How to Get Golf Tournament Sponsors
If you're planning a golf tournament, finding sponsors to help fund your event is essential. Though it may seem like a daunting task, have no fear - this guide will give you the tools to explain, attract, and reach out to sponsors that will help make your tourney a success!
Identify Sponsorship Benefits
Creating great sponsorship perks is step number one when looking for sponsors. These perks are key in convincing businesses or organizations to help sponsor your event. Some of the most popular reasons that a business would sponsor include:
Enhancing Emotional Connection:
Ideally, the organization that chooses to sponsor your event will align with your charity's mission or cause. In this case, it is also likely that the organization's customers will have similar values. This could help strengthen the relationship between the business and its customers, offering clear benefits for the sponsoring organization.Raise Brand Awareness:
If the sponsoring company is small, or less well-known, sponsoring your golf tournament is a great way for them to get exposure to a large amount of people in the area.Media Mentions:
When a business sponsors your event, one perk you can offer is to give them shout-outs on any media channels your charity is using. Whether this is Instagram, Facebook, or any social media site, offer the sponsoring organization some props for donating.Swag:
This is an opportunity for sponsoring businesses to order branded giveaways such as t-shirts, visors and green/tee signs that your organization can distribute during the event.
The suggestions listed above are just some of the more popular ways that you can offer sponsorship perks. If you'd like an extended list of ideas, check out our list of golf tournament sponsorship ideas.
Tournament Sponsorship Levels
Offering different sponsorship levels helps your fundraising process in a variety of ways. Not only does it offer potential sponsors flexibility in donation amounts, but it sets expectations about how the event will be operated as well as promoting increased levels of sponsorship. However, before jumping into creating your sponsorship form, here are a few things to consider:
Determine Sponsorship Goal:
Creating a goal is the first step in achieving it. Setting an overall fundraising goal as well as smaller sub- goals will make the sponsorships easier to obtain. For example, breaking down a $50 k fundraising goal into a $15K (1), 10K (2), 5K (3) and 2.5K (4) will help in creating the various levels of promotional opportunities available to supporting organizations.Who are Your Sponsors?:
When considering the monetary value associated with each sponsorship level, it's important to consider who is in your sponsor pool. This will help you determine realistic contribution levels, making it more likely that the businesses/organizations you reach out to will sponsor.Name Your Sponsorship Levels:
By naming your sponsorship levels , you have an opportunity to bring attention to your tournament's theme. For example, if you are raising money for an animal shelter, your levels could be named: Golden Retriever, Tabby Cat, Poodle, and Sphynx. If you can't think of any names that fit your theme, you can always use Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum as your different levels.Include Advertisement Opportunities:
When deciding different sponsorship levels, consider everything that you have to offer supporting companies then break it down into levels based on value. Pull from the Sponsorship Benefits section above to brainstorm what your organization can offer.
Write a Golf Tournament Sponsorship Letter
At this point you've thought about every angle of sponsorship benefits - now it's time to put it all together. In order to ease this process, we created a basic outline to get you on your way to sponsorship letter victory:
Create a Short Introduction Describing the Event:
Have a short description of what organization you are writing from and about the tournament.Identify the Positive Impact their Support Will Have:
If your event is helping raise funds for a good cause, make sure that your potential sponsors are aware of that.Clearly Ask Them to Sponsor:
Though it isn't good to be blunt, being too vague isn't good either. Be clear that you're asking for sponsorship of the event.Address Sponsorship Levels & Their Perks:
This is where your sponsorship levels and advertisement perks created come into play. Layout the requested contributions for each of the available sets of benefits.Give All Golf Tournament Details:
Let potential supporters know when, where, and at what time your golf tourney is happening. They may want to attend, post about it, or share with friends.
Start by following the outline listed above to create your main ideas. This is extremely helpful when it comes to ensuring that you are covering the most important topics. For more help and information, take a look at our detailed sponsorship letter writing guide here. If done correctly, you'll have successfully communicated all the reasons someone would want to sponsor your golf tournament, and perhaps influence them to sponsor more!
Create a List of Prospective Sponsors
Now that you have determined your golf tournament sponsorship levels and developed your tournament sponsorship letter, it's time to start reaching out to potential sponsors. But where to start? With a world of people around you and limited advertising resources, it's tough to know how to begin reaching out. Fortunately, we've come up with a couple places to start:
Start With Previous Donors:
Depending on the size of your organization, you may have access to the information of people who have donated to your organization or charity in the past. This list includes people that either see the advertisement opportunity of sponsoring your event, or simply people who are passionate about the organization's mission or cause. Start here and try to entice supporters from the past to see the value in sponsoring your event this year.Local Businesses:
Regardless of the charity or organization, it makes sense for local business owners to sponsor area events. By sponsoring a local golf tournament, it offers businesses exposure to potential new customers and helps improve or develop their reputation in the community. Many organizations have an address and contact email available on their site. Start by sending them an email with your sponsorship letter and sponsor form attached.
Promote Your Golf Tournament
Once you've completed all of the previous steps, make sure you promote your event. After all, the benefits for sponsors lie almost completely in getting exposure, so the higher attendance the better! Follow this list for some inspiration in spreading the word of your golf tourney:
Use Social Media:
Post on Facebook, Instagram or any other preferred social channels about the tournament, sponsoring businesses, prizes, and anything fun related to the event. Be sure to tag any relevant companies (i.e. the sponsoring organizations or the charity you are raising money for).Create A Flyer:
Design a flyer that highlights the most fun aspects of your event. You can hang it on community bulletin boards, around the area of the tournament, or post digitally on your organization's website or social media pages.Marketing:
Contact local newspapers, blogs, or community influencers explaining the golf tournament and charity organization you are with and ask them to help you spread the word!Visit Area Businesses:
After you've sent your sponsorship emails to select businesses in the area, follow up with the businesses in person. This could help them associate your request with a face and may make them more likely to participate. Additionally, if they do agree to sponsor, ask if they will do a shout out about the event on their social media or let you hang a flyer in their business.
Sponsors Create Successful Tournaments
Having sponsors for your golf outing is essential in planning a successful event; they aid in financing almost every aspect of the tournament and even can help spread the word to the community. Additionally, sponsors help keep ticket prices low for guests which is most helpful in ensuring a great turn out!
In the end, it may seem like a tough process to get funding for your event, but just take it one step at a time - you will be on your way to planning a successful tournament in no time!
Show your sponsors your appreciation by including their name on your tournament's golf swag! Golfballs.com has several customizable products ranging from shirts and hats to golf bags and umbrellas. Take a look at our custom logo golf products for your event!
