 So glad to have everyone back with us for another amazing episode of the nonprofit show. If you joined us early, you got to hear a little bit more about Logan and again, some of our affiliations within the golf community. So today we do have Logan Foot with us from GolfStatus.org and he is going to share with us what it looks like to tee up for dollars. So if you are considering a fundraising event that might consider golfing, this is your episode that you will want to tune in to. So make sure you hang around to hear all of what Logan has to say. If you have not met us yet, Julia Patrick and I are here as the co-host. Julia Patrick is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. She thought of this wonderful episode, what she thought would be two weeks and we're going on three years. So really excited to have the growth. And again, thanks to all of you as our audience. I'm Jarrett Ransom, your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven Group. And we are also extremely grateful to have the continued support from our presenting sponsors such as Bloomerang and the American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy, Nonprofit Nerd, Your Part-Time Controller, the Nonprofit Atlas, the Nonprofit Thought Leader, as well as Staffing Boutique. So thank you, thank you, thank you to our presenting sponsors that keep our conversations like the one we're about to have now with Logan. So welcome. Yeah, thank you for having me excited to be here. Okay, Logan, we have so many questions for you and we're so intrigued because your company is going to help any nonprofit figure out what a golf tournament and golf management is all about. So give us the quick rundown and frame up for us what GolfStatus.org does before we start peppering you with all these questions. Yeah, for sure. So essentially, we are a golf technology company. The.org side of our business is really the nonprofit arm of our company where we work directly with not only events being put on by nonprofits, but any third-party events being put on to benefit a nonprofit or a charity, and really just help them put on a streamlined, lucrative golf event through our technology. So our technology really excels at streamlining a lot of the golf-specific tasks that there's a lot of general event software out there, but you really need software that can handle those golf specifics when it comes to putting on a golf event. Then we have some really cool ways that we help driving some additional revenue and just overall making the process a lot easier for those, especially those who aren't golfers and who aren't familiar with the sport, but they work for a nonprofit or they're in charge of fundraising. We can just make it so much easier and less intimidating to put on a golf event. And I always emphasize in these shows that I do is you don't need to know about golf. I've worked with many successful golf fundraisers, some tournaments which raise seven figures. They're not golfers. They don't know the sport at all, but they can put on a golf event and you can too for sure. I remember Logan, the first golf tournament that I was part of as staff, and I heard this crazy term about selling mulligans and I was like, what the heck are we talking about? What is a mulligan? I've heard of widgets, right? And then I literally like could not put this together. So I'm really glad to hear your organization is not only for the golf pros, but also for, you know, everyone who really can can take a part in this. So let's do talk about how these golf enthusiasts intersect with donors. I would love to hear how you approach this for the nonprofit because I heard you use the word lucrative. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there are so many golf events put on annually for charity and I have a stat that I know about annually golf raises almost $4 billion for charity. So they can be extremely lucrative. Obviously, when it comes to attracting sponsors to your event, it's a very high end demographic that they're eager to get in front of. So really, the golfing demographic in general is just typically very generous. So if you combine a sport that they love in golf with philanthropic cause, usually they're going to jump at the chance to be able to support that. And then kind of on top of that something else I always like love to point out. It's also not just a great way to steward your existing donors, but even grow your donor base. As a lot of these events are four person teams. And so usually what happens is you have one person who is familiar with your organization sign up. They bring along three of their friends who likely have not been exposed to your organization to your mission. So you have usually four or five, sometimes even six hours with a bunch of people who don't know who you are, what you do that you can hopefully turn into really consistent supporters of your organization going forward from there. So it's a great way to not only steward your existing donors, but grow that donor database as well. I love that. And I think that is a magical way to think about it as a development tool because you're right. You're selling a foursome, but generally it's going to be one person connected to the group and then pulling in other folks. I've got a question really quickly. It seems to me that a lot of these events seem to be male oriented and they'll be kind of like a female like luncheon. And then they move through to a more, you know, the male side of the community. And I'm wondering like, is that just old school thinking? Or is that really what happens? Or how are we mixing things up? Yeah, I mean, it's no secret golf is male dominated. So a lot of your golf events you see will have majority of participants will be male. You'll have some females sprinkled in there. But I get the question a lot like, how do I attract more females to participate in the golf event? And I usually the most popular answer I like to give, I've gotten a lot of good feedback on is if you're going to attract females to the golf event, whether they're experienced golfers or not, is this can't even relate even going past just females, just people who are not comfortable or who are not experienced in the game of golf. What I usually suggest is, well, you can pair a clinic with your golf event. So you have the golf tournament for those who are experienced who are actually going to play in it. And then you can also have at the same time a clinic like on the range where you're kind of teaching fundamentals of the game of golf to those who are less experienced. So basically the key is to surround people with others who are at their sort of same skill level. And then for any of those people who just want to be at the event, they don't want to play golf, they have no interest in playing. I mean, just hop on a cart and have some drinks and just have a great time. You don't have to actually swing a club or you could just pull out a putter every time you're on the green if you'd like. So just make sure the event is about the fun about raising money for a great cause. And if that's the kind of the core part of the whole event, you'll attract all sorts of people. Yeah, I love that. And again, I'm not a golfer, but I always love being a part of just about any athletic event, whether it's a charity golf tournament or, you know, a professional tournament, whatever it might be, just being part of that atmosphere. I think it's very communal. It's very positive. It's typically a beautiful, sunshiny chamber of commerce day out on the golf course. So that's, you know, that's really nice. So that's great to hear. What about as we talk for this range of revenue? Again, you threw out the word lucrative, Logan. So four billion, which that is a great number to hear. So is that a national philanthropic number for golf tournaments? Yeah, so that's annually what they bring in. And I know since 2012, that number is close to 20 billion. So it is incredibly, incredibly lucrative. And when it comes to the revenue opportunities with golf events, where these golf events make a lot of their revenue is through the sale of sponsorships. So it's like I said, sponsors are eager to get in front of, you know, high end demographics, which is the golfer demographic for sure. And so the most successful golf events sell a very wide range of sponsorships. I have one of my favorite organizers I work with. She always tells me if I can put a logo on it, I'm selling a sponsorship for it, bringing in a bunch of money for one of the events we work with are called Josh the Otter, basically educating kids about the safety of water safety. So shout out to Josh the Otter. But it's where you will make most of your money. Obviously, you will make a little bit off of the four sums that you sell. But with sponsorships, it's a great opportunity to bring in a lot of revenue for your event. It's also a great way to kind of foster your relationships with your corporate partners, selling them sponsorships to your event. A lot of our events will include a team of golfers with their sponsorships. So the company is sending out people from their company to participate. And you can turn those into not just a single year sponsorship, but a multi year relationship that allows you just to continue to foster those corporate connections that you have. So that's where a lot of the money is made. But there's also a lot of other great ways that you can raise revenue from the golf events, including some on course contests, you'll hole in one contest, putting contests are always very popular. People simply throw cash or purchase them ahead of time to participate, have a shot at a prize, like a cash prize, or sometimes it's a luxury trip, stuff like that. And then also you mentioned earlier, sell of Mulligans, drink tickets, raffle tickets, there's so many cool things you can do to help drive revenue. But where you'll see most of it come through is from those sponsorships. Look, is this helicopter drop still popular? I remember seeing that for the first time. And so for those of you that might not be familiar, it's literally a helicopter. And you drop like these bags of balls, right? You open the bag. And I think the point is to see if your ball, maybe there's a number on the ball, makes it into the hole or closest to the hole. So the first time I saw this, I mean, it was a whirlwind, literally, you know, because you see this huge helicopter. Now, when you can partner that with a news channel and get some media press, you know, that's always great. Is that still like the newest and latest hot ticket item? Or is there something better than the helicopter drop now? Those helicopters are still out there. You'll still find them. Yes. No, that's a, that's always a fun one. If you have the ability to bring that into your event, pull it off. That's obviously a huge attraction. I'm sure everyone was standing around watching that play out. So, so no, that's still a fun one. Some other fun ones I've seen are you get to use an air cannon instead of your driver off the tee to hit your first shot. I had a really cool idea and event basically, they sold a sponsorship to a liquor company. And they put a big basket of all different types of of liquor from this company in the middle of a fairway. And whoever hit their tee shot closest to that basket got to keep the whole basket and just go home with all of that. I think it was a bourbon company in Kentucky. So that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. Right. Right. So there's so many cool things you can do to make it fun, make it memorable. And that's a big key to make sure these people keep coming back year after year. One of the organizations we work with a credit union that raises money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, they are always thinking of new entertaining ways for their golfers. And it's not just fun for the golfers, but the staff as well. He says it's my favorite day of the year to go to work when we have our best. You're combining having so much fun with raising money for such a good cause. I mean, what's better than that? Yeah, it's a long day. It's it could it can be exhausting, but it's so worth it. I really love those opportunities. So tell us more about the organization and how you serve organizations that want to do a golf tournament because I know I know they exist. And I know that people are wanting to up level what they're currently doing. Hopefully now people are looking into the helicopter drop. But what if we have never done a golf tournament? And this is something that we want to start how like what technology, what support are you providing? For sure. And we love first year tournament organizers. We've had so many come to us this past year, largely because of COVID golf being one of the safe events you can still hold. So if you are a first year event organizer, you need help, please come talk to us. We we have the expertise on staff to get you going. But through what we call our Golf for Good program, we essentially wave our typical upfront fee we charge any for profit events we work with. So we can get you in, get you started, get you access to our technology for nothing up front if you are a nonprofit or if you are an organizer raising money for a nonprofit with a golf event. And really what we do is we provide you with a custom event website where you can take registrations and payments for anything you're selling for the event, golfers, sponsors, add-ons, like your mologons, your drink tickets, raffle tickets, anything you want to sell for the golf event. You can drive everyone here. It makes it really easy to promote the golf event, take all of those payments and track everything. And then that all feeds into our tournament management software, which is the technology that is specific to the golf event that makes it so much easier, especially for you first-timers who are new and maybe not experienced with golf. This will handle all that golf specific, all those nuances for you. And then we also do really cool things with live scoring. So we have an app where you can participants can score on their phone. It goes to a live leaderboard where that's all updated. Now, that I have not seen. That's pretty sweet. Yeah, we have a ton of events that will share that link to the leaderboard out while it's going on. And what's really cool for a nonprofit event is we just throw a couple of donate now buttons up on that leaderboard to help them drive some additional in-kind donation. We've gotten some really good feedback from some partners that say, I can't believe how many donations I got just by sharing that. It's all about just making it easy, making that barrier to provide that donation really low. And so we've had a lot of great luck with our partners driving more revenue through that simple donate button. But then we also have a couple of unique ways we can help drive some more sponsorship revenue. Our platform does have the ability to showcase some sponsors in some cool unique ways within the technology. So adding that to your already existing list of sponsorship levels can help drive more revenue as well. So that's kind of a 30,000 foot view of what we can provide. But really at the end of the day, it's just about making it easy and streamlined and help you drive more of what matters for your golf event, you know, impact, revenue, all those great things. So I have a question and I would love to know how you solve this. You mentioned that maybe someone purchases the four some and then they bring their three friends. Now, of course, we as the organization leader, we want to know their names, we want to have their contact information. But the reality is that doesn't always happen, right? Whether it's a gala, a golf tournament or what have you, someone will say, oh, me and three guests, and you're not going to get their names because we don't know, right? How does your system or how does your professional experience advise us to make sure we capture these names? Because that is a donor acquisition possibility. Yeah, really with our websites, we set up, we can collect anything you'd like to collect, we can make things required, not required, whatever it may be, we can set it up how you would like. And then when it comes to those players that say, oh, I'm going to bring myself in three to be determined, guess, it's very easy to have the software up, the software is completely web-based, so you can access it wherever, as long as you have a laptop and have that up at registration and be collecting that information then whenever you make a change to your golfers, they're inevitable, right? With golf tournaments, this person could have come, so I brought this person instead, you can make those changes and it makes the change across the entire platform instantly. So it's just so easy and makes all that collection so much easier. So even if you need to collect any information past, name, email address, phone number, if you need shirt size, dietary restrictions, hat size, whatever it may be, we can make it easy to collect that info. That is fantastic. I'm imagining that having this digital leaderboard, it really elevates the need for the information because the hand signed scorecards and all of that, it's really easy to still be a plus, plus, plus friend and you still don't get their information. But I see this as a great opportunity for organizations because you're right, shirt size, dietary restrictions, but we could also squeeze in a little like, hey, what's your birth date? Or what's, you know, like we can get more donor-centric information from a platform like this as they're starting to fill out, you know, information for a golf tournament. So that is fantastic. My other question, and this is again, you know, completely out of left field, have you been a part of nighttime or like glow in the dark tournaments? Because I think that would be fun and also bring in a whole new audience that maybe aren't golf enthusiasts but are really out there to have a good time. I want to say we have worked with the Glow Golf tournament. You obviously, you got to have those balls that glow really well. You know, nighttime golf tournaments are possible. There are some facilities out there that have their golf courses lit at night. I don't know how many there are, but yes, Glow Golf could definitely bring in a more audience, maybe even more kids. I could see enjoying that a lot. And I think that would honestly be probably less intimidating to those people that we talked about earlier, who aren't experienced as much with golf because it's at night. And it's just a different atmosphere, I think, when you're playing Glow Golf as opposed to a regular golf. It's more, it's probably a little more obviously fun than competitive. And even if you did it, just if you did it on, and in terms of using the range, you get more to that area as opposed to having people on the open course or taking it to a three-hole kind of situation. Or I have a question about the executive golf course, you know, the nine-hole experience versus the 18, are you seeing more organizations go to a nine-hole experience because they're all of these games within the games and the different holes have sponsors and other things? Or what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think it's a good way. I think it's, I see it more when they have a smaller field of golfers is when they go the nine-hole. If they have the field size that can fill up an 18-hole course, they do it. And even pass that if they can fill up a 36-hole course. So if you're just starting out and you kind of want to test the waters and see how much participation you'll have with especially for first-year golf events, a nine-hole course is I think is a really good option for sure. Okay, and then to follow up on that, it seems to me, and this was really more pre-pandemic, but it seemed to be that more organizations were having like their golf event and then they were kind of tagging at the end like a barbecue or a dinner or something like that so that they could then get the folks that didn't feel comfortable playing around golf, right? Or that it was like they couldn't give up the day or whatever. And I'm wondering like, and that was like a fundraiser, it would have a component, options, stuff like that. What are you seeing on that? Yeah, auctions are really big. The silent auctions I think are still taking place. We saw a lot, especially last year, they'd get rid of the gathering, the dinner, the rewards banquet afterwards, especially if it was indoors. Saw some events, simply just move them outside if the course could accommodate. They had it on the range and just put them a big tent for everyone to sit under. But having that after the fact, obviously it's a very big social component of the event where everyone gets back together, and that's something the live scoring does nicely is it can give you your results a lot quicker so you can move on to what else you have planned for the evening. So I'm seeing a lot of those gatherings come back now that we're kind of getting into 2022. And hopefully the trend of cases, COVID cases going down continues. But in terms of kind of what those typically look like, I'd say, having the dinner afterwards, and a lot of the time we see auctions tied with that as well. Okay, what is the timeline if we say, because I'm going to tell you, Logan, you kind of sold me on doing a golf tournament. And if we wanted to do this, what would be the timeline? Like, okay, now I'm sold, are we looking 90 day? Yeah, what's considered normal? I would say a good time timeframe is usually four to six months. But if you're a very organized person, I've seen it pulled off in like two months. Nice thing about our platform is we have a very quick turnaround time to get you set up and get everything moving for you. But usually, the more time you can give yourself the better. But it is totally doable. Really, once you get a date in a golf course booked, you can get the ground running and just need a couple months to get things all set from there. You'll really have to obviously grind on those sponsorships and get everything sold if you're looking at two, three months. But that two to six month timeframe is what we usually see most. But I'm right there with your friend. If I can put a logo on it, I'm going to put a dollar amount next to it. Absolutely. Is there a better day where you're going to get a better course value for a nonprofit event? Yeah, so that's always something that they need to consider when planning a golf event. Do I want to go to a public course or a private course? The public course, obviously, it'll be cheaper. So you won't have to charge as much. But the private course, while it may be more expensive, that may be a draw for your tournament to golfers. Oh, I don't belong at this club, but I could get on if I play in this charity event. Now, with the private course, a lot of those courses reserve Mondays for their outside outings. So you're likely going to have to go on a Monday, which you may like or dislike, depending on who you are and the golfers you're trying to attract. Whereas the public courses, you probably will have your pick of whatever day they would like. Now, if you do want to do this, that's where I would start. Find a course, determine what time of year you want to hold your event, and then start calling around. A lot of these places will have dedicated people to talk to you for outside golf events. And they want your business. Golf courses make a lot of their annual revenue off of charity outings. So they're going to be very excited that you're calling and talking to them. Wow. This has been amazing. If you with us in the green room chatter, Jared and I live in a part of the world where we have an enormous golf culture. We have golf courses all over the place at all levels. And this has been really, really interesting because I think sometimes this experience is an opportunity for us to look at donor cultivation and stewardship, of course, but that cultivation factor of four. It blows my mind because we don't think of it that way. We think, oh, we're here for some, but this was really a cool thing to learn from you. Our time is almost up. And again, Jared, my head is spinning. And I know you have worked with a girls golf organization, a nonprofit. What are your thoughts on this? You know, I love it. I love the technology support. I love everything being digital for the leaderboard, the push for the donation. I mean, that is very philanthropic centric. And so for me, as the nonprofit nerd, that's very important because not only are we here to have fun on the greens, but also to bring in some greens for the charity because it's so important. And I've also, to Logan's point of doing an after event, having a barbecue or a lunch or something and then doing some silent auction items. I've emceeded some of those events, too. And they are fantastic, right? Just the camaraderie again, I keep coming back to that because I just feel like it's an environment of community, but that camaraderie, the excitement, it's just a lot of fun. So I don't think they're going anywhere. Again, I know they exist. I know a lot of people are doing them. Some people might be tired of them, but these are great new ways to up level what you've already done. Yeah, I'm really, I think it's a no-brainer, honestly. I do, too. And you know, I just keep thinking, Logan, and we're going to throw your information back up here on the screen. But I think it's kind of magical thinking about looking at your, the spectrum of your donors and donor engagement and finding out how this might dovetail to a new group of people or engaging people in a way that connects them. And you started off by saying this, and this was amazing. You know, this is a six-hour window where you have an opportunity to engage with donors or prospective donors. Where else can we get that? Where else can we find that opportunity? You know, I'd be challenged to say you're not going to have those opportunities. So it's a large window and it's a window where they're having a really good time. So they're happy. So it's just, it's such a great opportunity to engage with people, show that appreciation for your current supporters, but also bring some new ones into the fold. Yeah, I love it. Well, here's Logan for information education and development for golf status.org. You've certainly educated me today, and it's been really a lot of fun. I'm really appreciative that you would come on and share with us all the things that we can be doing. I mean, right now, if you're watching us live, you're coming to us at a point in time where this is where those summer and fall early fall events get planned might be really something to take a look at and get moving because what an amazing opportunity on so many levels. Here's Logan's information, golf status.org. Check them out because there's a lot to this. It could be a lot of fun and it can be something that can become one of those revenue generators that is just absolutely amazing. Again, I'm Julia Patrick. I've been joined today by the nonprofit nurse herself, Jared Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group. If you want to share this episode or find one of the other nearly 500 episodes that we've done, you can find us on Roku on YouTube, Amazon Fire TV and Vimeo. And then we are going to be announcing next week, but I'll kind of spill the beans. Our episodes are also being formulated for podcasting. So when we launch that next week, we will have an astounding number of podcasts. So you'll be able to access the nonprofit show that way. Again, we want to thank all of our sponsors, Blumerang, the American Nonprofit Academy, Your Part-Time Controller, the Nonprofit Nerd Fundraising Academy, the Nonprofit Atlas, Nonprofit Thought Leader, and Staffing Boutique. Without them, we would not be here having these amazing conversations. Okay, Jared, next board meeting. I say we're out on the links. What do you say, sister? I'll bring my putter. That's what they all said. Right, put my putter. Oh my gosh. Hey, this has been great as we end every episode. We want to remind everyone and ourselves, stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow.