Event
Montgomery College Foundation Golf & Tennis Classic
Event Date
Annually in October 2014 – 2019
Client
Montgomery College Foundation
Location
Woodmont Country Club and Lakewood Country Club; Rockville, Maryland
Attendance
150
Category
Association Events, Case Studies
The Goal
Refresh a golf event that had been going on for 25 years to improve participation, attract more sponsors, and increase engagement with the foundation.
The Strategy
As this tournament had been in place for 28 years, we spent time understanding its history and learning directly from the key stakeholders about why they felt the event had fallen flat.
We led an all-team strategy session and identified many issues that were making this event a headache for the internal staff and why it wasn’t raising nearly enough money to warrant that amount of work.
The Design
Step 1: Identify The Issues
A limited amount of time for internal staff quickly became identified as the top issue to address. As golf events are very unique in their planning process, their staff had been spending time on things they didn’t need to do. We provided them with a scope of support and logistical services that allowed their team to focus on selling foursomes and sponsorships to their stakeholders and supporters. We could handle the rest, saving them from additional overhead expenses. Onsite we reduced their staff by 60 percent.
Step 2: Rework The Budget
In order to determine the best ways to get them to their fundraising goals, we needed to clarify the per golfer spend, which is one of the most important first steps in planning a financially successful golf event. Only then could we offer educated pricing suggestions for foursomes and sponsorships that would get them from the initial benchmark of $42,000 before we came on to more than $108,000 per event as of 2019.
Step 3: Redesign The Sponsorship Offerings
We needed to throw some life into opportunities for sponsors to get involved with unique swag and activations providing additional exposure and engagement. We tripled the number of sponsorship levels and elements offered providing the event committee new opportunities to pitch, leading to even more revenue.
Step 4: Program The Event
A golf tournament is a full-day event, that’s a fact, but what we also know to be true is that if time spent programming is done correctly, the experience doesn’t have to be so long. Golfers love these events, but they also love getting home after a long day on the course. We provided sound solutions to keep things moving and still provide sponsors and the foundation time to get its key messaging to everyone in attendance, getting everyone home in time for dinner.
The Results
Throughout the course of six years the foundation doubled its revenue from the tournament allowing them to take the experience to the next level each year.
They have even received feedback that it’s “the best run golf event in the business.” This has allowed us to eliminate the option previously offered for people to play in the event without being a sponsor, which inevitably had a positive effect on revenue.
By allowing the J Shea team to handle all on-site execution, we reduced the number of internal staff on-site by 60 percent, saving the foundation a lot of money in other realms.
A more efficient schedule shortened the day by a full hour allowing golfers to get home in time for dinner with their families.
