Mini Golf Charity Classic

What do you get when you combine hundreds (or thousands!) of cans, jars, and boxes of food with mini golf? A team building activity in which you give back to the community while having fun.

Mini Golf Charity Classic, an amazing and philanthropic way to give to those in need while having a blast and strengthening your team at the same time.

Before the teams can build their golf course, they must first complete a series of high-energy, golf-themed team building challenges to earn the different types of food to be donated to the local Food Bank. Then teams construct their mini golf holes.

Once we have a mini golf course, everyone gets to play a round of the most unique mini golf they’ve ever seen. And to top it off, all of the cans and boxes of food that were used to construct the mini-golf holes are then donated to a food bank to benefit those in need in the local community.

Program Stats:

Group size: 12-300+
Program Length: 2.5-3 hours
Suggested Team Size: 5 is optimal, 3-6 is fine
Space requirements: 12 sq ft per group
Program Location: Inside

What is the best team size?

We typically recommend teams of 5. However, teams of 3-6 can also work well. 7 or more people per team will not be as engaging for all of the participants.

Is it better to predetermine the members of the teams or randomly assign people to teams?

The answer to this question depends upon your goal for the session. Sometimes, participants are comprised of several teams from one department. In these cases, our clients tend to like to preset the teams so that people can interact with people they don’t work with on a regular basis. Other times, groups are comprised of a single team or department and randomly assigning teams works fine.

Who forms the teams?

We can randomize small groups on the spot, but for groups larger than 20 people, we recommend you form the teams ahead of time. If you are preselecting the teams, we suggest you disseminate this information to the participants either at the program or prior to the event. We do not recommend reading off of a list at the beginning of the program.

What is the typical length of the program, and is this flexible?

A typical program runs 2.5-3 hours. Due to the nature of this program, we don’t recommend changing the time more than that.

How much set-up time is needed?

An hour is good for groups up to 100 people.

We’re using our conference room all day. Can you set up during our break?

No. The shear volume of food prevents this.

What if you set up in another room and move it into the main room?

: I’m sorry, this really doesn’t work. The bulk of the set up is dealing with the shear volume of food.

What are the room requirements?

The ideal set up is 12 square feet per team with 3 8’ rectangular tables for program supplies at the front of the room (for up to 10 teams), a screen, projector, sound system and microphone (for groups of 35+), and trash cans in each corner of the room. Some chairs around the perimeter of the room are useful.

What is the best attire for this event?

Please warn people that this activity involves sitting on the floor so they can decide if they want to wear a skirt
or not. Wearing a skirt is not out of the question, but people usually appreciate the warning. No one has to sit on
the floor if they don’t want to. That’s why we provide some chairs around the room.

What about prizes?

We typically play for Honor, Glory, and Bragging Rights. If you choose to go above and beyond that, we
recommend keeping the prizes small. Anything more than a small gift certificate changes the program from happy,
fun team building to nasty, cut-throat competition. The only thing that can be judged here is the golf hole itself.
Judging by gold score doesn’t really work because not everybody will be able to golf all the holes and people will
golf different numbers of holes, so there’s no good way to do this.

Is this messy? Will we get dirty?

If you get messy, something has gone very wrong.

Can this be done over drinks and appetizers?

No. There are cutting implements in use. Alcohol would be a safety hazard.

Can this be done while drinks and appetizers are being served?

We very strongly discourage this. The directions are very complicated and we will need everyone’s full attention.

Can this be done outdoors?

No. We have to keep the food sanitary. Water, bugs, and the sun beating on canned goods is not healthy.

How is the scoring done?

There are really 2 aspects to this answer. The first part is: People are given golf score cards to keep track of
their game, but we never use these for anything. At the end of the event we give participants the chance to vote
for their favorite hole that is not their own. The second part is: There are several competitive team building games
at the beginning of this activity where people earn the food and art supplies used in construction. Each game has 1
winner, and that winner gets a special thing that makes their hole unique. We have a loop, for example.

Can we do a serious debrief to have deep learning and work on long-standing issues in our organization?

That’s a different program.

Can we customize our Golf Program?

I’m not sure this is possible. If you can think of something, we can talk about it.

How much clean up time is needed?

An hour or more. Please warn the venue that this produces an incredible amount of trash so they can be
prepared for it.

Where does the food go?

We have partnerships with local food banks in major cities. It is our goal to have a local representative come to
thank your group for their generosity and talk about the impact on the local community.

Can we pick our own charity?

Sure! They just need to be able to pick up the food at the end of the program.

What type of food is it? How much food it is?

We work with the local food bank to see what’s on their wish list. We typically have a mix of 70 canned and
boxed food items per team.

What happens to the green carpets?

We do our best to donate them to a local animal shelter. (Some shelters love these and some refuse them.)

Do golfers have an advantage over non-golfers?

No. The courses are so different from regular golf courses that there is no advantage.

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