Help with Celebrities at a Golf Outing

[Aguirre]

So I help organize (I'm primarily responsible for the logistics of organizing, running, and being the MC of the actual golf) a charity golf outing every year. This year is different than the previous seven we have done. If you're curious about the reasons, see below for details.*

This year we have two celebrities (most likely) who are attending our outing. I suppose it's possible that neither will be able to make it, but both have confirmed at this point. One is a former MLB player of note who is now a broadcaster on a national network and the other is a current NFL star. These are names every sports fan knows (particularly in the Pittsburgh area), and I'd like to maximize their status to help raise money for our charity. But I don't know how. 

So I'm looking for any ideas. Throw me ones you've seen used before, or anything outside-the-box. We've raised over $100,000 running this outing despite not being pros at this, but none of us do fundraising professionally, so I need help.

 

 

*I don't know if I've written about this before, but a friend of mine (and part of our main group of guy friends from high school) had two sons with Late Infantile Batten disease. It causes seizures and brain damage, and inevitable death. The poor kids ended up blind, deaf, and demented before they passed away. One at 9, and the other at 11. His second passed in late 2017. Last year, my friend went through a tough divorce, which included him moving from his house. In October, he took his own life. We've shifted focus from raising funds for the two boys medical care to another of my friend's passions: education. He taught phys ed at a tough, poor school district and lamented constantly about how the school didn't have funding for technology and upgraded gym equipment. He often entered a school year with a budget of $100. So we're going to spend the first $1000 on upgraded gym equipment, and the remainder (hopefully about $20k or more) on technology for the school.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Aguirre

[bkuehn1952]

10 hours ago, Aguirre said:

This year we have two celebrities (most likely) who are attending our outing.... I'd like to maximize their status to help raise money for our charity. But I don't know how. 

So I'm looking for any ideas. Throw me ones you've seen used before, or anything outside-the-box.

I have participated in events where the celebs, if decent golfers, play a hole with each 4-some.  They move around the course and join each group once.

Another approach is to have the celeb play the same hole with each group (sort of boring for the celeb).

 

Good luck and I hope some others have great ideas for you to consider.

[Club Rat]

Some events, the Celebs will hit shots for every group. They hang out on Par 3's the entire round or hit drives on other holes.
Every group then gets the chance to meet them and possible photos together and autographs.

While other times, they actually enjoy playing in events with participants.
You could auction the celebs in the event as a golfing partner, the team would have an advantage with the extra player.

The auction would raise additional $$ for your event.

Fund raising events for a great cause is a lot of time and often a personal expense.
Good luck with your event. 

[rehmwa]

tell them to:

• keep up with the group in front of them and play ready golf
• rake the traps
• no smoking or sunflower seeds
• fix their ball marks

[RFKFREAK]

15 hours ago, Aguirre said:

*I don't know if I've written about this before, but a friend of mine (and part of our main group of guy friends from high school) had two sons with Late Infantile Batten disease. It causes seizures and brain damage, and inevitable death. The poor kids ended up blind, deaf, and demented before they passed away. One at 9, and the other at 11. His second passed in late 2017. Last year, my friend went through a tough divorce, which included him moving from his house. In October, he took his own life. We've shifted focus from raising funds for the two boys medical care to another of my friend's passions: education. He taught phys ed at a tough, poor school district and lamented constantly about how the school didn't have funding for technology and upgraded gym equipment. He often entered a school year with a budget of $100. So we're going to spend the first $1000 on upgraded gym equipment, and the remainder (hopefully about $20k or more) on technology for the school.

I really don't have any suggestions but wanted to comment about it's great that what you are all doing in the face of so many tragic events.

[Big C]

Sorry to hear about your friend. That is a brutal hand that life dealt him. 

As for your question, my best suggestion would be to leverage the star power of your celebrities and auction off their participation in the event. 

I am assuming that when you say they are "attending" the outing that means that they intend to play golf as well? If so, hold an auction an hour before the event with the winner getting the right to have Mr. NFL star, or Mr. MLB broadcaster play in their group. 

If the names are prolific enough, you could likely raise a lot of money via some rich guys that want to rub elbows and drink beers with a couple of sports legends for 4-5 hours. 

A club that my buddy belongs to hosted a similar charity event and had 4-5 former SF Giants in attendance. In addition to the aforementioned auction, they hosted a breakfast beforehand. For an additional $50 a person, we ate breakfast, listened to Dave Dravecky, Kevin Mitchell, Vida Blue and a few others tell stories about their playing days and host a Q&A session. It was a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure they raised a lot of money that day. 

[pganapathy]

See if you can get autographed mementos/golf sets etc that you can auction off.  It just needs the celebs to sign stuff and is a good remembrance for the users who purchase it.

Another simple alternative is to auction off time with the celebs, like say a meal, or a meeting where they get to spend time talking to and interacting with the celeb.  This of course requires them to agree to this

[Patch]

I use to run a charity tournament for my wife'sjuvenile diabetes charity. 

We had celebs in attendence that included athletes, tv, and movies. Others were local tv folks who also advertised on their shows for golfers to sign up to play in the charity event.

One of the more lucretive things these semi famous folks did, was to sell their autographs, with all proceeds going to the chairity. 

We also auctioned off the celebs to play in the highest paying group of golfers. 

The OP should talk to the celebs and see what they might be willing to do for the charity. Sometimes the celebs can bring in more celebs to help out. 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Patch

[Aguirre]

Thanks for the suggestions. Selling autographs seems to be the way we're going because neither of these two play golf. Which kind of surprised me.