 Welcome everybody to another episode of The Non-Profit Show. Today is a special day. We have our non-profit thought leader episode going on with our friend Logan Foot coming to us from Golf Status. We've had Logan on, I think almost more than a year ago to talk about golf because we really need to understand more about this vehicle for fundraising. And so it's going to be a really great conversation and we're excited that you are with us here to join on this special episode. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Non-Profit Academy. Jared Ransom, the non-profit nerd, has the day off. She'll be joining us shortly. We have amazing sponsors that make these episodes come in through and to you around the world. We're just finishing up our third year going into our fourth year broadcasting. Five days a week, nearly 800 episodes. And that is because of the generous support that we have from Blumerang, American Non-Profit Academy, your part-time controller, non-profit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, staffing boutique, non-profit nerd, and non-profit tech talk. These are the folks that bring us forward day in and day out. You have three ways to get a hold of our amazing archives joining us live or finding something that you need help with in researching a topic with us. We have streaming broadcasts. We have our podcast. And we have a new app that we've just come up with. Our thanks to our internal team here. Kevin Pace, our executive producer, has been leading that. And you can use this QR code, download the app, and then get immediate help and access to our archives as well as all the information that we have from the non-profit show. It's super cool. I got to say. Hey, Logan Futt, yay team. Tell us why today is a special day in the golf world, my friend. Around one of the masters. Very special day, a special week in general. So all the golf nerds like myself are just geeking out right now. You know, we should all be wearing our green jackets if we have them. If I had one, I'd wear it, but not near good enough to have one of those. We'll talk to us a little bit about golf status because when I think of an organization who really knows what's going on and how this all this, this very specialized ecosystem works with the philanthropic community. I think of you all. Why is that? And what is it that you all do? Yeah, so golf status. We're a golf technology company. And really we specialize in providing software that can manage the golf event specifically. The golf event has so many specific needs that you don't really encounter with any other type of fundraising event, you know, in terms of the scoring of the golf events, how you manage your teams within the golf event, creating parents doing whole assignments or tea time assignments. So we completely specialize in all of the management of that event. And then we also provide our clients with opportunities to raise even more funds through, you know, providing sponsorship exposure through our technology, as well as things like a whole in one contest and unique sponsorship opportunities they can take advantage of. So we specialize in really saving an event organizer as much time as possible through the use of our platform kind of streamline streamlining and automating a lot of the processes involved with the golf event. And we provide them more opportunities to raise more funds. And really the best thing that we do, I think, is provide really no upfront cost access to our platform to nonprofits or any individual raising money for nonprofit. And we really are just staking our success on your success. We're not going to earn any money unless your event does. I love it. You know, I asked you in the green room chatter to kind of clarify this. And I think what's really interesting is that, you know, this is proprietary information. You all came up with this technology and really have created it and refined it with a specific linkage to the philanthropic world. And so I find it very, very interesting because when you have a typical event, you open up a ballroom door and everybody goes in and it's not easy and there are a lot of wacky things that go on, but you have, you can see everybody and everybody can see the stage, right? But in a golf event, that doesn't happen. You have a lot of things that you can't physically get to right then and there. And so this technology kind of bridges that. It allows, it seems to me, everybody to kind of be together and yet not together, if that makes sense. And so I think it's a really, really interesting blend of what's going on. Talk to us about sponsorships and making them more attractive and relevant because at the end of the day, we've got to have these sponsorships in place, right? It's not about selling tickets. Yeah, sponsorships are where you're going to make your most amount of money with a golf event. You know, you can obviously net a decent amount with your golfer registrations, team registrations, but this is where you're going to drive the most revenue for, for your golf events. So you want to make sure you have attractive, relevant options, but also just a wide variety of options as well. So you can attract, you know, the large companies that can come in and buy a title or a premier sponsorship as well as the companies who maybe only have the budget for a whole sponsorship or something smaller and everywhere in between. So something that we specialize in here at golf status is the digital exposure you can offer. So with our platform, you can live score your event, show live leaderboards. We have the ability to display sponsor logos in those areas, giving us a sponsor, a lot of exposure. Obviously a leaderboard is something that's going to be viewed numerous times throughout a golf event, both within the app on a TV, we provide event websites that have a leaderboard page as well. So coming up with new ideas on how to, or how to provide sponsorships is really key. And I always tell people don't be afraid to get creative or go big and think of unique items you can display a sponsor logo on. Kind of something I always tell people is if they're worried about being able to sell sponsorships with a lot of these, you don't have to fulfill them unless you sell them. So take a lot of our events, sell like a towel sponsorship. Well, you can list a towel sponsorship out there, know that I need to sell it by this date in order to get it fulfilled. And if you don't sell it, well, you're out nothing. Just throw it out there. You might be really surprised about, you know, how many people bite on these sponsorships and purchase them. So just don't be afraid to go big and also just don't be afraid to fail either because you'll never know if you don't try. You know, I've never heard anyone say that. And I love that you're right. You can put forward these things to underwrite. And if they don't materialize, no harm, no foul. Yeah. And that's, I appreciate you saying that because a lot of times, you know, we get so caught up in how is this all going to work through? But, and then we, we lose time and we lose access to those decision makers. I think in these sponsorships, I don't know about you before we move on. I feel like they're done too close to the event. And then the corporate partners or philanthropic partners can't make the decision that fast. Yeah. You want to get them out there as early as you can. Yeah. Yeah. One of our clients come back to us, especially after they ran their event for the very first year, they're like, I wish I would have given myself more time. And so not just, not just for selling sponsors, but just for planning in general. My other tip, I always give people that they're trying to sell sponsors, just throw a team in with your sponsorship packages. If the pricing makes sense. Sponsor, they love the exposure, but they also love a day out of the office to go play some golf too. So that's how you kind of kill two birds with one stone is by giving a, giving them a team with the sponsorship. And so they'll, they'll, a lot of them will jump at the chance to play golf as well as sponsor the event. Yeah. I agree with you on that. Before we move on to our next question, and I have a lot of questions for you. What does that look like for you in terms of the timing? Like how far out would you recommend somebody, you know, working on these things? I would say, usually on average we see about six, eight months of planning. Now, if you are someone that has a lot of connections and you can get into a group really quickly, yeah, you could pull a golf event off two to three months time. But I think generally speaking, you want to give yourself somewhere in that six to eight month timeframe. We have, we have clients that they will walk off the golf course after their event is over. They'll sign a contract with the course right then and there for next year. So they're giving themselves a full year of planning. So you can never give yourself enough time. So if you want to go for that full year, go for it. But if you got those connections in your back pocket, you can pull it off. We've seen it done in two to three months. Yeah. You know, Logan, I'm a firm believer at an event and I don't care what kind of event it is that you always have the next year's date. So you can, you say you can promote it because you got a captive audience there. Why not, you know, rally the troops? Absolutely. I mean, yeah, I think that's kind of, I think that just is a way to make things a lot more efficient as well. Now, one of the things that we talk about is the love of the golf and especially in communities where you might have more of a golf culture or, you know, a change in season and it's just so wonderful. But how often are we missing the opportunity of connecting those golfers to the actual cause? And so I'd love for you to kind of talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah. Cause connection is huge. You want people to come to your event and have a great time, remember the experience, but you also want them to walk away with probably just really connected to what it is you're raising money for. You want that to really stick in their mind. Cause I think that's something that's really strong. And that will be a big factor in them coming back again next year. So I have some of my favorite examples of this that I've run into with our clients is, you know, we worked with children's miracle network hospitals and some of their events bring out the kids who are receiving medical treatment at those hospitals and that, you know, these funds are supporting and that really stuck out in their mind. We have another one that's a veterans organization that actually had, I believe the, the boots and the rifle and the helmet of a fallen soldier on display very tastefully behind one of the greens. So you would walk by it and you would see that and that really stuck in your mind. It's like, this is what I'm raising money for these, these families of, you know, fallen soldiers and whatnot. So find ways to really bring your cause to the forefront, actually on site at the event that will really stick with, with golfers and you'll kind of combine the great time they're having on the golf course with, wow, I'm really glad I'm here because I'm, my money's going to support, you know, this cause and I can actually see it right in front of me. That's really powerful. I went to an event years ago with a wildlife organization and they had rescue animals in each one of the greens. And so like a falconer on one, other gloves and this bird, you know, out there and one had a snake and I mean, it was like, it was kind of kooky, but to your point at each, you know, stop, it brought it back home. And so yeah, I think that's a really, man, dare I say a missed opportunity that we don't see that enough and so cool. I like, I like that you brought that up. I really, really do and I think it's, it should be relatively easy to do depending on, on what your cause is. I mean, being creative and thinking about it. Hey, incorporating fundraising elements that are fun. So we've talked about the serious side and maybe like a little bit more of a heart string, tugging at a heart string, but then there's that fun piece. What does that look like? Yeah, it's really just bringing some, yeah, I think we talked about in the green room, the games within the game. So, you know, popular ones include, you know, like hole in one contest, putting contest where people can pay for an entry to see, you know, on a par three, they can get a hole in one. One of the cool creative ideas from one of our events is they had a hole in one contest on a par three, but they had the course cut like seven or eight cups in one green. So your chance of getting a hole in one higher, which led people to pay for more entries. Because they had a better shot at getting a hole in one. And then you'll say anything with the putting contest, you drive by the putting green at some point during your round and they got a long putt set up. It's a great opportunity to bring in fun. It's another sponsorship opportunity. Have a sponsors logo all over that whole, all over that putting contest. One of our partners, we work with one of our favorite partners called backswing golf events. They are a group of lady professional golfers that will come and they have a number of games they can play with your golfers on the course, including like a long drive, a beat the pro, whatever it may be. So finding these cool experiences that your golfers will respond to and really enjoy that also has that additional elements of fundraising attached to it will really make the experience a lot more fun and probably lead to more funds raised for your event. Logan, I'm assuming that with, with your app, that's something that you build into the whole event. And then those purchases can be made within the game itself so that if there's a, even within a foursome, I've seen this where, you know, even the folks in the foursome will kind of egg one another on to do something, a game within the game, within the game, right? And so your app would, would help us accomplish that as well. Yeah, you can take online payments throughout the day. So that's one of our events that, you know, we build event sites for them where they can take credit card payments. They'll leave those open to have those additional purchases day of for sure. Something I've seen a lot more recently is they basically just have a donation station set up on the golf course. So golfers are coming through and kind of like you said, it's like, hey, donate now. We're kind of egging each other on, you know, hey, throw, throw an extra donation in and you can do it right then and there on the, on the website. So yeah, it makes it really easy. Yeah. I think that's smart. And I think that that is something that you have to kind of educate them up on, because that's not necessarily something that they might be familiar with. Sure. You know, it seems like you, you open your card to get going and get on the course. And then. Whatever happens. And then you're spending money afterwards. But this whole ecosystem of being a part of it and spending money while it's going on, I think is genius. And I think it does make it more fun. This is a little bit of a side shoot. I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, and that is a side shoot to what we've been talking about. Um, because you and I are, and I'm talking a good game. Like, I really know golf, you do know, golf, but how do we move people in this that aren't proficient at the game of golf, but one is support the event or should we just be thinking about golfers? Does that make sense? Does that question make sense? Yeah. And how do we get more people to run golf events? I think is how do we get more people to the game of golf in general? Yeah. So say, wow, I've heard about this, I want to support this organization, but I don't play golf or I'm not confident enough about playing at this swanky club because I don't want to embarrass myself. What do we do about that? Yeah, there are a couple of different approaches you can take. Their golf is obviously an intimidating game, especially if you don't have experience with it. Something I've seen events do is they have their typical golf event and then at the same time they kind of have a clinic going on where people who aren't confident that they can go play on the 18-hole course, they can go and they can learn basics with people of their similar skill set and still be there the day of and having a good time and raising money with everyone else. Having your event be a scramble, that's the most common format these golf events take on is basically everyone hits their shot and then you pick the best shot of those four and you play your ball from that location. So you don't have to worry about, oh, I hit a bad one, you're going to go hit from the best shot of the day. And then just having the overall feeling of the golf event be, we're here to have a good time, we're here to raise money. This isn't a competitive event where we're keeping everyone's score really closely and we got to sign the scorecard afterwards. As long as you have that kind of that vibe of we're all here to have a good time, no one's going to care if you're bad at golf. They're like, I'm just out of the office. I'm having fun. It's beautiful. I'm raising money for a great cause. That's kind of the feeling and maybe how you even want to promote the event while you're taking registrations. It's a lot of people know that, hey, you don't need to be a good golfer to play in this event. You just got to be willing to come out here and have a great time. And that's all that's required. Yeah, I think it's such a great, I think it's a great thing for the industry too, Logan, because I feel like there are a lot of people that could be introduced to golf through a philanthropic charitable environment that then actually leads them into wanting to become more proficient, more engaged in the sport. And so I think it's a win-win in going in both directions. I really do. Let's talk about one of the things that because golf is such an old sport, it has its traditions, it has its cadence, and now we're adding technology into it. Even if you just watch golf on the weekends and you see the technology that's being used and adopted, it's fascinating how technology is changing things. But specific to fundraising and golf specific technology, talk to us about that. Yeah, using golf specific technology is really vital if you want to put on a successful, really well run, efficient golf event. Because like I've said, there's so many nuances you run into with a golf event that you just don't have to deal with with any other event like a walk-a-thon or a gala. The scoring of the golf event itself is specific. There's no other event that's scored like a golf tournament. Setting up the event in terms of where people are actually starting, like the shotgun start, that's everyone starting on a different hole at the same time, so they're finishing at the same time. And there's a tee time start where people will all tee off of the very first hole at a given time. So setting those up within the software is very unique and you're not going to find another type of software that can do that. So you have to have really golf event specific software to handle those tasks. Something I didn't mention, printing out the specific printouts that you'll need for a golf tournament. Scorecards, cart signs, whole assignment sheets. You get your alphabetical list of names. All that stuff is unique to the golf event and only the golf event. That's really vital, especially if you're someone who's not familiar with golf, having that technology, those tools at your disposal will make it so much easier on you. And then leaning on the people around you who are familiar with golf is very important. Don't be afraid to lean on your golf course. I always tell clients that when it comes to the golf course, you want to make sure you select a course that will meet your needs, but also that'll be there for you. Because don't forget, you as the nonprofit running this event, you are the golf course's client. They want your business. So if they're not going above and beyond for you, don't be afraid to look elsewhere. I've come in contact with so many golf courses that do such an amazing job supporting these events. And that's really key to look for when you're considering where to host your event. There are so many great courses out there that will really work really hard for you to make sure you have a phenomenal event. You know, Logan, the reality of this is somewhat daunting for development directors that are used to raising money a certain way. And this is somewhat, for some groups, can be somewhat new. What kind of advice do you have? I mean, I love the relationship between the golf course and how they're going to be, you know, that guide and have an accessible relationship with you. But is this something that you really need to know about golf in order to be successful? Or what's your what's your temperature reading on that? You absolutely do not need to know about golf. I've come into contact with large golf tournament organizers. These tournaments raised six, sometimes seven figures. The people behind it are not golfers. They never will be golfers. They don't know a thing about it. But they figured out how to run it, how to put it on. So like I said, the biggest thing I'll tell people is you got to embrace technology. It'll help you so much. Get that goal. Like I just said, the golf specific technology is key. Get on board with that. That'll save you time. It'll also maximize your fundraising ability with this event. Lean on the golf course. Lean on those experts for any support or help or advice. All of our clients that we work with, we tell them, lean on us, like we're providing you this platform. But any questions you have outside of what we're providing you, come our way. You know, we have PGA professionals on staff who have worked on-site at golf courses, so they probably can give you some advice or answer your questions. You know, we deal with thousands of golf events every year. So absolutely lean on us and lean on any members of your board, your planning committee who have experience with the game of golf or whatnot. But I say this in about every webinar and appearance I make, you do not need to know the ins and outs of the game of golf in order to put on a successful golf fundraiser. You just don't, you just need to have the right tools at your disposal and just don't be afraid to lean on the support that you have around you. You can absolutely do this. And one other thing I like to tell people is just don't be afraid, I said it earlier, don't be afraid to fail. Just go out there, give it a try. You might be very surprised by how successful you are, as I've seen, as the case with so many of our first-year event organizers that have come to us in the past couple years. Don't be afraid to fail. Go out and give it your all. As long as you have the right tools and support around you, you can pull it off for sure. I love it. I think what's smart about this is that I think golf events can really give you access to a group of people that you wouldn't normally get access to. I think it's an amazing cultivation piece. I really, really do. And it's not just for men. It can be family-oriented. It can be youth-oriented. I mean, it has a lot of different ways to go. And I think it's just something that's overlooked to a tremendous degree. And I live in a golf community, and even I can't believe how under utilized it is. I mean, it seems to me that it should be a lot more popular. Before we go, I have one more question. And that is, what is the logical time frame that this is going to be going on? Because it seems to me that when you're taking over basically a course, some of those prime days are dates and times aren't going to work. Can you give us some advice on that? Yeah. So when it comes to actually looking at the time of year, you want to host some of that. Usually the first thing you're going to consider is, do I want to do this at a private golf course? I just want to do this at a public golf course. Obviously, price will come into consideration there. But private golf courses generally hold Mondays aside for these outside outings to come in and hold the event. So you might be tied down to a Monday during the season to hold the event. Whereas public courses, there'll be a lot more open. Usually any day of the week is an option. So you want to consider that. And then the time of year, generally, we see spring, summer, fall. Fall is actually really big for golf events. If you're in like a Midwest climate like I am in Nebraska, fall is typically the time of year where you're most likely to get favorable weather. So consider that. But just whatever is best for your organization, you probably want to make it sort of the marquee events of that specific time of year. So if you have a big event in the spring, maybe look at it as a summer or a fall and vice versa. Or if you want to kind of piggyback it off of one of your big events, because you've never done a golf event before, you'll maybe put it close by one of those events. It's just whatever is a better fit for you. But that's usually the first spot you need to start is identifying, do I want to do this public or do I want to do this private? Well, doing it in a private club, be a bigger draw for my donors to get on a course they usually don't have access to. Or do I want to make the registration a little cheaper and do it at a nice public course? There are a ton of nice public courses you can do it at for sure. That's just something you need to think through. Yeah, I love it. Well, this has been an amazing conversation. And I'm so appreciative that you are a golf insider, but you also have this amazing link to the nonprofit sector. Golf status has a really cool feature on their website. The website's beautifully done, but it's a resource page that has tons and tons of free information. And so you can go to golfstatus.org, find the blog and go to the resources page, I should say. And it is remarkable how much information is on there. You know, Logan shared with us a lot of things today and some of these pieces have full entries on this resource page, because it's just so much to talk about. And so go ahead and look at some of those pieces of it. And I think you'll be amazed at how this can help you with your organization. Again, you can find that at golfstatus.org. Wow, it's been really fun. I've really, really enjoyed this, Logan. It's a really cool conversation to have with you, especially as we start the masters this week. And the weather's changing and golf is becoming more of something that a lot of the country can do because of the change in weather. And so this has been perfect, perfect to have you on. And I really, really appreciate that. You can connect with Logan Foot at golfstatus.com. I got to ask you, Logan, are you and your team going to be at AFP Icon? Yes, me and one of our other account managers will be exhibiting at AFP Icon, booth 820. Come check us out. Love to talk with you. Awesome. Well, we will be there broadcasting. So you need to make sure that you make your way. We're going to be actually broadcasting from the Bloomerang booth. Awesome. Yeah, make your way over there. And we'll get you on camera because it's going to be fun. We'll be there for a couple of days. And yeah, I'm thrilled you're going to be there because that's going to be a wonderful thing to see. Hey, again, everybody, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Jared Ransom, the nonprofit nerd will be back with us shortly. Again, we want to give our gratitude to all of our corporate sponsors from Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk. These are the folks that join us day in and day out. So we can have these amazing conversations like we've had today with Logan Foot. Logan, okay, do you have to go back to the office or can you go back outside today? Or are you going to be holed up watching the masters? Probably a little both. I might sneak off to the range and a few balls, but got to get some work done whilst watching the masters. Okay. Well, busy day, busy day. Okay, everybody, it's been great to have you join us on another episode of the nonprofit show. And every day we end our each episode with this mantra. And that is to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here again tomorrow. And Logan, we'll see you in New Orleans at AFP icon. We'll see you there.