|
|
What says summertime fun better than miniature golf? Plan a miniature golf event as a summer night's entertainment or as a mini golf tournament. A Miniature Golf event makes a perfect school fundraiser and involves kids and adults of all ages.
Planning a Miniature Golf Fundraiser
RESERVE A LOCATION
Reserve a place to play. The easiest solution to finding a location is to team up with a local miniature golf course. If there is not a course located within a reasonable distance, build your own on an open field.
Partnering with a Local Mini Golf Course:
Arrange with the owner of a local mini golf course to set an afternoon or evening aside just for your fundraising event. Negotiate either a flat fee for exclusive use of the facility during that time or a percentage of sales (at least 50%) to be donated back to the school. Offer special (lower than standard) rates to draw players to the event. For example, $5.00 for 1 or $16 for a team of 4; children under 3 free; discounts for students or advanced purchases.
Building Your Own Mini Golf Course:
Reserve a large field at the school or through the town. Obtain appropriate approvals and check with your city/town hall to see if a permit is required. Building your own course is much more involved and expenses will be higher. But rather than splitting profits with a course, all profits will go directly to the school. And, with a little ingenuity, you can alleviate the burden of building an entire course yourself. Here are three options:
- There are companies that rent miniature golf courses. Check the yellow pages or go online and search 'mini golf course'. These companies will set up a simple course at your location (indoors or out) for a fee.
- Build a course yourself using raw materials as barriers and guides. Things like bricks and hay bales can be arranged to create each green's confined area. Ensure that the grass is cut very short on the day of the event.
- Offer a contest to local schools, classrooms, or just groups of parents and students to build the most creative green. Offer substantial prizes for first, second, and third place winners. Since groups, rather than individuals will be entering the contest, prizes must be something teams can share (money, a pizza party, sports equipment for the school, an enrichment program for the school). In opening up the contest city-wide, you are not only spreading out expenses because each school would incur it's own expenses, but also advertising the event.
For creative ideas on building a tee green, search online for photos of mini golf courses.
THEMES
Choose an event theme as a guide to creating a cohesive course. By offering a theme, contest participants are all working from a baseline idea to design a hole. Some ideas include:
 
- Pirate Adventure
- Under the Sea Explorer
- Jungle Expedition
- Old West Roundup
- Dessert Oasis
- Carnival Extravaganza
- Fairy Tales
- Medieval Knights
- Sports
- Beach Party
- School Spirit
For more information on choosing a theme, Sign up and receive immediate access to Fundraising: Success is in the Details, a Free online guide from PTO Ideas featuring 8 essential steps to creating successful fundraisers. Click here.
FORM A COMMITTEE
Form a committee of volunteers that can assist you with the planning and execution of the event. You will need assistance advertising, selling tickets, contacting potential sponsors, collecting prizes and donations, creating sponsor signs, buying and selling food and beverages, and other planning details. On the day of the event you will need volunteers for things like check-in, the refreshment both, and setup and breakdown of the course. Although not necessary, it's a good idea to have all of your staff wear similar clothing (i.e. blue t-shirts, white golf shirts) to make them easily identifiable on the day of the event.
SPONSORSHIPS
In addition to ticket sales, sponsors are a key element in reaching your fundraising goal. Sponsors are businesses and individuals that donate money, products, or services to help offset the cost of the event.
- As a school, you automatically have a vast network of parents available to you. Utilize these contacts and have them ask their companies to sponsor the event in some way. If a parent works for a sporting goods store, ask them to donate products to give as prizes.
- Send letters to local businesses, from small merchants to large corporations, requesting sponsorship.
- Follow-up all requests with phone calls.
Unlike a golf tournament where you may ask for $250 or $1,000 cash to sponsor a hole, with a mini golf event plan to keep the sponsor prices reasonable (i.e. $25, $50, $75 per hole). Set up different levels of sponsorship and clearly identify what the sponsor will receive for their participation.
Encourage sponsors to offer something that will bring them return business after the event. Two-For-One coupons will bring them not just one customer, but two or more. Or, a sponsor could offer a prize for a contest winner for added publicity.
SPONSOR SIGNS
Sponsor signs need to be printed to recognize the sponsor's generous donation to your fundraising event. Be sure to print a sign for every sponsor. This small gesture will go a long way. These signs are placed at the tees, along the course.
You can opt to negotiate with a local printer, perhaps they will be willing to donate to your event or offer a discounted rate. Order your signs early. Collect logos and exact spelling of corporate sponsor names. By working with a local printer, they may be able to help you collect logos electronically. Always obtain a printer's proof of all signage and forward a copy to the sponsor for approval prior to printing.
Or, order tee signs online at GolfTournamentSupplies.com. Golf Tournament Supplies offers kits for you to print your own full-color sponsor signs. Their Tee Sign System
comes with the posters and backing to make custom signs that you can put on
the stakes you already have or order a kit that includes the stakes. A key benefit to this is that you can print sponsor signs right up until the last minute, meaning you can continue to solicit sponsors right up until the last minute.
ADVERTISING
The success of your event will depend upon the number of people you can draw to your event. Focus your attention on reaching the students and parent of all local schools, local townspeople, and businesses. Advertising suggestions include:
- Flyers: Distribute flyers to parents of all local schools. Be sure to contact the principal or PTO president for prior approval and request that they hand the flyers out to the students for you.
- School Newsletter
- School Website
- Local Newspaper
- Local Businesses: Ask local businesses to diplay flyers in their store windows. Also see Sponsorships.
- Churches: Ask churches to announce the event and place a notice in the weekly bulletin.
- Email: See our Increase Participation page for information on emailing.
- Website: Post an advertisement on the school's website.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Sell drinks, slush, ice cream, or hotdogs. Drinks can be kept cold in coolers with ice, but frozen treats will require obtaining a freezer cart and hotdogs will require a warming unit. These run off of electricity so be sure you have an available outlet and extension cord. If your event is at a mini golf course, obtain prior approval from the course owner to set up the refreshment booth.
COMPLIMENTARY GIFTS
Complimentary gifts are items that are given to each player just for participating. Gifts can consist of goodie bags filled with coupons, snack foods, golf balls, pens, or small toy. Have companies sponsor these giveaways and include printed promotional items from their businesses right in the bags. This will save you time and money from having to print a separate sign.
Although not necessary, complimentary gifts are a good way to get more sponsors signed on. Let's say there's a pizza restaurant located next to the course. You can ask them to sponsor your event and in addition to publicity, they would be allowed to hand out complimentary gift coupons to every participant. With the coupon in hand, players are likely to stop in for something to eat or order take-out after the event. Hand out the gifts either at the registration desk or at the last hole.
Online stores like GigaGolf, Inc. and Golfballs.com offer all types of golf-related gifts.
CONTESTS
Mini golf contests add a little extra fun and excitement. Unlike in a golf tournament where you would charge a fee to participate in the contest, we suggest you use contests as an advertising tool. Every participant is eligible to participate in the contests with their paid admission. For example:
- Hole-In-One - This contest is played on the 18th hole. A prize is given to any player that gets a hole in one. Perhaps advertise a free round of golf for up to 4 players in your party, a free ice cream from the refreshment booth, or some prize that a company is willing to sponsor. Whatever, the prize, be prepared for several people to get the hole in one over the course of the event. Or, advertise that anyone that gets the hole in one on the 18th hole will be entered into a drawing for a single large prize.
PRIZES
Prizes are given away to contest winners. These can either be a sponsored purchase, a donated item, or half the money collected from a raffle. And remember, no donation should be turned away. Even small items can be given away as door prizes (random drawings) which do not warrant a raffle ticket purchase. It's not necessarily what you win, but winning something.
RAFFLES
Selling raffle tickets is another way to make extra money toward your fundraising goal. Raffle prizes can be sponsored purchases and donated items (gift certificates, products, and services). Or you can plan to set the prize at a monetary percentage of the money collected from the raffle. For example, first prize wins 25%, second place wins 15%, and third place wind 10%. Fifty percent of the collected funds will go to the school fundraiser. See Raffles.
ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT
Ensure that all is ready on the day of the event:
- Set up a check-in/ticket sale table.
- Set up sponsor signs in visible locations (check-in area, refreshment booth) and at the tees.
- Scorecard, pencils, and goodie bags (if applicable) should be placed at the check-in table and handed out to players upon arrival. Upon check-in, remind players of special contests.
- As the event coordinator, you should designate all jobs to your volunteers ahead of time so that you are available to roam the golf course throughout the day, monitor supplies, and attend to any major issues that arise.
THANK YOUR SPONSORS, VOLUNTEERS, & GUESTS
Please remember to always send a thank you note to any company that sponsored the tournament or contributed a product or service. Specify the value of their donation and that they did not receive anything in return for their charitable contribution for their tax records. Let them know how much money you were able to raise for your school due to their support. If this is an annual event, reserve the course immediately and you can also let them know the date of next year's event.
A letter can also be written to your local newspaper, along with photos, thanking everyone for a successful fundraiser. This will serve as additional publicity for your corporate sponsors as well as publicity for your event. Remember to take pictures throughout the day.
As always, let your committee members know how much you appreciate their hard work. Following the event, ask each of them for their feedback and suggestions to improve on the event for next year.
MAINTAIN A DATABASE
By planning an Mini Golf Fundraiser, you have just gathered invaluable information for next year's event. Rather than start from scratch each year, keep a database of your sponsors, committee members, and any other valuable information. You will want to know exactly what each sponsor donated or which parent was the contact in obtaining specific donations so that you can easily approach them next year for assistance. Also keep track expenses, how the event was promoted, and how many tickets were sold so you can better estimate your fundraising goal next year.
Now that you know how, coordinating a Mini Golf Fundraiser should be easy!
7 DEADLY SINS OF RUNNING CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENTS
Tad Griffin of GolfTournamentSupplies.com takes the information we have provided you one step further. He has made available to PTO Ideas readers his
7 DEADLY SINS OF RUNNING CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENTS. Don't miss this information on the 7 critical mistakes that tournament coordinators must avoid making to have a successful event! He's included some DISCOUNTS for you too!
ONLINE STORES
Following are a few online stores that offer golf products, gifts, and sponsor signs:
Contact Tad Griffin direct at Golf Tournament Supplies to order tee & sponsor sign kits.
 
GigaGolf, Inc.
offers FREE SHIPPING on all orders of $99 or more.
Their unconditional 30 Day Play Guarantee allows the customer to try out their clubs and return them within 30 days if they are not satisfied. GigaGolf 30 Day Play Guarantee
Get exclusive offers, including coupon codes at GigaGolf Special Deals
See what others are saying about GigaGolf. GigaGolf Customer Comments
 
3Balls Golf offers Free Shipping on purchases over $50, use coupon code: freeship; or
Get 10% Off Any Order over $50 that you Buy at 3balls.com Golf!Enter Coupon Code: tenoff During Checkout!
 
Golfballs.com
Get $10 off your next order over $30 at Golfballs.com
Free PGA Tour Sunglasses with any Purchase
SAMPLE THANK YOU LETTER
Date
Company Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Dear Company Name Here:
We would like to express our sincere thanks for your generous support of the (School Name) School's Miniature Golf Fundraising Event that took place on (date). This event was a huge success. We were able to raise over $5,000 toward our overall goal of $6,500 to fund enrichment programs for the students during the upcoming school year.
The commitment and generosity of our community continue to amaze me. We hope to make this an annual event.
Please let this letter serve as a receipt for your donation for which you did not receive anything in return:
__________________(state donation here)___________________
Thank you again for your generous support. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (phone) or (email).
Sincerely,
Your Name
Event Coordinator
PTO Ideas has provided you with ideas for planning a mini golf tournament. This information should not be used as a legal reference and may not be all-inclusive. We suggest consulting with the head of your school or any other essential professional.
Promotional codes to be redeemed through the individual vendors. Please present promotional code at time of purchase. One coupon per customer. Not valid for prior sales.
|
|
|
|
Click here to add
your own suggestions, ideas or comments.
|
|
