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I work for a NPO as my 2nd job. This year, as in the past, I’m organizing our annual corporate golf tournament. We’ve made some changes to ensure that we get as much sponsorship as possible as all proceeds go towards students in a particular industry.
This year we changed the number of foursomes any one company can book, so long as they have the maximum sponsorship level with a max. of 2 foursomes.
This is a highly attended event and there is a long waiting list. Although we would prefer to have every foursome as a sponsor, we know that it’s not possible with the economy, so I do keep a number of spots open to golfers that do attend the other events we hold throughout the rest of the year but can’t afford to sponsor each event we have.
This year, one particular company booked their 2 foursomes – with prime sponsorship – early. I promptly send out confirmations to each company, as they register, thanking them for their support of our activities, confirming outstanding details, asking for additional information etc, as well as reiterating our new policy of 2 foursomes if they sponsor at the highest level.
This one company emailed me asking if it would be possible to add one more foursome. They would be willing to pay for the 3rd foursome in addition to their sponsorship. Well, as I said, we’re really tight for space. In the past, we’ve added one or two more teams which slowed down the pace considerably on an already day-long event so we decided not to allow more than the limit.
I emailed back, cc’ing the rest of my committee, that unfortunately, we were unable to help them out, but that again we thanked them for their support and that if it was possible, closer to the date of the event and that someone dropped out and all others on the waiting list had been placed already, that they would be advised. Apologies, sorry, can’t be helped, let me know if you need clarification on our new policy, etc.
Got an email back from them. Thanks for getting back to us so quickly. We understand. We’ll see you at the tournament anyway with the 2 foursomes we’ve already got registered. Let us know if things change, but thanks for trying.
All’s well in good.
Not 48 hours later. Get an email from one of the other committee members, who, if you recall was cc’d on the correspondence. Hi, TOLady. Just got a call from X.Co. They have one foursome registered at the tournament and they are a prime sponsor. Any way that they can get another foursome in?
WFT? Did they honestly think that by going around me that policy was going to change, our registration numbers were going to magically drop. Not to mention the fact that they bald-faced lied about having only 1 foursome when they already had two registered?
Having run this tournament for the past 5 years, my word is law. Do not cross me. We appreciate your sponsorship, but don’t piss me off. Your company just got bumped to the back of the room for the dinner, end of the roster for tee-off and the bottom of the list for next year. Other companies were waiting in line and didn’t try to end-run me.
BTW - just got a drop out. Company not able to attend, but still willing to sponsor. Guess who is NOT getting that spot!
This year we changed the number of foursomes any one company can book, so long as they have the maximum sponsorship level with a max. of 2 foursomes.
This is a highly attended event and there is a long waiting list. Although we would prefer to have every foursome as a sponsor, we know that it’s not possible with the economy, so I do keep a number of spots open to golfers that do attend the other events we hold throughout the rest of the year but can’t afford to sponsor each event we have.
This year, one particular company booked their 2 foursomes – with prime sponsorship – early. I promptly send out confirmations to each company, as they register, thanking them for their support of our activities, confirming outstanding details, asking for additional information etc, as well as reiterating our new policy of 2 foursomes if they sponsor at the highest level.
This one company emailed me asking if it would be possible to add one more foursome. They would be willing to pay for the 3rd foursome in addition to their sponsorship. Well, as I said, we’re really tight for space. In the past, we’ve added one or two more teams which slowed down the pace considerably on an already day-long event so we decided not to allow more than the limit.
I emailed back, cc’ing the rest of my committee, that unfortunately, we were unable to help them out, but that again we thanked them for their support and that if it was possible, closer to the date of the event and that someone dropped out and all others on the waiting list had been placed already, that they would be advised. Apologies, sorry, can’t be helped, let me know if you need clarification on our new policy, etc.
Got an email back from them. Thanks for getting back to us so quickly. We understand. We’ll see you at the tournament anyway with the 2 foursomes we’ve already got registered. Let us know if things change, but thanks for trying.
All’s well in good.
Not 48 hours later. Get an email from one of the other committee members, who, if you recall was cc’d on the correspondence. Hi, TOLady. Just got a call from X.Co. They have one foursome registered at the tournament and they are a prime sponsor. Any way that they can get another foursome in?
WFT? Did they honestly think that by going around me that policy was going to change, our registration numbers were going to magically drop. Not to mention the fact that they bald-faced lied about having only 1 foursome when they already had two registered?
Having run this tournament for the past 5 years, my word is law. Do not cross me. We appreciate your sponsorship, but don’t piss me off. Your company just got bumped to the back of the room for the dinner, end of the roster for tee-off and the bottom of the list for next year. Other companies were waiting in line and didn’t try to end-run me.
BTW - just got a drop out. Company not able to attend, but still willing to sponsor. Guess who is NOT getting that spot!
). Man, the people attending put a LOT of money into the tournament and were often hard to deal with. The two years I was there we had two different events people - no one seemed to last more than a year. I commend you on being able to put on a golf tournament 5 years in a row. It is quite a difficult task. 
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