I've signed on to help our local police department with their annual golf tournament that supports community programs. Part of what I will be helping with is soliciting sponsors. I've been reading up on buidling out the sponsorship packages and pitching the event. I really want to hear from those on this board who had some success with this and what has worked best for them.

Also, any tips on reaching out for prize donations and companies to target would be apprecited.

Thanks in advance.

Only thing I can add is that I have some restaurants that are routinely solicited for everything under the sun.

If someone walks in and pitches a cause/event there's a chance we might be able to help.

Any emails or letters are thrown away.

Face to face is your best bet.

Macpappy99 said:

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I've signed on to help our local police department with their annual golf tournament that supports community programs. Part of what I will be helping with is soliciting sponsors. I've been reading up on buidling out the sponsorship packages and pitching the event. I really want to hear from those on this board who had some success with this and what has worked best for them.

Also, any tips on reaching out for prize donations and companies to target would be apprecited.

Thanks in advance.

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DallasAggie89 is right, face-to-face goes a long way. It's a sales tactic, too. It's harder to say no to someone's face.

Reach out HEB and see if they can help with bags. They love giving out those reusable hemp bags with their logo on them. Cheap advertising for them and maybe saves them plastic bags moving forward.

Next, I would prowl LinkedIn for business owners or people who can get you a couple hundred bucks thrown your way for donations.

If you have the space and it doesn't eat into your donations, I would offer spots in the tournament to sponsors. Reach out to your buddies in Wealth Management, Real Estate, etc. Those guys love to golf and they need to advertise constantly.

Local hospital. Get in touch with their foundation. Hospital will always have 4-8 golfers and they will at least do a $5000 silver sponsor.

Business owner golfers like construction or law offices.

Local tractor/lawn mower dealers

The free standing ER's have been pretty present at any fundraising events I have been to lately.

Are they expecting you to go out and hunt up new sponsors? Or is there a list of boosters you need to hit up?

A little of both. The individual who did most of the work setting up the tournament passed away. From what I understand there may not be much documentation on what was done previously. They're establishing a new committee to help run the tournament.

I usually sponsor two of these a year. The best thing is to go door to door and ask for sponsors. One tournament I sponsor goodie bags and they put our logo on golf balls and tees. The organizer just gets a check from us and takes care of the ordering/design process. It's a lot easier on us that way rather than having to put them together ourselves. Credit unions seem to sponsor a ton of these as well.

Banks and credit unions are a great bet

-Work on detailed sponsorship levels. Prize sponsors, Tent sponsors, Putting Contest, Shirts, Hats, Swag Bags, teams, tiered levels (gold, bronze, silver - or tailored to police jargon sargeant-lieutanant-chief etc.). Map out what comes with each level of sponsorship.

-Solicit orgs, companies, etc. in your area that already support the police department, and then go for the obvious candidates (banks, credit unions, industry folks, hospitals/ER's, restaurants, etc.) - be sure to let them know what their $$$$ is going towards; sounds like a great cause that should sell itself

-Look up some of the tournaments that have happened in your area or will happen soon and locate the list of their sponsors. Most will want to play in multiple tournaments throughout the year.

PM me if you want and I would be happy to help if you get stuck or need more guidance. My non-profit has been running an annual tournament in October at Kingwood Country Club for the last 25 years.

Thank you for the suggestions everyone. Hopefully I'll know more about sponsorship situation after the committee meets this week.

CFTXAG10, I will definitely reach out if we get in a rut.

If you need a WLD player to raise more money on a par 5 for the cause, let me know. I would be happy to help out. We also had an Ex pro baseball player throw a golfball on a short par 3 once that went over well for a good donation. Groups that donated started their first shot from where it ended up. Putting for a hole in one is enticing for a lot of groups. We also did a par 3 where you could try to beat the Pro for extra prizes. Or Can you beat the WLD player at the long-drive hole, etc. Look who pays the college golfers in the area NIL money, they tend to do a lot of business on the golf course and sponsor events.