5 Tips for Planning a Charity Golf Tournament

May 29, 2025

5 Tips for Planning a Charity Golf Tournament

Hosting a charity golf tournament may seem like a big undertaking—especially if you’re not a golfer—but with the right tools, strategy, and mindset, it’s a fundraising event that can deliver impressive ROI and lasting donor relationships.

Whether you’re a seasoned planner or starting from scratch, these five tips will help you make the most of your tournament and maximize fundraising success.

Tip #1: You Don’t Have to Be a Golfer to Plan a Great Tournament

That’s right—deep golf knowledge isn’t a prerequisite. Many nonprofit pros who plan successful tournaments don’t know a thing about golf. And with the right technology and support resources, you don’t need to!

Golf is an incredible tool for fundraising because it offers five (or more) focused hours to connect with donors in a relaxed setting around an activity they enjoy. Tournaments raise critical dollars, build awareness, attract sponsors, and offer long-term donor value. Get started by following these steps:

Set clear goals. What’s the main purpose of the event? How much do we want to raise? How will we define success?
Build a budget that includes expenses and revenue.
Form a planning team of five to 10 staff, volunteers, or board members.
Pick a date and golf facility. Consider your audience, weather, and competing events in your area when settling on a time and place.
Launch an event website. This is your marketing hub and registration portal, so make sure it includes secure payment processing and package details.
Sell team and sponsor packages online to make it simple for anyone to get involved with a few clicks and save you a ton of time.
Stay organized and hold a great event. Coordinate with vendors, work with the golf facility, and keep participants engaged.
Debrief and follow up shortly after the tournament to review what went well and follow up with thank-yous and impact reports.

Tip #2: Make Sponsorships a Win for Everyone

Sponsorships are the biggest revenue driver for most charity golf tournaments, and the most mutually beneficial. While your nonprofit gets financial or in-kind support, businesses get brand exposure, audience engagement, and community goodwill. Start by looking at your tournament’s hard costs and building packages that not only cover expenses but also drive revenue. To make your sponsorships attractive to businesses:

Offer tiered options at various price points to entice businesses of all sizes to participate.
Deliver strong ROI. Match each package’s benefits to its price and value. Including player teams in higher-tier sponsor packages is a great way to add value (and fill your field).

Add digital exposure on your event website, mobile apps, live leaderboards, and push notifications to provide excellent visibility at zero cost.
Customize packages. Ask sponsors what they care about—brand exposure, on-site engagement, or mission alignment—and create or tailor packages accordingly.
Make it easy to commit. List all packages on your event website with a seamless checkout process.
Don’t forget in-kind support. Prizes, food and beverage, or services can reduce your costs and enhance the event.
Follow up post-event. A sponsor fulfillment report helps you maintain relationships and sets the stage for next year.

Start your sponsor outreach by building a prospect list that includes personal connections, vendors, community partners, and local businesses. Create outreach materials like email templates and call scripts to help your planning team confidently make sponsorship asks.

Tip #3: Market Your Tournament Like a Pro

A strong marketing plan gets people to your tournament and builds excitement and momentum. You don’t need a big budget, just a solid strategy and smart use of your resources. Try these ideas to spread the word:

Drive all traffic to your event website where folks can find out more, register a team, become a sponsor, or make a donation.
Use QR codes on printed materials like flyers, posters, and postcards that link directly to your event website.
Leverage email and social media to build awareness and keep your tournament top of mind with little cost.
Empower your team. Ask staff, board members, and volunteers to personally invite five or more contacts each.
Engage sponsors and partners. Share copy-and-paste templates, graphics, and social posts they can easily share to spread the word about the tournament.
List your tournament in community calendars. Use local event and bulletin boards to reach new audiences.
Connect with local media. Send press releases to radio stations, newspapers, and TV outlets with your event details.

Tip #4: Add Revenue Boosters That Don’t Add Work

Beyond sponsorships and registration fees, golf tournaments offer loads of opportunities to raise more without creating more work. Try these proven moneymakers:

Add-ons. Sell mulligans, raffle tickets, apparel, and contest entries as optional add-ons during registration.
On-course games. Think golf ball canons, putting challenges, or wheel-of-fortune style stations. Bundle them into an “all-in” games package.
Contests. Closest-to-the-pin or hole-in-one contests are fun for golfers and great for sponsors.
Smart donation asks. Use QR codes, a donation station, or “donate your score” campaigns to ask for support in non-disruptive ways.
Raffles and auctions. With donated prizes, these are high-return and low-effort. Silent auctions work especially well when paired with online bidding tools.

Tip #5: Keep Your Tournament Day Running Smoothly

A seamless event day experience keeps your golfers and sponsors happy, makes your organization look professional, and helps you hit your fundraising goals. Stay organized with these best practices:

Update your event website with day-of information such as parking info, schedules, weather plans, and more.
Offer day-of purchases. Create packages for extras like raffle tickets or mulligans and list them on your website. Use QR codes for easy access for folks to pay online (and avoid having to hassle with cash payments).
Go digital with live scoring to keep golfers engaged, simplify results, and give sponsors more visibility.
Print what you need in advance. Use your management platform to quickly generate cart signs, scorecards, rules sheets, and more.
Coordinate volunteers. Give them clear assignments, prep them ahead of time, and ensure they know who to contact with questions.
Prep your supplies early. Pack up signage, swag, registration materials, and prizes in advance so you’re not scrambling on tournament day.
Make time to make the rounds. Use a golf cart to drive the course and personally thank sponsors and golfers—it goes a long way toward building relationships and ensuring participants return in the future.

Ready to Plan Your Tournament?

Whether you’re planning your very first tournament or looking to elevate an existing golf event, GolfStatus makes it easier to manage your tournament, engage your supporters, and raise more for your mission. Nonprofits can qualify to use GolfStatus’ golf event management platform at no upfront cost. Book a meeting to learn more and get started.