Keeping alumni engaged after graduation is crucial for growing your school’s legacy. Follow these tips to tell alumni/stories for fundraising success.
Melissa Geitgey
Published:
July 15, 2024
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Much like any other form of fundraising, your higher education institution must tell compelling stories that build relationships with your alumni audience, secure donations, and bolster event attendance. However, unlike other nonprofits, your school is the common thread directly tying the lives of thousands of alumni/ae together, all of whom have unique stories to tell about their relationship with your organization.
Collecting thousands of alumni voices together to tell a cohesive and vivid story for your outreach can be challenging. In this guide, we’ll review key strategies your school can use to bring these stories to life and fortify your fundraising efforts.
With over 460 million podcast listeners worldwide, your alumni/ae community likely has a few avid listeners already. Podcasts are a great way to tell many stories in a cohesive, organized format that complements your events and fundraising campaigns. Plus, with user-friendly and affordable software on the market, it’s easy for beginners to get started with these steps:
As you plan your alumni podcast, ensure each episode’s stories feed into a larger narrative about your school’s impact on your community. Pennington & Company states that this will help listeners feel more connected to your school and bolster your alumni/ae fundraising messaging. Also, include a link to your foundation’s website in the description of every episode so interested alumni/ae can easily donate.
Your school’s alumni/ae community is unique in that it has members from many different generations and eras. Tapping into nostalgia is a valuable storytelling asset, and there’s no better tool than physical mementos to evoke fond memories from the past.
Starting time capsules are a long-haul storytelling strategy, but when the time comes to open them, the emotional impact on alumni/ae is hard to beat. Try these tips to make your time capsule projects more impactful for your fundraising efforts:
You can include more overt fundraising appeals in your time capsule events, too. Mention current projects, like capital campaigns in the public phase, and how the project will look in a few years when it’s time for the time capsule to be unearthed with donor support.
Yearbooks are an iconic symbol of school life, and you can take yours to the level with digital tools. Here are some ideas for making a digital yearbook that tells a story:
Creating a digital yearbook is as easy as making a Canva account and embedding it into your alumni newsletter. However, consider building a graphic design consultation into your budget so the newsletter is easy to read and reflects your school’s brand. You could even create different yearbooks for different segments of your alumni/ae community. For example, you could make individual yearbooks related to sports teams, clubs, and different colleges for a greater degree of customization.
As you’re trying these new storytelling techniques, remember whose opinions matter most: your alumni/ae. Ensure your content resonates with them by frequently asking for and implementing feedback. Over time, you’ll find that seemingly disparate stories can come together nicely and make a messaging asset that just keeps giving to your school.
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It’s never an easy decision to switch to a new platform and if you’ve been a frequent user of Blackbaud NetCommunity (BBNC) for a while, you might have a fair amount of questions about moving elsewhere.
In case you’re on the lookout for BBNC alternatives, we’ve rounded up 5 potential replacements for you and your team to consider. Our choices are based on a variety of factors which we’ll be getting into first.
While evaluating alternatives, you might feel like most platforms have similar feature lists with a few differences here and there. But the way those features are organized and how they work together can reveal the best fit for your team.
Here's what to evaluate:
For most BBNC users, Raiser's Edge NXT is already at the center of donor management. The rest of your advancement tools must work seamlessly alongside it and help your team stay coordinated.
That means having giving, events, email, and community engagement data flow into your CRM automatically and in real time. When a donor makes a gift, your team should be able to see it right away in RE NXT.
Most advancement teams likely do not have a dedicated tech person. The people using these tools should find it easy to navigate (and this shouldn’t only be the most tech-savvy member in your team!).
This means your team should be able to create event pages, build audience segments, send emails, and manage campaigns with confidence, because doing all this on the platform feels intuitive to them. Some platforms pay close attention to the user experience and take special care to make it easier for them to work on.
Just as important is the experience for alumni. The more alumni can do for themselves, the easier it is for your team to keep data current and engagement high. Features like profile updates, event registration, class note submissions, and communication preferences give alumni greater control while helping you maintain accurate records.
The platform you choose today should still work for you down the line as your alumni community grows and fundraising efforts expand in scale and complexity. Whether you're managing 5,000 alumni or 50,000, the experience should remain consistent.
This is particularly important for colleges and universities planning for long-term growth. The best platforms scale alongside your institution, making it easy to increase capacity and expand programs without disrupting day-to-day operations. As your needs evolve, your team can stay focused on engaging alumni and advancing institutional goals rather than managing technology transitions.
If you've spent years juggling multiple systems, you've probably accepted a certain amount of friction as part of the job. This could look like pulling different places or reports that take longer than they should. As a result, your team spends more time making sense of information between platforms instead of building relationships with alumni and donors.
So moving platforms becomes an opportunity to look for a platform that does the work your old platform was doing, but does it better, and preferably, in one place.
On paper, many advancement teams have everything they need: tools for fundraising, events, email, and alumni engagement. But if those systems don’t work together smoothly, your team could find itself in a bit of a fix, managing tools when they could be managing experiences for attendees and donors. It's rarely a major problem on any given day, but the time and effort add up over the course of recurring issues across events.
In fact, we saw something similar firsthand at Almabase: Cornell College moved from managing alumni engagement across BBNC and multiple tools to one integrated platform, and the shift eliminated the constant back-and-forth that was taking up their team's time.
Before we get into the deep-dive, here is a quick look at the platforms we’ve listed for you:
Almabase was built with advancement teams in mind. Instead of juggling separate tools for giving, events, email, and alumni engagement, teams can manage everything in one place. It also integrates closely with Raiser's Edge NXT, helping data flow naturally between systems and giving staff a more complete view of alumni activity.
Best for: Institutions on BBNC struggling with complexity, looking to simplify their tech stack by bringing key advancement activities together on a single platform. It is a great fit for colleges and universities of all sizes.
Key Strengths:
Almabase in action:
Cornell College manages a community of 15,000-17,000 alumni with a remarkably lean advancement team. Before Almabase, staff were piecing together BBNC and other tools, spending valuable time managing disconnected systems and manual processes.
After moving giving, events, email, forms, and community engagement into Almabase, event registrations flowed in smoothly and alumni could update their own information. With an alumni community that cares about staying connected, the college was able to elevate their Giving Day experience with leaderboards, campaign pages, and real-time participation tracking.
After the switch, Cornell exceeded its Giving Day goal, reaching 1,008 donors and earning a 4.7/5 participant rating. Homecoming attracted more than 430 attendees, and their "All In for the Hilltop" campaign raised over $226,000 from 992 donors.
Watch the team from Cornell College share their experience here.
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What it's not great at: Almabase does not include prospect research or wealth screening tools. If major gifts research is a priority, you'd need to layer in a separate platform.
Pricing: Custom pricing based on institution size and needs.
GiveButter is an all-in-one fundraising platform designed to help nonprofits raise funds, engage donors, and manage donor relationships through customizable donation forms, embedded donation widgets, and various payment options. The platform is known for its transparent pricing model, operating on a "tip-or-optional-fee" basis, meaning nonprofits receive 100% of their donations with no hidden fees.
Best for: Organizations looking to launch peer-to-peer campaigns without a subscription commitment, schools running crowdfunding initiatives on a low budget, and nonprofits seeking easy-to-navigate platforms for both staff and donors.
Best for: Organizations looking to launch peer-to-peer campaigns without a subscription commitment, schools running crowdfunding initiatives on a low budget, and nonprofits seeking easy-to-navigate platforms for both staff and donors.
Key Strengths:
What it's not great at: GiveButter primarily caters to nonprofits and may not be as experienced with educational institution's needs, especially volunteer management and alumni engagement like platforms built specifically for higher education. If you’re looking for advanced alumni networking, community engagement, or multi-day event management at institutional scale, you'll likely need to supplement GiveButter with other tools.
Pricing: The platform’s core features are available at zero platform fee when optional donor tips are enabled. If you turn off tips, a flat 3% platform fee applies.
Givebutter Plus, which is their paid tier, starts at $29/month and provides advanced automation and analytics.
Hivebrite started as a community platform and has evolved into a comprehensive alumni engagement hub. If your priority is building a place where alumni actively engage with each other (not just receive messages from the institution), Hivebrite delivers that experience.
Best for: It's a great pick when your goal is fostering actual peer-to-peer connections: discussion spaces, networking, job boards, and mentoring. It works well for schools with large, geographically dispersed alumni networks that want to position the platform as a living community.
Key Strengths:
What it's not great at: While Hivebrite features direct, bidirectional integrations with major CRMs like Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT and Salesforce to prevent manual data syncing, its transactional giving modules are still not at the center of operations. If your team requires advanced fundraising toolsets like gamified giving day leaderboards or major gift prospect tracking, you will likely need separate, dedicated tools alongside it.
EverTrue brings prospect research and wealth screening directly into the platform. It's built for institutions focused on major gifts and looking to connect engagement data with donor intelligence. It really stands out with helping teams identify which alumni are most likely to give and when. This is fundamentally different from the other platforms in that it's more specialized than all-in-one.
Best for: Institutions with a dedicated major gifts program and the capacity to leverage wealth screening and engagement data together. Works best for universities managing alumni records where prospect identification directly feeds major gifts strategy.
Key Strengths:
What it's not great at: It’s not a full platform replacement. You still manage separate systems for events, email marketing, and community. Best used alongside other tools, not instead of them.
Pricing: EverTrue offers custom pricing based on institutional requirements.
360Alumni is an all-in-one platform similar to Almabase, but leans more into networking and community as the centerpiece. It's built for schools that want to give alumni a branded, customizable space to connect and engage while also managing fundraising and events. The platform launched in 2013 with a specific mission: help institutions deliver value through their alumni network, not just extract giving.
Best for: Institutions wanting a modern, integrated alternative with strong community and engagement features. It works well for colleges prioritizing alumni network building alongside fundraising, particularly schools at earlier stages of alumni relations sophistication.
Key Strengths:
What it's not great at: CRM integration maturity is less established than some other platforms on this list. The community-first approach can mean fundraising and advancement workflows feel secondary. Smaller user base means fewer case studies and peer reference institutions compared to more established platforms.
Pricing: EverTrue offers custom pricing for institutions based on alumni count and feature requirements.
Setting expectations around things like how data migration will work, what resources your team will need, and what “success” looks like in the first few months will help you and your team down the line.
Before you commit, it helps to get clear on a few key areas:
Get answers to these before you sign anything:
1. Data migration: Think about all the logistical parts:
2. Timeline: What's a realistic implementation schedule? If a vendor suggests a short implementation window, like a week, for a full migration, it might be time to invoke some healthy skepticism. Most implementations take 3 weeks to two months when you factor in data cleanup, staff training, and testing.
3. Training and onboarding: What does the platform’s ongoing support look like after go-live? Will you get a dedicated implementation manager, or are you on your own, and does that work for you?
4. CRM integration: Work out the specifics: will it be real-time or batch sync? How often do you sync? What happens if something breaks, who takes the responsibility to troubleshoot?
5. Costs: Consider implementation, ongoing licensing, and any integration fees you might not have anticipated. Ask for a three-year cost projection, not just the first-year number.
6. Contingency: What happens if you need to run both systems in parallel? Can the vendor accommodate that, or are there any additional costs there?
Your current platform isn't disappearing tomorrow. You have time to approach this strategically.
Running parallel systems briefly costs less than rushing the transition and spending months fixing mistakes. Early vendor conversations will tell you a lot about their implementation approach and about gaps in your own readiness. Budget time for staff training alongside platform setup. Even the best platform in the world won't work out if your team doesn't know their way around it.
Choosing the best alternative to BBNC is a chance to make day-to-day work easier for your team and create a smoother experience for alumni and donors. We've seen institutions get the most value when they reduce the number of disconnected tools staff have to manage. Cornell College achieved this by bringing critical functions together in one connected ecosystem.
That same pattern shows up in other institutions that have modernized their BBNC setup: cleaner workflows, less manual work, and a better experience for the people interacting with the institution.
If you'd like to explore more, these stories are a good place to start:
Whatever platform you choose, the goal is the same: give your team fewer systems to wrestle with and more time to focus on alumni, donors, and the work that matters most.
If you're exploring alternatives to BBNC and want to see what a more connected advancement experience could look like, request a demo and we'd be happy to walk you through it.
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Top 5 Blackbaud NetCommunity Alternatives
Considering a move from BBNC? Compare the top alternatives and what to look for before making the switch.
Events
Anwesha Kiran
June 11, 2026
12 minutes
Fundraising events are a mainstay in institutional and nonprofit advancement strategies across the board. With 77% of nonprofits that host fundraising events meeting or exceeding their fundraising goals, events remain one of the most effective ways to engage supporters and generate revenue.
Whether it’s a charity gala for a hospital foundation, a school auction for a K-12 PTA, or an alumni giving day, your choice of event management fundraising software can really affect the kind of experience you’re able to offer to your team as well as your attendees.
And with so many platforms that seem to do it all, picking which one actually fits your needs is easier said than done.
In this blog, we take a closer look at what fundraising event software helps with, what features to look for, and which platforms are worth considering depending on your goals and use case.
Fundraising event software is any platform that helps nonprofits, schools, and advancement teams plan, promote, manage, and measure fundraising events.
This usually covers everything from registration and ticketing to donation collection, guest check-in, and post-event reporting. This list of features can look a little different across different platforms, but a good platform usually has a combination of these to offer, all in one place. The types of events it can support include:
With a general tool you might stop at RSVPs and ticketing, but with a fundraising event software you’d be able to connect registrations to donor records, process gifts, track giving history, and feed all of that data back into your CRM so you can inform your future fundraising strategy.
While it might seem like every platform offers a set of similar features, it is important to be very clear about exactly what combination of features fits your fundraising event requirements the best.
Here are a few features that we think could set you up for success:
The platform should allow your team to create branded registration pages, sell tickets, manage guest lists, and track RSVPs. Support for multiple ticket types, table sales, and promo codes is essential, especially if you run complex, multi-day events.
Your event software should make it easy to collect donations before, during, and after the event in multiple ways: could be giving forms, donation add-ons at checkout, or live appeals during an event.
For some galas and charity dinners, features like silent auctions, mobile bidding, paddle raises, and item management are central to the fundraising strategy.
Many fundraising events depend on sponsorship revenue to break even or exceed their goals. You’ll want to manage sponsor packages, track visibility (logos on event pages, branded displays, etc.), and process sponsorship payments cleanly.
The platform should support personalized event invites, automated reminders, confirmations, and post-event follow-ups.
QR code and mobile check-in options reduce event-day mismanagement and capture accurate attendance data. This becomes especially relevant if you’re running multi-day fundraising events.
Your event data should sync back to your donor database or CRM automatically so your team doesn't have to spend time after every event manually reconciling lists and data across registrations, attendance and giving.
The right platform should report exactly what happened in your events with the right metrics: registrations, attendance, donations raised, revenue per event, expenses, donor participation rates, and follow-up opportunities.
As more and more organizations continue to adopt both in-person and virtual events (or a combination of both), the ability to support virtual attendance, livestream integration, and online-only becomes much sought-after.
Best for: schools, universities, and advancement teams
Almabase is built for educational advancement teams that want event management, giving, engagement, and CRM sync in one connected platform. It links registration, attendance and gift records back to your constituent's engagement history, so events become part of a donor journey.
Its TrueSync integration with Raiser's Edge NXT allows two-way, real-time data sync without manual intervention, saving your team lots of time and effort. The platform works well for alumni reunions, giving days, donor stewardship events, and school fundraising events.
Almabase is a good fit for teams that don't want event data sitting in a separate tool. It helps teams keep event management, gifts, communication and engagement data unified so every event can feed into a larger donor engagement strategy.
Best for: galas, auctions, and live fundraising events
OneCause (now part of Bonterra) is a well-known platform for nonprofit fundraising events, mostly galas, auctions, mobile bidding, and paddle raises. It supports unlimited events, a customizable event website, ticket sales, QR code check-in, seating management, real-time scoreboard displays, and text campaigns, all within a single platform.
Its mobile bidding and auction tools are purpose-built for high-energy, donor-facing events for which real time engagement is really important.
OneCause is a great fit if your organization runs mid-to-large fundraising events and needs a reliable platform that keeps bidders engaged from start to finish.
Best for: mobile bidding and auction-heavy events
GiveSmart is an all-in-one fundraising platform with mobile bidding, event management, and donor engagement features. With an annual subscription, your team can run unlimited events like galas and golf tournaments, complete with text-to-give appeals all year-round, without needing separate tools for each.
GiveSmart has an impressive feature set including ticketing and seating, customizable event websites, mobile bidding, live donation displays, and donor management. This makes it a good choice for nonprofits and schools that run multiple event-based fundraisers throughout the year.
Best for: silent auctions
Handbid is a mobile-first auction and fundraising platform designed specifically for organizations running silent auctions. Built by nonprofit fundraisers who decided to fix the chaos of paper bid sheets, Handbid replaces that process with a native mobile app, automated outbid notifications, real-time leaderboards, and streamlined guest check-in and checkout.
Over 40,000 auctions, Handbid has helped organizations raise more than a billion dollars. Beyond auctions, it also supports live events, paddle raises, peer-to-peer campaigns, text-to-give, and hybrid events with livestreaming.
For private schools, nonprofits, and any organization where the silent auction is central to the fundraising strategy, Handbid is the platform for you.
Best for: free or low-cost fundraising events
Givebutter is an all-in-one nonprofit fundraising platform that combines donation forms, event management, auctions, peer-to-peer fundraising, as well as a built-in CRM and offers all of these features under a free pricing model.
These core features are available at no platform fee when optional donor tips are enabled. If you prefer to turn off tips, a flat 3% platform fee applies.
Their paid tier, Givebutter Plus, starts at $29/month, which provides advanced automation and analytics.
Givebutter is a great choice for small to mid-sized nonprofits and schools looking for a capable, budget-friendly platform that handles both events and broader fundraising without adding platform costs.
Best for: budget-conscious nonprofits and schools
Zeffy is the only fully zero-fee fundraising platform for nonprofits. It asks for zero setup fees, no monthly subscriptions, and no platform or processing fees. It is funded through voluntary contributions from donors, meaning 100% of what you raise goes directly to your organization.
Over 100,000 nonprofits across the US and Canada use Zeffy.
For event management specifically, Zeffy offers customizable event pages, multiple ticket types, QR code check-in, in-person tap-to-pay capabilities, as well as detailed reporting.
It's the choice for smaller institutions, nonprofits or smaller schools that need professional event management tools but are operating on limited or no budget.
Best for: donation forms and simple campaigns
Donorbox, previously known for its embeddable donation forms, has grown into a broader fundraising suite that includes event ticketing, peer-to-peer fundraising, recurring giving, and a donor CRM. Since its event feature was launched in 2022, organizations have sold over $25 million worth of tickets through the platform.
Its event ticketing tool supports multiple ticket types, fair market value calculations for tax receipts, QR code check-in, and integrations with payment processors like Stripe and PayPal.
Donorbox is a great option if your team wants reliable donation forms and basic event ticketing within the same tool.
Best for: donor management with event capabilities
Bloomerang is a giving platform that brings together donor management, fundraising tools, volunteer management, and event management in one system. Its event management module has a massive set of features including ticketing, QR code check-in, auctions, peer-to-peer campaigns, and text-to-give, with AI-powered features that reportedly boost giving form conversions by up to 55%.
Events are tracked alongside giving history, engagement scores, and communication records, making it easier to identify your most active supporters and tailor follow-up accordingly.
For teams that put long-term donor relationships at the center of their fundraising strategy, Bloomerang is a great fit.
Best for: simple ticketed events
Eventbrite has been one of the most widely recognized event platforms, and it remains a good fit for institutions that need quick, reliable ticketing. Publishing events on the platform is free, while ticketing fees apply to paid tickets. Even so, nonprofits can access a 50% discount on Pro plans.
Eventbrite is best for straightforward fundraising events where the goal is getting people in the door. Millions of people turn to Eventbrite to find local events. For nonprofits, it’s a good way to reach new people and get more attendees to community events.
Where it falls short for fundraising purposes is deeper donor engagement: it doesn't offer native donor record creation, CRM integration, or fundraising-specific tools like auction management or pledge tracking. If you need those capabilities, you'll likely need to layer another tool on top of Eventbrite.
Best for: large-scale event logistics
Cvent is an enterprise-grade event management platform designed for organizations with complex, high-volume events. These events are supported across multiple formats: in-person, virtual, as well as hybrid. It handles end-to-end event planning, from venue sourcing and registration to session management, and provides detailed analytics as well.
Given its scale, Cvent is most at home in larger environments: hospital foundations, university advancement offices, and associations that run many events annually and are looking for scalability, and integration across an existing tech stack. It's generally better suited for institutions with dedicated event operations staff and complex event programs than for smaller teams running one or two fundraisers a year.
The right platform depends heavily on the kind of event you're running, who's attending, and how much work your team is left with after the event ends. Here’s a quick look at everything we discussed so far:
Free tools work well for smaller teams, simpler events, or organizations that are just getting started. Platforms like Givebutter and Zeffy offer a good set of features with little to no platform cost, and for many, it’s a perfectly reasonable starting point.
That said, as your event complexity rises, so do the capabilities you look for from the platform you’re using. You might still find a few of your requirements on free platforms, but if you need more than a basic set of features, you might need to consider a paid platform. So the choice really comes down to if your event requires the following (or any combination of these):
If your platform cannot handle the scale of your event, the free tool might cost you more in staff time and missed opportunities than a paid platform would have, simply because it was not built to handle a complex set of requirements.
With so many options available, choosing one might seem challenging. After a point, everything starts looking the same. We suggest working through these questions with your team before you start comparing platforms. It can save a lot of time (and help you avoid a costly switch down the road).
Your primary event format should drive the decision. Auction-heavy events, peer-to-peer campaigns, and large galas all have different platform needs.
Some platforms specialize in one area. Ensure the tool you’ve chosen handles the full scope of what you actually do.
If supporters fundraising on behalf of your organization is part of your strategy, it is a core feature for you and your platform too should support it as such, and not as an add-on.
This is probably the easiest of the lot. If the answer is yes (and for most advancement teams, it is) this should be non-negotiable for you.
If your team spends days reconciling spreadsheets post-event, you need a platform with stronger automation and integration.
Branded, professional registration pages bring credibility to your event. This can affect the donor’s first impression when they see your giving page. Building trust with your donors matters!
If you're accountable to a board or leadership team, choose a platform that reports the right set of metrics to give you clear visibility into revenue, expenses, and donor participation.
Consider who in your team will work with the tool the most. Whether it's your advancement team, alumni relations staff, or volunteers, make sure that the platform is easy to use for those who will work with it. Implementation support is also a factor to consider at this point.
For K-12 schools and universities, Almabase is a great fit. It is built for teams that want to connect event management, giving, and alumni engagement in one place with CRM sync back to Raiser's Edge NXT or other systems.
For nonprofits running galas, auctions, or multi-event programs, platforms like OneCause, GiveSmart, and Bloomerang are strong contenders. For budget-conscious teams, Givebutter and Zeffy offer free-tier options.
Event ROI is calculated by subtracting your total event costs (venue, catering, platform fees, staff time, marketing) from the total revenue generated (ticket sales, donations, auction proceeds, sponsorships), then dividing by the total costs. A positive ROI means the event generated more than it cost.
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Best Fundraising Event Software for Institutions and Nonprofits
A comparison of the top 10 fundraising event software platforms across essential features and use cases to help you find the perfect fit for your team.
Fundraising
Anwesha Kiran
June 5, 2026
12 minutes
In 2022 alone, charity golf events at U.S. courses raised an estimated $4.6 billion, with more than 141,000 events held and roughly 80% of all U.S. golf facilities hosting at least one. The average event raised about $29,500, but the ceiling is far higher: a well-structured tournament with the right sponsorship strategy can clear six figures in a single afternoon.
The best golf fundraising ideas however, look different depending on who you are. A K-12 booster club has different assets, different donors, and different cost structures than a hospital foundation courting major-gift prospects, and both look different from a community nonprofit trying to reach a new audience. Below are the ideas that actually work for each, with real examples of organizations putting them into practice.
Over the last few years, golf tournaments have become a staple of nonprofit fundraising, and for good reason. They attract donors who might not engage through traditional channels, create natural sponsorship opportunities, and give your team multiple moments to ask for support before, during, and after the event. And it’s always great to engage in a bit of goodwill and fun over a game! Essentially, golf fundraisers are built-in community experiences.
Here are a few reasons why golf tournaments work so well for fundraising:
Healthcare foundations occupy a different fundraising universe. Their donor base often skews into the wealthier and more philanthropic demographic, their cause has obvious emotional weight, and their boards often include physicians and executives who are themselves avid golfers. The events here tend to be larger, more polished, and more sponsorship-heavy.
The flagship model is an annual event hosted by the foundation at a premier course, often featuring physicians and executives as players.
PIH Health Foundation's 2025 golf tournament raised $400,000 to support hospital priorities ranging from medical technology to caregiver support. The Edward Foundation, the fundraising arm of Edward Hospital in Illinois, raised more than $460,000 at its 30th Annual Charity Golf Tournament at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, with more than 300 golfers contributing through sponsorships, donations, raffles, and games. Since its founding in 1990, that foundation has raised over $57 million for community healthcare initiatives, and the annual golf tournament is a meaningful piece of that total.
These events succeed because they bundle three things: a beautiful course experience, peer recognition (physicians playing alongside major donors), and a clear connection to a hospital service line the donor cares about.
Tying the tournament to a specific disease, program, or population sharpens the emotional pull.
The Hanscom FCU Charitable Foundation's Alan M. Hart Memorial Charity Golf Classic raised $150,000 in a single year for Home Base, a Red Sox Foundation and Mass General Hospital program supporting veterans dealing with the invisible wounds of war. Over time, the tournament has contributed to more than $1.2 million in support for that program.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has been the beneficiary of the FedEx St. Jude Championship for more than 50 years, with the event helping raise over $60 million for pediatric cancer and life-threatening disease research.
If your foundation supports multiple service lines, picking one cause per tournament and rotating year by year keeps the storytelling sharp.
A first-ever tournament tied to a specific capital project creates urgency that recurring events lack.
The Seneca Healthcare Foundation in California hosted its inaugural charity golf tournament at Bailey Creek Golf Course and raised more than $85,000 while building awareness for the construction of the new Lake Almanor Community Hospital.
Th event drew over 100 golfers and featured creative touches including a MASH-themed drink station and live stand-up comedy from a group called the Hole Hecklers. Pairing the tournament with a tangible "we're building this" story gives donors something concrete to point to.
For events that already have momentum, layered add-ons are where the real money is.
The Edward Foundation's 30th Annual Charity Golf Tournament raised more than $460,000 at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, with more than 300 golfers donating through sponsorships, donations, raffles, and games. The event even featured a Helicopter Ball Drop contest, where entrants paid for the chance to have a numbered golf ball dropped from a helicopter to land closest to the flag.
Ball drops are particularly effective because they sell to people who aren't golfing, including hospital staff, board members, and community supporters who want to participate without playing 18 holes.
Offering a $10,000 cash prize, a luxury car, or a luxury trip for a hole-in-one creates outsized excitement at relatively low cost. Most foundations partner with a hole-in-one insurance provider to cover the prize, paying a small premium for enormous marketing buzz. Co-sponsoring the prize with a local car dealership turns the sponsorship into a billboard for the dealer at the event.
Schools and universities have one fundraising asset most other organizations would kill for: a built-in, lifelong community of alumni, parents, and boosters who already feel emotionally invested.
The single most reliable model in higher ed is a recurring, branded scholarship tournament that runs every year on the same calendar slot. Take the three below examples:
For institutions that have had a rich history of golfing alumni or golf fundraisers in the past, it should be a no brainer. However, the only way tradition gets built is if something gets it started in the first place. So maybe this can be the year where your institution starts to grow that tradition if it already hasn’t?
If your school has lost a beloved coach, professor, or alum, a memorial tournament builds extraordinary loyalty. Freed-Hardeman University's annual tournament honors the legacy of Dr. Cliff Bennett, a 1961 alumnus and former golf coach whose endowed scholarship still supports students. These events draw deeper giving because donors aren't just buying a foursome but also honoring someone who mattered to them.
It also provides a natural storytelling opportunity that builds a strong emotional connection for your next and future golf fundraisers within this frame.
For K-12 and college club teams that don't have a country club or alumni database, one thing you can consider is to sell labor and small experiences.
Ohio University's club team brought a putting green carpet to the busy College Green area and sold $1 putts to students for a chance to win a prize.
Similarly, The Citadel's club team works local tournaments in exchange for reduced greens fees and sells mulligans for $1 each on a single hole with the course's permission. These ideas also have the added benefit of almost zero overhead and turn a team into a visible part of campus life.
Smaller, themed tournaments hosted by fraternities, sororities, or specific academic departments can sometimes surprise you and outperform their size.
The Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter runs an annual golf tournament to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. These events benefit from tight-knit communities where attendance feels almost obligatory in the best way.
Community nonprofits typically have smaller donor lists and tighter budgets than hospital foundations, but they also have more flexibility to experiment. The best ideas in this category lean toward inclusivity (so non-golfers can participate), creativity (so the event is shareable on social media), and modern formats that don't require a 7am tee time at a country club.
The single biggest shift in nonprofit golf fundraising over the past five years has been the move to Topgolf and similar venues. Topgolf events are accessible to people who don't actually play golf, run in 2-3 hour windows instead of full days, and feel more like a party than a tournament.
Avery's Hope, an all-volunteer nonprofit supporting families of pediatric GI patients, hosts an annual Topgolf fundraiser specifically to be more inclusive for patient families and children.
They drive revenue through bay sponsorships, a silent auction, and a raffle.
A glow golf night tournament uses glow-in-the-dark balls, LED-lit flags, and illuminated tee markers across nine holes after sunset.
The format is highly photogenic, perfect for social media promotion, and stands out in a market where most prospects have already been invited to half a dozen "traditional" golf scrambles this year. The lower hole count also means a lower entry barrier for casual players.
If your donor base skews younger or has lots of families with kids, a charity mini-golf tournament is a high-yield option. The economics are excellent: course rental is cheap compared to a country club, kids can play, and the whole event runs in an afternoon. This format works especially well for nonprofits serving children, families, or schools.
A golf ball drop doesn't actually require a tournament. Sell numbered balls for $10 to $25 each, drop them from a helicopter or crane over a target, and award prizes to the closest balls. The model is brilliantly simple: supporters who can't golf, won't golf, or live nowhere near the course can still buy a ball and watch the drop on a livestream. Many nonprofits run a ball drop as a low-effort revenue add-on to an existing event.
Indoor golf simulator venues let nonprofits run "tournaments" in November, December, January, and February when outdoor courses are closed in most of the country. Players can compete on famous courses like Pebble Beach or St. Andrews without leaving the building. Because most other nonprofits cluster their fundraising in spring and fall, a winter simulator event lands in a less competitive calendar window for donor attention.
You don't need a full tournament to run a hole-in-one challenge. Some nonprofits set up a single par-3 hole at a community event, charity festival, or even a parking lot driving range and charge $10 to $20 per shot. The prize, again, can be insured for a small premium. It's a strong choice for organizations that want some "golf" energy without the operational complexity of running 18 holes.
For nonprofits already running events, putting contests are an easy revenue layer. Charge $5 per putt at a fundraising gala, festival, or community event with a prize for the longest putt sunk. Operationally simple, instantly fun, and works at almost any venue with 30 feet of flat ground.
A stacked list of sponsors can bring in a lot of revenue for a fundraiser. From an organizer’s perspective, you can work in various tiers based on the scale of your event and make each feel valuable, while giving sponsors visibility that justifies their investment.
Here are the sponsorship tiers that work across different golf fundraising contexts:
The headline sponsorship tier. Your title sponsor gets naming rights: their name appears on all promotional materials, event signage, email campaigns, and social posts as "The [Sponsor Name] Golf Tournament."
They also receive premium recognition during opening remarks and the awards dinner. This is your main sponsorship and should carry the highest price tag.
At Northwest Community Hospital’s 26th annual Golf Classic, Elite Ambulance served as the Title Sponsor at Medinah Country Club, which raised $784,000 to support cancer care initiatives. The ‘Elite’ logo appears front and center across all branding and promotional materials used during the event.
Presenting sponsors appear alongside the title sponsor in most materials and get recognition during the event. However, owing to an investment lower than the title sponsor, they don’t get the full naming rights. This tier works well for major local businesses or corporate partners who want significant visibility but may not need the top-tier sponsorship.
The 3rd Annual PGA Hope Charity Golf tournament took place on April 13, 2026, with presenting sponsor Yaamava Resort and Casino. As presenting sponsor, Yaamava received high-level brand visibility alongside the event name, as well as recognition across select signage, digital promotions, and on-site materials.
The 2026 event raised over $50,000, which will directly fund free six-week adaptive golf instruction, camaraderie building, and wellness programs for at least 45 local military veterans.
For schools especially, hole sponsorships are the unsung hero of the budget. Local businesses pay $250 to $1,000 for a sign on a tee box, and parents who own those businesses are an easy first ask. This tier is easy to sell to smaller, local businesses because the investment is modest and the visibility is clear.
Most tournaments have 18 holes, so you can easily move 18+ sponsors at this level. Having multiple sponsors builds more credibility for your event and cause as well.
Think of golf carts as little, mobile billboards. Cart sponsors get branded decals on every cart in the tournament, meaning their logo is visible to golfers all day across the golf course.
A beverage cart sponsor for example, provides (or co-sponsors) the drinks and snacks on the course. Golfers encounter this sponsor multiple times during the round, and beverage sponsors often get naming recognition: "Powered by [Company Name]." Local restaurants, beverage distributors, or quick-service businesses are good fits here.
This is a great way to create a lasting impression with your attendees and bring multiple local businesses or small sponsors together. If you're creating a gift bag for golfers, a swag bag sponsor (or sponsors, if there are multiple,) covers the items or the cost. This tier works well for local businesses, vendors, and corporate sponsors looking for an approachable way to get involved.
Raffles and auctions unlock revenue from people who may not necessarily participate in the tournament. At the same time, a golfer who plays in the scramble may buy a raffle ticket for the silent auction in the tournament, while a board member who attends only the dinner might bid on a live auction item. These revenue moments, layered into the event flow, could even equal or exceed registration fees.
Run before or during the event (usually during lunch or dinner), silent auctions work well for items in the $50-$500 range and let attendees bid at their own pace. Items might include local experiences, golf packages, sports memorabilia, or services. It might be a good idea to display items prominently so golfers and guests can browse before they tee off, and to open bidding a day or two before the tournament so people have time to consider their bids.
The Township of Tiny Mayor’s Charity Golf Tournament successfully integrated a digital silent auction and raffle alongside their traditional on-course play. By taking the auction virtual, they allowed participants to browse, helping the tournament surpass its goals to raise $54,000 for 17 local non-profit organizations.
A live auction is best-suited for a faster-paced moment, usually at the awards dinner, where an auctioneer drives energy and competition. Live auctions work best for high-value items ($1,000+) or experiences (golf trips, private lessons with pros, VIP event tickets). The auction moment also energizes the room and typically generates larger bids than silent formats.
The 2023 edition of the Mike McCann Charity Golf Tournament concluded its multi-course event with a high-energy award dinner and live auction run by a professional auctioneer. There were more than 80 items for attendees to bid on and the dinner portion of the event helped push the envelope to achieve $1.6 million in fundraising totals. These funds went on to support communities across Ottawa, Southwestern Ontario, Montreal, and British Columbia.
A raffle runs on a high participation model: sell tickets for $5, $10, or $20 each; winner takes home half the pot, and the other half goes to your organization. It's easy to explain and you can expect high buy-in from attendees.
Ask local restaurants, salons, spas, and boutiques to donate items or gift cards. You can build themed baskets (wine and cheese, spa day, date night) and raffle them. This benefits local businesses by bringing them visibility and gets you donated items at no cost.
Golf trips, resort weekends, or sporting event packages command high bids and create aspirational excitement. You can partner with travel agents, resorts, or event venues to secure donated or discounted packages.
Planning a golf fundraiser might look like a lot, but breaking it into clear steps keeps the project manageable and helps you stay on schedule.
As the very first step, decide how much money you need to raise. All your other decisions, like how many golfers you need to register, what sponsorship packages to offer, will be built around this.
A golf tournament typically raises $20,000 to $50,000, but it depends on your donor base, the course quality, and your sponsorship capacity.
Once you know your goal, you can work backward. For example, if you need $40,000 and you expect 80 golfers at $150 per player, that's $12,000 from registrations. You'll need sponsorships to cover the rest.
The venue sets the tone for your entire event. Look for a course that fits your budget and has availability on a date that works for your supporters. Ask about their nonprofit rates: many courses offer discounts for charity events.
Once shortlisted, do a bit of background check as well: a well-maintained, scenic course attracts sponsors and golfers. Also confirm what facilities the course provides (cart rental, beverages, lunch) and what you would need to source separately.
Create 4-6 sponsorship tiers that appeal to different business sizes and budgets. Start with your anchor tiers (Such as: Title Sponsor at $10,000+, Presenting Sponsor at $5,000), then add mid-level options (Hole Sponsors at $1,000 to $2,000, Cart Sponsors, Beverage Cart Sponsor, etc).
Make sure each tier includes clear benefits: logo placement, signage, recognition; it’s best to be very specific about what sponsors get in exchange for their investment. A well-designed sponsorship deck should be able to generate 50% of your fundraising goal. Set this target with your team.
Set up an online registration page where golfers can sign up and pay. Include clear pricing (foursome rate, individual player rate, dinner-only ticket), event details (start time, course, what's included), and a simple checkout process.
You could offer early-bird discounts to incentivize early registration. Make registration mobile-friendly since many golfers are likely to sign up on their phones.
Start with your board members, major donors, and corporate relationships. Assign specific team members to each prospect and get started on personalized sponsorship pitches, not generic emails.
For team recruitment, ask golfers to form teams of four and invite their friends and offer team entry at a discount if they register early. Use email, social media, and direct outreach to build visibility. Open registration 8-10 weeks before the event so you have time to follow up with people who express interest.
Once you have your core registration and sponsorships, layer in revenue boosters. Contests like longest drive, closest to the pin, and putting contests are easy to sponsor and fun to participate in.
Work in a silent auction during lunch (aim for items in the $50-$500 range) and a live auction at dinner for high-value items ($1,000+). You could also sell raffle tickets throughout the event. These add-ons, when carefully built into the event flow, could bring in as much as 20-30% of your total revenue without requiring much operational overhead.
Build awareness early and often. Send email updates to your donor list at 8 weeks out, 4 weeks out, 2 weeks out, and 1 week before the event. The content could include sponsorship opportunities, team registrations, and special features (live auction, concert, celebrity attendee, etc.).
Post on social media weekly with photos from past tournaments, sponsor spotlights, and registration reminders. Create and promote event hashtags and encourage participants to share during the tournament. Promotion should emphasize the mission impact, not just the golf.
Plan your check-in process weeks in advance. Create a registration table with volunteer stations: one for name lookup, one for payment, one for name badges and cart assignments. Print scorecards, provide tee times, and ensure volunteers understand the day's schedule.
It’s always good to have a backup plan for weather (rain, extreme heat). Brief all volunteers on the mission, key talking points, and where to direct questions.
During registration and checkout, collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, and company affiliations. This data is gold for future stewardship and fundraising. If you’d rather not do this manually, you can use a registration system that automatically captures this information and integrates with your donor database.
If you're using paper forms, set time aside to enter the data afterward. The goal is to know who attended, what they gave, and how to stay in touch.
Once the event is over, it’s time to show gratitude! Send thank-you emails within 48 hours to participants, sponsors, and volunteers. Share photos and impact metrics (total raised, number of veterans served, students supported, etc.).
Follow up with sponsors who expressed interest in next year. For major sponsors, consider a personal call or thank-you lunch. Send a final thank-you with tax documentation for donors.
Golf fundraisers generate significant revenue, and keeping track of everything that went on becomes much easier when registration, sponsorships, auctions, and follow-up are coordinated seamlessly. Almabase consolidates the entire flow in one platform, so you can manage the event, capture data, and steward supporters without having to switch between systems.
Almabase's event management suite lets you handle everything from a single dashboard. Golfers can register for individual spots or groups, ticket-only guests purchase dinner seats, sponsors select their sponsorship tier and complete payment, all in one integrated flow.
You set registration pricing, ticket tiers, and sponsorship packages and Almabase handles the checkout, payment processing, and confirmation emails.
Guest management keeps track of who's coming, dietary preferences, and seating assignments, while real-time reporting shows you registration progress, sponsorship status, and revenue toward your goal, so you know exactly where you stand at any point in the campaign.
Almabase’s fundraising and event tools let you seamlessly integrate raffles, fund-a-need campaigns, and auction checkout directly into the event experience.
Attendees can purchase raffle tickets right at check-in, participate in a live paddle raise via optimized mobile giving pages, or pay for winning auction items.
Post-event, you can extend the giving window by promoting online donation campaigns to your entire donor base, ensuring supporters who couldn't attend in person can still drive revenue toward your goal.
With Almabase, you can place the golf tournament within a longer stewardship journey. Almabase's email communication tools let you segment your donor list and send targeted messages at each stage.
Send save-the-date announcements to past donors, early-bird registration reminders to your core supporter list, and event reminders to registered participants.
After the event, you’ll be able to send personalized thank-you emails to golfers, sponsors, and auction winners within hours.
Almabase syncs all registrations, sponsorships, and final auction payments directly to Raiser's Edge NXT. Rather than having to plan for tedious manual entry, your team can review and push gift data directly into your CRM.
Registration details map to participant records, sponsorship packages are accurately attributed, and event revenue ties to the right constituent profiles. This seamless flow maintains absolute data integrity, giving your team an updated, clear view of tournament revenue without the post-event administrative scramble.
Golf fundraisers will likely continue to be an important part of fundraising culture, especially in the US. With their added advantage of flexibility across institutions and nonprofit organizations, they also serve as one of the more flexible options (provided a golf course is geographically practical).
All that said, we hope we’ve given you plenty of ideas for your next (or first) golf fundraiser! And if you are looking for a platform to help you host your fundraiser, engage donors, and raise funds, book a personalized demo with us and we’d love to know how we can help!
25+ Golf Fundraising Ideas for Healthcare, Educational, and Nonprofit Fundraising
If you're planning a charity golf event, we've rounded up 26 fun, creative golf fundraiser ideas bring people together and help your cause raise more.
Healthcare
Almabase
May 29, 2026
12 minutes
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