100-Hole Challenge Fills Big Fundraising Void for Quest, Inc.
By Dave Allen
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many nonprofit organizations have had to cancel charity golf tournaments and other significant fundraisers that provide critical financial support to their operations. One such organization, Orlando and Tampa, Fla.-based Quest, Inc., had to reschedule its annual Golf Quest fundraiser to September 2021 due to the challenging logistics posed by the pandemic.
“A lot of our events had to be cancelled,” said Bob Haight, the Vice President of Philanthropy for Quest, a leading service provider that teaches meaningful life and job skills to adults and children with developmental disabilities, while also providing individualized care and independent living options. “While the courses remained open, the challenge was with the limited food and beverage options available. With such a large number of players, we had to postpone.”
Fortunately for Quest, there was another more practical fundraising option available to them through the ClubsHelp Foundation and its 100-Hole Challenge charity event. The marathon golf challenge, a club fundraising activity designed to benefit a local or favorite charity, is perfectly suited for difficult times like this. It involves far less people and, thus, adheres to stricter social-distancing protocols, can be held at any one of ClubsHelp’s 400 member clubs and is fairly easy to organize. ClubsHelp provides a promotional toolkit, planning timeline and free fundraising portal (through the Give Lively fundraising platform) for receiving pledges.
Haight learned of the 100-Hole Challenge in early July, when he received a phone call from Rob Goulet, President of the Board of Directors for ClubsHelp. Goulet and Haight had a mutual friend who worked at the Walt Disney World® Resort in Orlando, and knew of the challenges Quest had raising money due to the pandemic. The next challenge was finding a local course that was available to host the event. Through ClubsHelp’s vast network of supporting clubs and organizations, Haight was connected with Heathrow Country Club just outside of Orlando, which was more than happy to accommodate Quest.
Heathrow CC is owned and operated by Concert Golf Partners, an early, strong supporter of ClubsHelp and a corporation that has committed to having ALL 22 of its courses hold a Challenge in 2021.
“It’s a charity you can very easily wrap yourself around,” said Heathrow’s General Manager, Ryan Fahler. “It’s a really impressive thing what Quest is doing for special needs kids and adults. We [Concert Golf] also have Carrollwood Country Club in Tampa, so there’s a lot of good synergy for us to help them fundraise that align with us wanting to help the community.”
The 100-Hole Challenge took place on a mostly overcast day on Monday, Oct. 5th. Haight and his partner, Tampa Bay-area radio personality Drew Garabo, teed off at 8 a.m. and finished shortly after 5 p.m. There were two additional twosomes and one threesome from McGriff Insurance Services raising money for Quest. Heathrow CC also had a twosome in the Challenge playing for local hospital AdventHealth Fish Memorial. More than $20,000 was raised for Quest, Inc., which included a $10,000 donation from Golf Quest supporting sponsor Alltrust Insurance. Heathrow raised more than $2,500 for Fish Memorial.
To help move everyone around faster, each player was asked to hit three balls to every par 3 and putt them out. Heathrow has five par-3 holes in all, so each round of golf consisted of 28 holes rather than 18. Heathrow also had each player pick up a new, fully charged cart after each “round” to help push things along. Each Quest group finished the full 100 holes.
“Everybody that took part really enjoyed it,” said Haight, who had never played more than 45 holes before in a single day. “Drew and I had just met each other, but we had a lot of good back and forth, like how do you play a hole with six balls on the green? It wasn’t intentional, but fortunately we were playing different brand balls, so that helped.”
Haight applauded the job that Fahler and his team did to make things run as smoothly as possible, and said he already had a discussion with Heathrow about returning next year for another 100-Hole Challenge or charity tournament. Since Quest, Inc., relies so heavily on the support of grants, corporate and individual gifts and donations to finance its residential and vocational services, an event like the 100-Hole Challenge is an easy and proven means to raise these vital funds.
“We like to offer high-quality and innovative services, so things like the 100-Hole Challenge, Golf Quest and Wine Quest [Quest’s signature benefit event] allow us to fund that extra care for our clients,” said Haight. “It gives our program staff the ability to use the money where it’s needed most, and help our clients achieve their goals.”
