Do Golf Courses Donate Rounds of Golf to Fundraisers?

Some golf courses and resorts do donate rounds of golf, and a foursome with a cart is one of the most bid-on items at a school or charity auction. Few publish a program you can apply to, though. In our donor directory, the clearest published offer of a round is from Snowshoe Mountain, which donates a round of golf for four, including cart, valid midweek, mainly to West Virginia nonprofits. Topgolf donates game play certificates and golf instruction, and Callaway Golf donates product. For most local courses, the request is a direct ask to the club's management.

This guide is part of our fundraiser donation answers library. Each company below links to its page in our donor directory, which records what its own donation page says. Programs change, so confirm there before you send anything.

Golf donations at a glance

Snowshoe Mountain: a round for four

Snowshoe's donation menu lets you choose one item: two lift vouchers, four tubing vouchers, four Fun Pass vouchers, two bike park vouchers, or one round of golf for four including cart. All vouchers are for midweek, non-holiday times. Choose the golf round on the form; if you do not choose, Snowshoe provides an item based on the current season.

Product donations are usually limited to West Virginia organizations, with Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania organizations considered case by case. Submit the form 60 days before your event with your EIN, one request per year. Snowshoe says it cannot respond to questions about the status of a previous request, so do not plan on a follow-up call.

Topgolf: certificates, lessons or a discounted event

Topgolf takes requests through one online form on its Driving for Good site, submitted at least 30 days and no more than 90 days before your event. You pick up to three donation types: game play certificates, goody bag game play coupons, golf instruction, a 50% game play discount for an event hosted at Topgolf, or volunteers. The event or organization must be within 40 miles of a Topgolf, and its focus must be education (except private schools), military, golf, health and wellness, animals, or disaster relief. By submitting, you agree to recognize Topgolf at the event using its logo.

Golf product: Callaway, and why PING is different

Callaway Golf's Employee Community Giving Program considers product donations to events run by U.S. 501(c)(3)s in five focus areas: Youth Development, Military/Veterans, Disability Advocacy, Health and Wellness, and Growth of the Game. Apply through its Product Donations Portal and allow six to eight weeks. Callaway cannot fill requests for specific products or models, and an organization can receive a donation once per calendar year.

PING works differently: it says it does not make pure donations. Its Charity Purchase Program sells certain products at a special price to qualified charitable organizations. Request at least two months ahead, and budget for it — orders must be pre-paid one month before the event, and all sales are final.

At our last check we found no published program for Golf Galaxy or Golfsmith. The DICK'S Sporting Goods Foundation's Sports Matter grants are invitation-only, for youth sports, and the Foundation says they do not fund fundraisers.

Asking a local course

Most golf rounds you will put on an auction table come from courses near you that do not publish a program. A few habits make that ask easier to say yes to:

• Ask the person who decides. At a course, that is usually the general manager or the head golf professional. Call first to find out which, and put the request in writing for them.
• Ask for something specific and flexible. A foursome with carts, on dates the course chooses, is easier to approve than a weekend tee time. Snowshoe's midweek, non-holiday rule shows how courses think about it.
• Give the details up front. Your organization, tax ID, event date, what the event raises money for, and how you will thank the course at the event.
• Ask well ahead. Courses think in seasons. Request early enough that the certificate can be printed, and check its expiration date before you write the catalog.

The restaurant and local company ask sheet covers the in-person ask, and who approves donation requests explains how to tell a local decision from a corporate one.

If your fundraiser is a golf outing

A golf outing needs prizes, goody bags and hole contests, and Topgolf's goody bag coupons fit that use directly. Check every program's exclusions before you ask, though: some programs rule out sporting events. Signet Jewelers' in-kind guidelines, described on our Zales page, list sporting events including charity golf tournaments as not eligible. For sporting goods companies that do take requests, see outdoor and sporting goods companies that donate.