So instead, I decided to write about the 5 things you need to ask yourself before someone suggests yet another golf outing as a good idea to raise money.

1. What makes your cause unique?

Seems like an obvious place to start, but I’m willing to bet that most of the organizations that do golf fundraisers do not have anything about golf in their mission or vision statements. If you are going to spend time and money advertising and getting publicity for an event, might as well reinforce your organization’s brand as well. One example is Soup’s On For All, a soup supper designed to raise money for food pantries.

“One of the highlights of Monday night’s event was the bowl giveaway. Throughout the year, students, families, church groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and local businesses volunteer their time to create beautiful bowls for the event. In fact, many of those who painted the bowls were serving as volunteers Monday night,” wrote Stellafly. “The bowls are given to event guests as a keepsake and a reminder of the need for organizations like God’s Kitchen in the community.”

As you can imagine, the event gets quite a bit of PR because of the great photo opps.

2. Who is your donor base?

Know your audience is another no brainer, but somehow gets tossed out the window when coming up with fundraising events. It might be that your donor base loves to golf, but it might also be that your donor base would get much more excited about something else. It’s also important to not offend your donor base.  An organization that provides services to recovering alcoholics may not want to do a wine tasting event, for example.

3. What is the purpose for your event?

It’s important to be clear from the outside what the goals are for the event. Is it fundraising? To honor clients or those the organization serves? To recognize employees? One organization I know of complained about not raising very much money at their annual dinner, which was supposed to be their primary fundraiser for the year. Their ticket price was ridiculously low (and no free will offering option). When it was suggested that they raise the ticket price, it was explained that they didn’t want to exclude their clients, who then couldn’t afford to come. It’s important that the primary purpose is not compromised by trying to make an event be everything to everyone.

4. Where does it fit in your annual fundraising plan, and the community event calendar?

Many smaller nonprofits don’t have an annual fundraising plan. That is a topic for another post. However, if you DO have an annual fundraising plan, make sure that the event complements your other fundraising strategies and that your donors don’t get fatigued by too many requests all at once. This is another reason to avoid the too-many-golf-fundraiser phenomenon. How many golf fundraisers can one person attend?

Someone mentioned to me the sudden explosion of themed 5K runs in our area. Again, while runs/walks are traditional events to raise funds, there are only so many runs that someone will do.

5. Can you realistically pull it off?

It’s so easy in a staff meeting to come up with great ideas. Board members too are notorious for coming up with lots of unrealistic expectations. Great ideas are a great starting point, and it’s important to dream big while in the brainstorming stage, but when it comes time to develop an action plan, staff and volunteers need to feel free to put on the brakes or ask for more time/budget.

What are some creative events that have been successful for you or a nonprofit that you know?

Need help with creating an action plan or brainstorming for your next fundraising event? I am available to help facilitate the conversation. Email me today for a quote: whammond@ ideasremixed. com.