ClubsHelp Movement Began with One Club, One Big Vision.

It all began when Susan McGahan, a member of Spring Brook Country Club (who also serves as President of the Spring Brook Country Club Foundation), wanted to donate $500 worth of sandwiches to the local community hospital, Morristown Medical Center (MMC).

The challenge was reaching someone in the emergency department at Morristown Medical who could schedule the deliveries. Fortunately, a friend of McGahan’s knew Scott Serbin, a recruiter for Envision Physician Surgeons.   With Serbin’s help, Spring Brook was put in touch with one of the ER nurses at the hospital, and the pipeline between Spring Brook and Morristown Medical was created. 

The sandwiches were just the beginning. Within the first two weeks, other members at Spring Brook delivered six pickup truckloads of Gatorade, soda, water and sandwiches to the ER. Various members spent their own money and delivered bagels and pizza to the hospital, and Harvest to Home donated fresh produce and vegetables. Even the children from Assumption School in Morristown got involved and sent digital thank you notes to the hospital staff.

The first week’s drive caught the eye of Spring Brook member Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News. She thought the story was great for the network’s “America Together” segment on the Fox & Friends morning show, and on April 1st Bachman appeared on the show to talk about what Spring Brook was doing. 

Up until then, it had been very much a local story, but the Fox & Friends broadcast shined a national spotlight on Spring Brook. It also got the attention of Rob Goulet, the CEO of Entertainment Sport Partners, Inc., and manager to professional golfer Ernie Els. Twenty years earlier, Goulet had started a business called Private Club Links that would network private club members around the world. Goulet saw what Spring Brook was doing as another opportunity to bring together a similar network of clubs to help out communities deeply affected by the pandemic.

“I thought, ‘Heck, I’m in golf and I know everybody, what can I do?’” said Goulet. “I thought that this was something we could amplify and turn into a national movement.”

On the same afternoon as his Fox & Friends appearance, Bachman received a call from Goulet.

“Rob says, ‘Hey, I saw what you’re doing. What do you think about growing this nationally?’” recalled Bachman. “I was like, ‘Wow, sure. How do we do that?” 

The first step was to get other clubs in the surrounding communities more involved. Bachman, a member of the New Jersey Chapter of the Club Management Association of America, put out a few calls and learned that Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City was in desperate need of supplies. Bachman called John Dorman, General Manager at The University Club in New York, and later reached out to the New York Athletic Club and got them both to pledge their support to Mount Sinai. He was also able to match up Deepdale Golf Club on Long Island with Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

Through Serbin’s connections once again, Spring Brook was able to locate a florist in Washington State who had a contact in China that could get them some KN95 masks.  Spring Brook secured $10,000 for 7,000 face masks. These masks wound up being distributed to Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, N.J., and RWJ Barnabas Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville.

Goulet was also busy burning up the phone lines as well. He got Els to pledge his support to ClubsHelp, even getting Els to appear with him and Bachman on Fox & Friends again. Els also wrote a letter to the board at famed Seminole Golf Club, where he’s a member, which resulted in a contribution of $285,000 from Seminole. Part of that money came from the “TaylorMade Driving Relief Skins Match” and the hosting fee Seminole received from the PGA Tour for hosting the charity event, which featured Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff. Goulet was also able to reach out to Turner Broadcasting through some friends, and Turner was able to earmark some of the charitable donations from “Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity,” which featured NFL legends Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and golf icons Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. The Match raised more than $20 million for COVID-19 relief.

ClubsHelp also received video endorsements from 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus and former LPGA golfer Kris Tschetter, another Goulet client. Goulet also reached out to Gary Erickson, owner and founder of Clif Bar & Company, who wound up donating close to 7 million Clif Bars to help sustain front-line healthcare workers around the country.

“I started calling people I knew who were influencers and saying, ‘Hey, we’re putting this band together and we would love to get your help,’” said Goulet. 

Most importantly, Goulet was able to get several large private club management companies to partner with ClubsHelp, including Concert Golf Partners, ClubCorp, Arcis Golf and the Dormie Network. In a matter of just two weeks, ClubsHelp had a supporting network of nearly 300 clubs nationwide.

“By the second or third day with Rob, I knew things would take off pretty quickly,” said Bachman, Executive Director of the ClubsHelp Foundation. “He’s the kind of guy that makes things happen. He’s a visionary. When other clubs saw what we were doing, they jumped on board right away because many of them were already helping their communities and being part of a national organization just gives everyone a little more power. A little more clout.”

On April 6, 2020 ClubsHelp filed an application with the Internal Revenue Service for 501c(3) tax exempt status, which they were approved for shortly after Father’s Day. This was important for ClubsHelp because now all donations would be tax deductible, and they could receive larger donations. 

By the end of June, ClubsHelp already had a website in place and a full Board of Directors, led by Goulet. They also had a formula for how to connect each club with the hospitals during the pandemic, thanks to Spring Brook’s initial efforts. Each club would adopt a hospital or multiple hospitals in their area, and then that club would designate one person—most likely the club’s general manager—to connect with someone at the hospital so that the club could get the much-needed supplies to them in a safe and efficient manner.

This laid the framework for ClubsHelp for months to come. Yet, as the summer progressed, it became increasingly evident to Bachman and the other members of the board that ClubsHelp “wasn’t just a response to COVID-19.” It was a national network of clubs whose mission was to support various causes and charities in their local communities, especially in times of need.

ClubsHelp adopted the motto, “Care Locally, Unite Nationally,” and that’s exactly what it’s been doing, assisting favorite charities and communities that are struggling not only due to the pandemic, but because of a natural disaster or emergency as well.

“We’re just a giant network of helping,” said Bachman.