Survey of Use of Golf Tournaments in Higher Education Fundraising

This study presents data from 39 US colleges about their golf fundraising events, imparting critical data about revenues, costs & budgets, participation trends, staffing, and much more. The report helps its readers to answer questions such as: how much are golf tournaments taking in for colleges? What percentage of revenue comes from corporate sponsorships, player participation fees, auctions and sales or merchandize and other sources? What are the costs of mounting the events? What is the role of special committees? Who serves on them and how many foursomes or player participants do they typically bring in? Who goes to the golf tournaments? What percentage of participants are former athletes of the college? What is the role of consultants and golf event management companies? What recommendations do your peers make for successful events? What is the role played by the college athletics department? Alumni affairs? Institutional Advancement? Data in the report is broken out by type and size of college, by level of tuition, for public and private colleges, and by major college athletic division. Just a few of the report’s many findings are that: • Committees organized by colleges sampled to stage golf tournaments or events had a mean of 7.59 members. • Colleges in the sample competing in Division 3 Athletics attracted a mean of 105 players to their last golf tournament. • 100% of the golf events in the sample organized by College Departments of Alumni Affairs had corporate sponsors, while only 82% of events organized by College Offices of Advancement/Foundation and 89% of the events by College Athletics Departments attracted corporate sponsors. • Colleges with annual tuition between USD 12,000-26,000 attracted a mean of 39 corporate sponsors to their last event. • The average budget of the last golf fundraising event in the sample was $21,005. The range was between $1,500 and $75,000.