Golf Charity Auctions
Fundraising and corporate golf tournaments present an array of options for additional fundraising, both online and on golf day. One great way to raise additional funds is to host a golf charity auction as part of your tournament. Since your charity event is bound to attract a number of attendees, a charity auction is a great way to raise more money for your cause as guests love to bid on unique and golf auction items. You can even include large ticket items, such as unique vacation packages, at no risk to your organization with our No Risk Auction Items.
Golf charity auctions and charity golf tournaments have become popular and effective ways to raise fundraising dollars for your cause, especially with the use of golf tournament software. The combination of these two events can significantly increase your fundraising potential without creating double the amount of work of hosting two separate fundraising events.
Why Host a Golf Charity Auction?
There are several reasons why hosting an auction as part of your golf tournament is a good idea:
- Hosting a Golf Charity Auction provides an opportunity for your organization to reach a larger audience. You can promote your auction website to people virtually anywhere (it does not have to include “local only” items). By including diverse golf auction items, you are offering something for everyone, not just golfers.
- Since you are already promoting your charity golf tournament, promoting the golf auction takes little additional effort. Just include the auction website URL or auction information on promotional materials for your golf tournament.
- Including a silent or live auction on-site at your golf tournament enhances the party, giving people another fun thing to do while they are mingling with friends and co-workers. Don’t forget that not everyone who attends your dinner or banquet need be a golfer. Many supporters will enjoy coming to a nice golf course or country club, providing additional fundraising capacity for your event.
Planning a Charity Auction – Procuring Great Auction Items
The first thing you’ll need to do for your golf charity auction is to solicit golf auction items from local businesses. Many organizations will contribute an in-kind donation for the marketing benefit of having their business name included in the auction book or promotional materials. Be sure to include some popular items that will attract serious bidding from people interested in golf, such as golf lessons from the club pro or a set of new irons. Also include items of interest to the general public such as spa services, electronic equipment, and restaurant gift certificates.
You may also want to include a few large ticket items (such as vacation packages) that will bring in larger bids, meaning more donations for your organization. These may include vacation packages or travel experiences that will bring in larger bids and more donations for your organization. If you can put together a travel package of donated items, that would be great. But many organizations cannot do this – so don’t limit yourself to donated items. GolfRegistrations offers premium vacation packages for use with golf charity auctions. These packages can be auctioned off at no cost or risk to your organization. If your reserve is not met, the packages are not purchased and your organization is not on the hook for any fees.
Read more on procuring great auction items.
Setting up a Golf Auction Website
Once you’ve gathered your golf auction items, the next step is to set up your auction website. A golf auction website allows for more detailed information about the purpose of your fundraiser, as well as more information about each item including product images, starting bids, detailed product descriptions, item values, reserve amounts, bid increments, links to the donor’s web page, and more. If conducting an online charity auction, we highly recommend sending an email invitation with a link to the webpage, making it much easier for people to access. You can easily include this in your confirmation email to golf participants and dinner attendees, as well as invitations to community members, media, and more. Be sure to invite them to share the link to the online auction, as this event can really be open to anyone.
Live & Silent Auctions
If you choose to host a silent auction at the golf outing, we still recommend online bidding. If the golf charity auction begins online, people can start reading about the items up for bid, look at photos, and get their wallets ready for the event. They can also forward the golf auction website link to someone else they think may be interested in bidding on an item. Then, on the day of the event, the bidding continues online at the actual golf silent auction. At the tournament, make sure to have a volunteer monitor the table and answer any questions. Do the last call for bids at the banquet when everyone arrives at the post-tournament golf party. Bids are calculated online with no need to collect payments. Winning bidders can pick up their merchandise on the way out, to avoid shipping fees and logistics.
More Golf Tournament Resources
If you’ve been tasked with organizing a charity golf tournament, be sure to check out our other free golf tournament resources. We offer golf tournament planning tools, including a sample tournament budget, golf flyers, “how-to” guidelines, and golf fundraising ideas.
GolfRegistrations is the industry-leading golf tournament management software system for managing the full event life cycle of charity golf events including functions to:
- Manage player and team registrations, with golf handicap and custom question functionality
- Assign additional players to teams
- Organize pre-event promotions
- Publish golf course maps and photos to highlight your chosen golf course or country club
- Sell and promote sponsorships online
- Sell unlimited golf products (raffle tickets, mulligan packages, dinner only tickets, golf shirts and more)
- Generate detailed tournament management and registration reports
- View event planning progress throughout the planning phase
- Process secure credit card payments with DoJiggy Payments or your supported processor