The Golf Club Managers’ Association has agreed to support the Golf Foundation as its chosen charity for 2019/2020. The new relationship aims to raise awareness of both organisations within golf clubs around the UK, whilst helping to raise funds to support junior golf activity at the grass roots level.
Although the GCMA has been a long-time supporter of the Golf Foundation’s work to help young people to enjoy the playing and personal benefits of golf, this is the first time the association has designated the Golf Foundation as its official charity.
The first initiative in the collaboration to encourage all 1,700 GCMA members around the UK to bolt a fundraising element onto an existing competition at their club, with all money raised being donated to the Golf Foundation to support junior participation activity. The suggested format is to simply tag a £2 donation onto the entry fee for any competition that is already in the club diary during the month of September.
GCMA chairman Phil Grice said: “Having taken over as chairman in 2018, I was conscious of the association’s social responsibility within the sport, and I’m delighted that we’ll now formally be supporting the fantastic work that the Golf Foundation does to support young people’s participation in our great game.
“As soon as Brendon [Pyle] and Vanessa [Bell] presented the organisation’s work to the board, we were instantly sold on working more closely together, and look forward to developing our relationship into 2020.”
Vanessa Bell, Head of Fundraising at Golf Foundation, explains: “We are hugely excited to be working with the GCMA, not only to try and raise additional funds for the Golf Foundation, but also to develop stronger links with managers around the UK. We have a huge number of resources that clubs are able to tap into and we simply want to raise awareness amongst GCMA members of how their club can be part of the drive to introduce more youngsters to our fantastic game.”
Pictured top: GCMA members get hands-on with the Golf Foundation’s activities at the GCMA 2017 Conference
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