Organization Fundraising Tourney, INPUT NEEDED

[zud00]

I have been contacted by a local organization to do a fundraising event. I have played in multiple tournaments, but would like some advice.

The course is relatively new (2 years) and is only 9 holes (18 pads). We would like to get a good crowd to come play in the upcoming tournament. The organization would also like to make a few bucks. So how do we do both?

1.) What kinds of things will attract players to come play a first-time event? Prizes? Low entry-fees? Trophies?

2.) How does the organization put money in their pockets and make everyone happy?

Most tournaments I have been to, payouts for AMs go to purchasing merchandise which is provided. There is no supply of merchandise to be used for payouts. I'm just really stumped right now on how to give back to the players while at the same time help the organization make some money.

 

[zenbot]

Raffles make a lot of money.

 

[Horsman]

Raffles make a lot of money.

Also a lot of the time are illegal

 

[DavidSauls]

Is the organization a charity?

 

[Horsman]

Its gunna be hard for the organization to make money off of this. Majority of the time the profit to be made in the tournies are off of the amateur players when they spend funny money on the vendors and when anybody else buys from a vendor. How much of a profit is this company looking to make out of the tournament, because they can increase the tournament fee and they can just pocket the money but that is also an easy way to not get repeat customers for your tournaments. And if the company is a charity then yes do a raffle and get prizes donated. It is an easy way to make money.

 

[DavidSauls]

There are a number of ways to raise money for a charity. One is a half-and-half; 50% of the entry goes to payouts, 50% goes to the charity. Another is to drum up donations for prizes, and allow all entry fees to go the charity. Sometimes it's enough to have a small entry fee and no payout---if the charity is something the players will support. Raffles, mentioned by others, raise additional money.

With a fairly new 9-hole course, it may be hard to get enough people out to raise much at all, though.

 

[PWaggoner]

So the easiest way to make money off a fundraiser is to decrease overhead while still offering a product that makes the buyers happy.

So its time to stop in all the mom and pop store with a flyer for your event and ask for prize donations. Imo people dont necessarily want ONLY disc golf stuff. A nice dinner for two is a awesome prize.

Tell them you'll advertise such and such amount of signs and announce them at players meeting.

Mulligans are great- you pay nothing and the players get something they want. $1 per or 3 for $5 works well.

And its hard to get noobies to play tournaments, just sayin'.

But id put my flyer on facebook, disc golf scene, in the paper, craigslist, whisper, In the shops that give you prizes... Everywhere. If you do a good enough job wining and dining the owners they'll advertise to people for you as well.

Just make sure people feel not ripped off and that the money is going to a good cause they can stand behind.

 

[markmcc]

We held an informal fundraising tournament at an Idaho State Park last summer with the park museum as the benefiting organization. The entry fee was low ($25) and the player's pack included a DX disc and a mini. The only payout was a Proto Stamped Roc3 to high man and another to high women. Since the park has a "pro shop" they were able to get the discs at cost, which certainly helped with expenses.

In spite of terrible (non-existent) promotion we had about 30 players turn out. We could have easily doubled that with more effort and lead time on the advertising.

So I think that if the entry fee is low and the tournament benefits a good cause, you may be able to make a few hundred bucks. But a lot will depend on how active and large your group of local players is.

 

[puck'n'disc5]

You can also offer a 'super pro' division (or whatever you want to call it). Essentially it is a side division where anyone who wants to can throw in an extra x amount of dollars. I suggest making that a 100% cash payout and paying out around the top 25%-35% of the field. Might be an easy way to get some local pros and/or top amatuers to get out there.

I hope I am explaining myself clearly enough. Good luck with your event!

 

[Royal Hill]

I love thinking about/organizing fundraising events, and helping out behind the scenes in getting them set up.

Keys to good fundraising events (when the focus is on the fundraising, not throwing a party for your friends while donating a few bucks at the end to a cause to make you feel better about the event you threw for yourself and your friends):

- know your market (know who will come to events in your area)
Don't ask them what they want! in a way I'm serious. You can't give them what they want!
So… give them what you can - a good experience, not stuff. Now go after the others!

- Eliminate exorbitant player gifting - if its a charity event - make it that and be proud of it. Keep the focus on the charity - they will respect you for it. "If you came here to win piles of stuff and cash - you're in the wrong place! We are here for the [kids!]" Even no player gifting for a value priced charity focus event is legit.

- eliminate risk based ordering. i.e.. make it an event where you can not loose your shirt ordering stuff.

- Make entry fee low enough that people understand it is not a "earn your money back" event. - remember.. its for the [kids!]
respect magic limits - Less than 20 for one round (18 holes), less than 25 for two. Even less is sometimes better, remember you are keeping overhead rock bottom low.

- Garner one or two "title" sponsors that will cover your operating overhead. (Printing costs, promotions costs, scorecards, little stuff) These have to be cash equivalent donors (ones that write a check or cash) *This way, without merchandise risk, even if no one comes, or if a tornado sweeps through the day before,or an impending hurricane, you are already in the black.

- Gather "stuff" sponsors. Either for "door prizes" or "merit prizes" (score based) Other have already talked about this.

- Have a donation jar out. (some will use it)

- Consider soliciting "gift basket" sponsors - "hey, small business… if you put together a gift basket, we'll say nice things about you as a sponsor. Or… for a donation of 30 right here now... we'll do the work and make the basket for you!" Use these baskets as door prizes or merit prizes or raffle fodder.

-promotions are important. Leverage social media. Print small fliers to attract outside the "usuals" (who will come or not come regardless of your promotions) Aim for the others, those that are not already the usuals. Emphasis on All Skills welcome! Lower the intimidation level. 2/3 of the blast is about the charity focus, not prizes. (you get what you ask for)

- Hand out fliers in person handshake to handshake - ask for commitment to come "We will see you there?" (this is how you get those outside the usual "Scene")

Best of luck.
Aim for a couple hundred at max for a fundraising goal. If its to be year over year - don't set the bar too high the first year. Nothing worse than raising 200 the first year, going crazy year two and clearing 1200, and then exhaustedly slumping back to 300 the third year in a burnout slide. Steady upward.

 

[zud00]

Thanks for the great responses and input. The organization is a local group that makes efforts to keep our small town well-preserved. They help out local businesses in building maintenance and restoration. We are a small town of about 1200. I will pass along the advice above and discuss it with them.

The disc golf club I belong to has not done any tournaments, I am hoping to bring a lot of the club players to play (and I think they will, they all enjoy the course). There are some larger clubs nearby that host many tournaments, I am hoping to be able to bring some players in from those areas as well.

As far as format goes, I would like to do two rounds, with three additional holes; that would make for 12 holes, two rounds of 24 holes. Each of the original 9 holes have alternate pin placements, so we could move those between rounds. With 12 holes, I think the maximum number of players we could host would be somewhere around 48. That is a large number and I don't expect to bring that many, but it would kind of give us an idea of how much outreach we need to do.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Get the small town involved. You have that at your side being a local little area vs huge metropolitan board of parks and rec peeps with tons of other events going on weekly.

Getting donations for local businesses is often a way to build a good working relationship and gain intrests in both avenues from business to park traffic.

Ask the businesses if you can advertise the event in their break rooms or counters if they are interested in supporting. Places people who have no idea DG exists but might find time to come out and see what its all about being a smaller town.

Emphasis on community and fun -- not the disc golf and players pack or format etc. Keep it simple unless you expect 100+ serious players to show up with the fam... DG just becomes apart of it all.

Local restaurant/cafe to provide food at small $ and donate % works great. Even corporate places like applebees hold pancake breakfast b4 opening and let school groups run it for $.

So many ways to raise $ but it takes leg work. You need to show up face to face and ask for the help.

Look at what DD has done with the GBO. It wouldnt be possible without the support of the city/town/peeps. If you can replicate even a fraction of a similar event you will susucceed

 

[Mr. Orange]

Look into the PDGA's competition endowment program. You can run it as a c tier, and "true amateur" charge $20. $8 per player goes to the charity leaving $12 for payouts, buy wizards for $5($12 value) each for the players pack, make some trophies. This leaves another $6-7 to donate.

 

[zud00]

After some discussion, the plan is to attempt to use the club discs from my local club or another club as a payout with funny money. The profit (or maybe a percentage of the profit) from disc sales will go to the organization. We intend to collect many donated gifts/prizes to be used as CTPs during tournament play. Perhaps a 50/50 all day CTP will be used as well.

 

[greg_b_4]

best money makers at a small charity tournament is hands down a raffle which requires work, and mulligans which requires no work at all. I've ran these hand in hand where you get a raffle ticket for every mulligan you buy. So most people will buy at least 10 mulligans. At a buck a piece thats $500 if you get 50 players all buying 10 mulligans. Hard to go wrong with selling mulligans.

 

[zud00]

best money makers at a small charity tournament is hands down a raffle which requires work, and mulligans which requires no work at all. I've ran these hand in hand where you get a raffle ticket for every mulligan you buy. So most people will buy at least 10 mulligans. At a buck a piece thats $500 if you get 50 players all buying 10 mulligans. Hard to go wrong with selling mulligans.

I like the idea of Mulligans. Seems like an easy money maker. And it makes sense to do that along with a raffle. Do you have just one nice raffle prize, or a handful items to be raffled off?

I feel like you'd have to have some sort of limit as to how many mulligans can be purchased. I think 2, maybe 3, would be about the limit I would want to have any player have PER ROUND.