Feedback on how to organize a Disc Golf fund raiser

[tinagerdes]

Hi my name is Tina. I'm currently working for a non profit organization that is considering putting together a fund raising disc golf tournament. I have never played disc golf and really know nothing about it. I am wondering if anyone has any insight on the best way to to do this? Some questions I have are the following: How much to sponsor a hole? Who would be good potential sponsors for such an event? How many people would you have on a team? How much would you charge for registration? Would you sell food at an additional cost or would you make that part of the registration price? We would want to have prizes. What would be some good prizes for this event? Any insight on this would be great. Feedback on this would be very helpful. Thank you

 

[aevew]

Hi Tina! Since you're really new to disc golf, I think a great place to start would be reaching out to a local club/league that plays at the course your event will be at. From there, connect with someone who has acted as a tournament director and I'm sure they will be happy to give you some pointers specific to your area.
My local club has run a few charity fundraisers, but I wasn't a part of the planning at all. I believe there was a quick "Into to Disc Golf" clinic for participants, and everyone was given a disc stamped with the nonprofit's logo to play with. These events were geared more towards people who wanted to support the nonprofit, but didn't have much/any prior exposure to disc golf. Not sure if that's your target participant group.

Good luck! And I hope someone on these forums who has been a TD can give you better advice than I did!

 

[DavidSauls]

The answer depends a lot on your location, and somewhat on how much effort you can put in. There are all sorts of ways successful charity events have been run.

We run one that's a rare team play event, on a destination type course, where we split the payout---half the entries go to prizes, half goes to the charity. The event and course are a draw to players. Sometimes, we've gathered a bunch of merchandise from donors and raffled it off. We generally raise $1100-$1300.

For a few years the local club ran one, on a very fun but rather beginner-friendly course, where there were no prizes. A few club members beat down doors getting donations from businesses, direct donations for the charity and donations for the players, so each player received a nice shirt and a free lunch. I think this raised $2500-$5000, depending on how hard people went begging. Some of that was local businesses giving to the charity---just tangentially connected with the tournament itself. But all of the entry fees went to the charity, too.

The key, and the thing you need your local disc golf community to help with, is what sort of event is likely to draw a lot of players. It might be a great course, or a great temporary course, or an unusual format, or just the lack of other area events around that time.

 

[Discslinger12]

Many good points here. One format we found to be successful is a Captain and Crew format working with the local club - assuming you have one nearby. The club can generally run the tournament and provide 'Captains' to the teams.

Teams consist of 3-4 players from local companies, church groups, organizations who pay, say, $200 to field a team. Capacity 18 teams (1 per hole on the course)

Generally everyone who plays is provided a disc (with the logo of the charity/event on it) ($10/disc est.)

Format is 4-5 person Best Shot. Everyone gets a chance to throw - the team takes the best shot and repeats until a hole is completed. Depending on how much time you have, limiting the Captain to one shot per hole can be fun. The format relieves pressure from team members so everyone can have fun regardless of skill level.

Locally our club worked with various charities (Big Brothers/Big Sisters for example) who would advertise the tournament and recruit teams. We would also recruit local restaurants to provide lunches (with the value donated to the charity). We also raised funds for the club.

An sample breakdown of the numbers:
18 teams x $200 = $3600
100 discs @ $10 per = $1000
club fee for running event/providing captains = $600

Net Funds Raised: $2,000

If you have a group locally interested in this style of event, happy to share more.

 

[osborne]

I have run a fundraiser for the last 3 years and raised ~2500 each year. We play a singles layout with $25 to sponsor a hole. You don't have to limit yourself to 1 sponsor per hole either we had 2 last year and it worked out well. Signs with each of the sponsors on the hole. We also have tournament sponsors that had graduated sponsorship levels. I think they were 75, 150 and 250. Each one getting a bit more out of it. Top two levels got free entry into the tournament. Entry to our tournament was 30, players got a shirt, a disc and free lunch between rounds.

The big earner for us each year is the Raffle. You need salesmen though people who aren't afraid to hound the players to get raffle tickets, not in a rude way but keep pushing those tickets.

When you approach businesses to be sponsors it doesn't matter what the business is ask them all. The worst that can happen is they say its not in the budget this year. No skin off your back, go to the next company and ask them. You will find that people will not know what disc golf is but will identify with your cause and donate for that reason. You will also find that companies want to donate items in lieu of funds. This is where the raffle comes in. Use those as items to raffle off.

Ok I basically just puked as much as I could think of off the top of my head. Let us all know if you have any other questions.