Choice Hotels Canada Foundation Golf Tournament Tool Kit

Transcription

1 Choice Hotels Canada Foundation Golf Tournament Tool Kit This guide has been created to provide ideas, tips and tools to help you host a Golf Tournament to raise funds for the Choice Hotels Canada Foundation. Decide Which CHC Foundation Initiative You Want to Support Choose one of the five outstanding programs the Foundation supports or split what you raise between all five programs. Either way, you want to let everyone know exactly what you are supporting and where the funds are going! Educate Your Volunteers About The CHC Foundation and Our Partners When talking to community members, your volunteers can let them know about the great cause their donation will support. This may lead to bigger contributions. We have brochures and handouts that can assist with this. Contact us at [email protected] if you require any materials or you can download them from our website. Getting Your Fundraising Dollars to Your Desired Charity We can help with that. The easiest way is to consolidate the funds you raised and issue a cheque to the charity. Forward the cheque to the CHC Foundation at our Mississauga office (5090 Explorer Drive, Suite 500, Mississauga, ON L4W 4T9). We ll submit it to the charity on your behalf. We ll also keep track of funds raised by your hotel to ensure you re eligible for our new Foundation awards for franchisees. If guests want to make a cheque donation, ask to have it made payable directly to the charity. The charity can then forward on a tax receipt. Alternatively, if the donation is intended to be spread across all Foundation programs, a cheque can be made payable to Tides Canada Choice Hotels Canada Foundation. Tax receipts will be issued for these as well. The CHC Foundation can also provide your hotel with receipt pads for large donations. While these aren t formal tax receipts, they allow you to confirm the donation immediately. We will then use this to requisition a tax receipt from the charity.

2 Planning Your Event Assign a Team Leader A successful golf tournament fundraiser requires advance planning and a dedicated team. We suggest that you utilize your fundraising committee and, if possible, a golf enthusiast to coordinate your event. Create an Event Team/Committee A successful team encompasses a variety of skills, talents and expertise. Consider assigning responsibilities against these major tasks: Selling foursomes and tracking registration Developing communication materials: invitations, posters, advertisements, media advisory Requesting donations, sponsorships, tee-gifts or prizes Interacting with key suppliers and golf course (i.e., catering, logistics) Coordinating special guests and entertainment Coordinating volunteers Work with the Golf Club Pro (Professional golfers, who teach the game, running golf clubs and courses, and dealing in golf equipment) The Golf Club Pro is a good starting point when developing a golf tournament. They are experts at running tournaments and often have a number of services and/or packages for fundraisers. Inquire about the process for booking, their services and what additional facilities are available. Here is a short list if items to help confirm your working relationship: Booking Confirm the process for booking the tournament and how much lead time is required. Some golf courses require 6 to 12 months advance notice. Look into deposit, cancellation and rain-out policies, as well as exclusivity. Services Confirm if the golf course offers partial or full tournament planning. Can they: Recommend tournament rules and format (i.e., best ball, scramble) Coordinate RSVPs Staff the event and coordinate signage and special holes/activities set up Coordinate registration Tabulate scores and identify winning foursome(s) Provide customized scorecards Facilities Inquire what additional facilities are available and the related costs. For example: Menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks Beverages, water and beverage cart services Dining or banquet rooms services including AV Facilities for golfers (i.e., caddies, lockers, shoe cleaning, spa) Pro shop services (i.e., golf club rentals, golf cart rentals)

3 Save the Date Since golf tournaments are popular events, consider sending out advance invitations or save the date cards to potential participants. Many tournaments begin confirming participants six months in advance, especially if they are annual events. Consider offering incentives for early registration like a discount or a special tournament golf shirt and hat. Set the Budget The budget and fundraising objective should be set early in planning process. Be sure to identify all possible revenue streams and expenses before the ticket price is set. There are a number of ways to raise funds and lower overall expenses. Here are some suggestions: Mark-up Green Fees: The registration fee for many charity golf tournaments includes green fees and lunch/dinner. To determine the registration fee, total all event costs and include funds for the charity. For example, a $250 registration fee includes: $95 green fee, $15 cart fee, $15 lunch, $50 dinner, $25 gifts/giveaways and $50 for charity. Alternatively, you can take the total tournament cost and multiply by 1.25 to determine an estimated player cost. Sponsorships: Individuals, local businesses or organizations can be approached to sponsor a hole or activity (e.g. registration, breakfast, dinner entertainment, hole-in-one contest). Silent Auction, Prizing and Gift Bags: Local business and vendors can be approached to promote their product/services by providing gifts-in-kind for a silent auction, player prizes or player gift bags. Create an Entertaining Event Consider ways to make your event unique. There are numerous ways to keep golf tournaments entertaining, challenging and memorable. Here are a few ideas: Hole-in-One Challenge: Host a hole-in-one challenge with a high value prize. However, insurance must be secured for this activity as the odds for an average golfer are lower than you might think. According to an American Hole-In-One study, the odds are 1 in 12,500 attempts! Many companies offer hole-in-one insurance packages specifically for golf tournaments. Some also include high value prizes. Costs are reasonable and scaled to the value of the prize. The Golf Course Pro can direct you to a firm that meets your needs and budget. Alternatively, you can contact an insurance broker to source the best package for your event. The Pro can provide you with the information required for the insurance (including the holes for the challenge) and help coordinate the details in accordance with the insurance policy. Shootout: This is a variation of the hole-in-one contest. After the golf tournament is complete, 1 to 4 players are chosen to go back to the 9th or 18th fairway. They can be selected at random or be the winners of other games of skill. Each golfer has the chance to make a hole-in-one for a much larger prize than the hole-in-one contest. This contest make for an exciting event, and is a great opportunity to gather participants after the tournament. Again, work with the Pro to coordinate the details.

4 Superticket : Most tournament players anticipate paying a little extra at charity golf tournaments to participate in on-course activities (i.e., mulligans, beat the pro, closest to the pin, a raffle, etc). Consider combining tournament activities into one superticket for a pre-set amount. These are sold at registration. Players show their superticket at each activity to participate. This way you only request one donation during the day and potentially increasing the funds raised. Golf Gifts and Prizes: High quality golf gifts and prizes are important elements of a tournament. They should reflect the interests and skill level of the players. Games of Skill: On-course games of skill can be fun and challenging. These can include longest-drive, closest to the pin or beat the pro. Remember to have a balance of activities that add to the overall experience, but do not interrupt speed of play. Golf Experience Remember that the golfing experience is the key part of the tournament. Work with the Pro or Marshall to develop the tournament. Key considerations include: the best format to manage the number of golfers on the course, skill and challenge levels, reasonable speed of play (i.e., under 5 hours). Another way to create interest is to include an opportunity to meet or play with local celebrities and politicians. Invite Golfers Getting the word out to golfers to secure their involvement as early as possible is extremely important. The Event Team/Committee should identify the guest list and the type of players it wants to attract to the event. The number of targeted guests should be double or triple the number of actual golfers. Personal invitations sent by or letter are very effective. To attract a broader audience, you can , post a flyer on a community board or place a classified ad in the local newspaper or online. Request Prizes and Sponsorships A great starting point is to make a list of all the elements you need to meet your budget and fundraising goal. This will help you determine the organizations and companies in your community to approach and what to solicit for. Develop a sponsorship package and cover letter. The letter should: Clearly explain the tournament s goals, including the fundraising target. Provide top-line details on the event including date, location, number of participants and attendance. Specify how the company can help (i.e., sponsorship level, number of prizes needed, contribution of food or beverage, etc) and what they will receive for their involvement. Identify how you will follow up with them and include your contact information. The sponsorship package should include a variety of opportunities for involvement (i.e. major, supporting/activity, hole). These levels should offer benefits scaled to the prices requested. When setting sponsorship prices, take into account the cost of foursomes included. In advance, determine if sponsorships will be cash only or a combination of cash and gifts in-kind. (See sample sponsorship package) *A sample request letter is included with the templates

5 Confirm Your Action Plan and Order Supplies The CHC Foundation has created sample critical paths, an event day action plan and supply list templates as guidelines to help in planning your event Sample Critical Paths

6 Sample Supply List When looking for supplies, remember that many businesses will donate or discount items to benefit a charity. *Quantities are estimates and will vary depending on the size of the tournament.

7 Sample Sponsorship Packages Outlined is a sample sponsorship package with three differentiated levels of sponsorship:

8 Sample Sponsorship Request Letter

9 Sample Media Advisory (Hotel Location) and Choice Hotels Canada Foundation Hosts a Community Golf Tournamentto Benefit (name of charity). WHAT: Charity Golf Tournament to benefit the Children at the (Charity Project Name) WHEN: (Date and time) WHERE: (Golf Course Name) (Address) WHO: Golfers from (business sector, community or city) and the surrounding area (and local celebrities, special guests) DETAILS: (hotel name) is hosting an annual charity Golf Tournament within the (community name) community to raise funds for (CHC Foundation Project). Participants will be trying their skills at the (insert details of tournament including any major contests like hole-in-one prize). BACKGROUND The Choice Hotels Canada Foundation harnesses the collective efforts of our franchise partners, guests and employees in raising funds for important causes related to shelter, education and children. By partnering with reputable charities, we work to maximize our impact on specific initiatives in Canada and around the world. For further information, contact: (Name) (Title) ( ) (Phone #) Choice Hotels Canada Foundation: Laura Armstrong Foundation Coordinator