Many businesses would love to get involved and raise money for a favorite charity. They just don’t have a clue about how to go about it.
Sound familiar? If so, here’s a solution. Copy Jerry Jendusa’s model for a charity golf outing. Or if it’s easier, just join him at his.
Jendusa is president of Emteq, a New Berlin-based company that manufactures components for the aviation industry.
Emteq will present its eighth annual charity golf outing to raise money to support child advocacy programs at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin on Monday, July 23, at The Legend at Brandybrook in Wales.
Since its founding, the Emteq “Time to Play” golf outing has raised more than $445,000 to prevent child abuse.
The golf outing is a collaborative effort combining the talents and dedication of Emteq’s leadership team, its employees, its vendors and its customers.
I recently asked Jendusa to share some insights about his company’s model for building a charity golf outing.
BizTimes: What motivates your company to donate to this particular charity?
Jendusa: “Emteq is a young organization (founded in 1996) with many young families that can relate to Children’s Hospital and child advocacy programs. The partnership has expanded with Children’s, special relationships have formed with the leaders of the organization and a dynamic synergy has formed. I am a big believer in focus and establishing goals to achieve amazing results while involving many in the process.”
BizTimes: How do you get your staff so motivated and involved in the outing?
Jendusa: “In addition to a very relatable and meaningful cause, we have a dynamic and solid core group of people that want to make this a special event. Consistency, goal-minded and wonderfully gifted volunteers, organizational commitment, focus and awareness, year-round planning make for a wonderful experience. When you work with a motivated staff, you simply support their efforts and energy as much as possible.”
BizTimes: How do you get your vendors, many of whom do not even have a presence in this state, to agree to support your charity golf outing?
Jendusa: “Emteq surrounds itself with like-minded suppliers and partners. They have formed a common bond with Emteq and our team and believe in giving back to a worthy cause while coming in for a very fun day on the golf course with many laughs. In addition, we put on a suppliers symposium the day after the event and open up our organization’s key engineers, buyers and senior leaders to make it a productive business trip. We are committed to this cause and to giving back to the kids in our local community. Thankfully, our partners support us in our beliefs and in our commitment to Children’s Hospital and to the child advocacy programs.”
BizTimes: What’s different/exciting about this year’s outing?
Jendusa: “(Former radio personality) Jonathan Green will be our guest emcee and auctioneer.”
BizTimes: How can BizTimes support the golf outing?
Jendusa: “Create awareness for our event. Open up our event to your audience for participation, donations in kind, auction items/raffle prizes and basis sharing with others is sincerely appreciated.”
Done. You don’t have to invent the model. Jendusa and his team have already done the heavy lifting. If you’d like to replicate Jendusa’s model for a charity of your choice, he would be happy to share more insights about how to get it done. Or you could just join him for his worthy cause (www.emteq.com/golf).
Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes.
