If you make your business from planning events from scratch, you know firsthand that times are changing. In the past, it was possible to host and register for an event without the help of the internet, but nowadays things are a little different. With everyone on social media and online shopping platforms, we have become accustomed to getting what we want with the click of our mouse. The days of mail-out flyers to organize your charity event registration are long gone. In our technology-driven world, many event managers have turned to an online registration option to save time, money and resources. Not only that, but having a physical site that you can hyperlink and share on social media will enhance your event’s visibility astronomically. Just think of all the people in your network and then multiply that by the number of shares your event website will get! It is now possible to do all of this online, which is great in terms of convenience and overall efficiency. No longer will you need to wait by your mailbox, sometimes right down to the day before your event, to receive checks and registration forms from your registrants and sponsors. By using an online option for both registration and payment, you will make planning the event much easier for yourself and your registrants.

The first step to enhancing the ease of your event management is to create your golf tournament website. This will be the home to all the important information about your event, and you want to make sure that the set-up is user friendly for you and the actual registration is easy for your guests. This will be the hub where visitors will be able to read about your event and cause, learn more about packages that are being offered, and register and/or purchase online. You can set prices for each package (both for registrations and sponsorships) and display an image and description to let visitors know what they will receive if they purchase.

For example, a Bronze Sponsorship might include signage at the welcome table, lunch, dinner, four players for golf, and a gift bag.

This is an opportunity to make each package look great to encourage purchase. When building registration items you can include images, thorough descriptions and extra content below the package itself. For an example of what a great charity event website looks like, click here. By checking out www.birdeasepro.com you can create a free trial and see for yourself.

Another benefit of having registrants purchase online is the ability you will have to display sponsor logos with ease. During the process, you can give your sponsors the option to upload their own logo, which you will then approve for display on the site. This is a great way to promote your sponsors online—especially if you share the link to your tournament site with your social media networks. It will also encourage prospective sponsors to sign up for packages because they will know that recognition will be included in their purchase. In addition to all of this: it will fill up the sidebar of your website and make it look even more dynamic and exciting. Usually an event with a healthy list of sponsors is bound to be a hit, and visitors know this when they check out your page.

Just consider everything you need to plan for at a fundraising event. An itinerary for the day, food & drinks, an organized list of participants, prizes, auction and raffle items, gift bags, and depending on how elaborate you decide to be, much more. If this is not your first event, then you already know that the last thing you want to be doing is chasing people down for payments, waiting until the last minute to deposit into your account, etc. With an online tool for registration and payment, you are avoiding this potential hold-up to your event’s success. By implementing a merchant account you are guaranteed to make the process so much easier (not only for yourself- but for your registrants too!) Check out all the little details that having a functional cart system to accept payments will take care of.

Don’t lose sight of the overall goal of your event by getting swept up in easily-managed small details. The main thing that you’ve set out to accomplish is raising a good amount of money for your chosen charity. You are doing all of this for a good cause, so don’t get weighed down by the stress and uncertainty of handling offline payments! One of the major perks of having an online platform for registration is that you can implement a full cart system. That means that registrants for your tournament will be able to select their items online—whether it be a single golfer, sponsorship, golf clubs, mulligans package or a straight donation…add everything to their cart and check out right online.

Even better: you will see their registrations and payments come through. You can manage your registrants easily in the Registrants section in the back end of your BirdEase site. You can see what they purchased, the names of their golfers or guests, and whether or not they have paid (this detail can also be verified in your merchant account–which will keep a log of payments and usually release funds into your account by the end of every day.) You can also download reports from the Registrants section, including the Tee Sheet (to have a clear picture of what positions everyone will start in), Golfer Emails list (handy for uploading into the message center for sending out mass emails, and the Full Report (which is all the information on your registrants that you could possibly need!) Not to mention, you (and anyone else you add to receive notifications) will receive a direct email when someone registers so they can be easily tracked.

People love purchasing things online, especially when they are provided with a beautiful PDF invoice immediately (which they can download to their computer or save in their email).

When you create your event website with BirdEase, you will have the choice of which merchant account you would like to integrate. We work with a variety of different hosts: PayPal, Square, Intuit QuickBooks, Authorize.net, and many more. These may be the best option if you or your company already has an external account set up—then you will simply just add the account information right onsite and bam! You are ready to start accepting payment. BirdEase also hosts on-site payment, so your registrants don’t even have to leave the site to pay! With methods for virtual payment that are always improving, the registration process will be easier than ever before for your registrants and yourself. By using a cart system and online registration software your golf tournament will be that much easier to manage—which will give you more time to focus on its overall success for your chosen charity!

So don’t waste any more time managing payments offsite. It’s time to discover the possibilities that a fully integrated cart system can bring to the success of your tournament. At BirdEase, we are always more than happy to help answer any questions and help you get your event site up and running–so you can focus on what’s most important!