How to get sponsors for a charity golf tournament

Ask most organizers where their tournament’s money comes from, and the honest answer is sponsors. Golfers’ entry fees cover the day. Sponsors are usually where the real profit is.

They’re also the part people dread. You’re asking local businesses for money, you don’t want to sound like a pitch, and every “yes” in May has a habit of turning into “can you resend the invoice?” in August.

This guide covers how to get sponsors for a charity golf tournament in plain steps: what to charge, what sponsors really want, a sponsorship email you can copy, and how to keep them coming back.

holes to sell as hole sponsorships

$5,000+

where title sponsors usually start

$100 to $500

a typical hole sponsorship

The short version

To get sponsors for a charity golf tournament, sell clear packages, not “support”. “Your logo on a sign at hole 7” beats “visibility at our event”.
Ask people you know first, with a personal message, not a mass email.
Make yes easy. A one-page overview, a price and a way to pay online on the same page.
Give sponsors proof afterwards. The sponsors who renew are the ones who saw what they got.

What sponsors actually want

Before you work out how to get sponsors for a charity golf tournament, it helps to know why they say yes. Sponsors rarely give because they love golf. They give for one of four reasons: their brand gets seen, they meet people they want to meet, they back a cause their staff and customers care about, or a friend asked. Most tournaments offer a mix of all four.

What they don’t want is homework. Before a business says yes, they want to see three things:

What they get, in specific words. A sign at a named hole, a logo on the event website, a mention at the meal.
That the event is real. A proper event page, with a date, a course and a cause, tells a sponsor that someone has done this before. A sponsorship letter alone often doesn’t.
An easy way to pay and send their logo. If a sponsor has to email you a logo, wait for an invoice and chase a cheque, the effort can cost you the sale.

Sponsorship also buys advertising, which isn’t the same as a donation. If a sponsor asks for a charitable receipt, check the CRA’s rules on golf tournament receipts and what counts as an advantage first. The receipt rules for golf tournament tax receipts in Canada cover sponsor recognition in detail.

Sponsorship levels and what to charge

Build your packages in tiers so that a corner café and a regional bank can both say yes. These are typical ranges from published guides, and your own prices should fit your area and your audience. A neighbourhood event will price lower than a corporate outing.

Title sponsor

$5,000 to $20,000+

The event carries their name
logo on every sign and the website
a foursome or two
a few words at the meal

Gold, Silver, Bronze

$500 to $5,000

A foursome at the higher levels
a course sign
logo on the website and in the program

Hole sponsor

$100 to $500

A sign at one named hole
logo on the website
a mention in the program

Lunch or beverage cart

$1,500 to $2,500

A sign at the meal or on the cart
a mention when it’s served

Hole sponsorships are the easiest to sell. With 18 holes, pricing each at $200 brings in $3,600 when every hole sells. Treat the limited number of holes as a feature: when a hole is sold, it’s gone.

Set the tiers before you go asking, and keep them to four or five. Too many choices slow down a yes.

Key takeaway: Four or five tiers, priced for your area, each with specific things the sponsor gets. Too many choices slow down a yes.

How to get sponsors for a charity golf tournament: 7 steps

Build a prospect list. Start with the people your board, committee and staff know, then past donors and local businesses with a link to your cause. Aim for twice as many names as you need.

Define your packages. Use the tiers above, say what each includes and put a price on it. Write it on one page.

Set up a real event page. Put the date, the course, the cause, the packages and a way to sign up in one place. A sponsor who can see it will trust it.

Make a personal ask. Call or email each person, or buy them a coffee. Use the template below, and ask what they’d want from sponsoring, not just for money.

Make yes easy. Let sponsors choose a package, pay and upload their logo online, without waiting for an invoice. Remind anyone whose logo is missing well before your sign-printing deadline.

Follow up three times, politely. A reply in a week, a short note a week after that, and a last check-in before the package sells out.

Deliver, then report. Put up the signs, post the thank-yous, and send each sponsor a short summary within two weeks of the event.

Start asking as soon as the date is set. Most organizers book the course four to six months out, and sponsors who hear early have time to budget for you.

Key takeaway: Make yes easy: one page with the packages, the price and a way to pay and send a logo.

A sponsorship email you can copy

Subject: Hole sponsorship at the [Event name], [date]

Hi [Name],

I’m organizing the [Event name] on [date] at [course], and all of it goes to [cause]. Last year [one specific result, if you have one].

I’d love [Business] to be a hole sponsor. For [price], you’d get a sign at a named hole, your logo on the event website and a mention in the program, and we have only [number] holes left.

The page with the packages and the sign-up is here: [link]. It’s quick, and you can upload your logo straight away.

Would you rather talk it over first? I’m free [two time options].

Thanks,
[Your name] / [phone]

A good version of that email is short, names the price and shows what the sponsor gets. Change the details for each person. A template that sounds like a template gets deleted.

What to give your sponsors

Recognition is what you’re really selling. The cheapest sponsors to keep are the ones who see their name in several places, so use more than one:

A sign at the hole or the meal. The classic, and still the most visible thing on the day.
Their logo on the event website, with a link to theirs. It stays up after the day.
A mention at the meal and on the screen. If you have a big screen, rotate the sponsors through it.
Social posts that tag them before and after the event.
A thank-you and a summary after the event, with photos of their sign.

If you run your event on TourneyCommand, the sponsors choose a tier, pay and upload their logo on your event site. A tier with a set number of places closes itself when it sells out, sponsors get reminded if their materials are missing before your print deadline, and the sponsor wall stays up afterwards.

Keep them for next year

Knowing how to get sponsors for a charity golf tournament once is half the job. The easiest sponsor to sign is the one who signed last year, so treat renewal as part of the work:

1. Thank them within a day, by name, with a photo of their sign. 2. Send a short report within two weeks: how many golfers played, how much was raised, photos of their placement and a thank-you from the cause. 3. Ask early. Offer last year’s sponsors first pick of next year’s holes, before you go public. 4. Ask what they’d change. Some will want a different level, a different hole or more time to speak.

Five mistakes that cost tournaments sponsors

1. Asking for “support” instead of selling a package. Vague asks get vague answers. 2. Mass-emailing a letter. A personal message to ten people beats a form letter to a hundred. 3. Making them wait. Sending an invoice a week after the “yes” gives them time to change their minds. 4. Forgetting the logo deadline. Chasing logos the week before printing is how signs end up with a missing sponsor. 5. Going quiet after the event. A sponsor who never hears from you won’t hear from you again next spring.

I’ve been the organizer chasing the sponsor who said “yes” in May and hadn’t paid by August. Most of the fix is making it easy for them to say yes and to follow through, in one place.

Where TourneyCommand fits

If you’re working out how to get sponsors for a charity golf tournament, give them one page to say yes. TourneyCommand gives your event its own site where sponsors choose a tier, pay and send their logo, and where golfers register too. See our golf tournament registration software overview, the features, the live demo and the flat pricing. Planning the day itself? Read how to run a charity golf scramble, and set your own price with how to set your golf tournament entry fee.

Sponsorship prices and timelines are typical figures from published guides, checked October 3, 2026. Adjust them for your area and audience.

READY WHEN YOU ARE

Give sponsors one page to say yes

Sponsor tiers with real inventory, online payment and logo upload on your own event site, live in under 15 minutes.