Posted by Yvonne Thomas
What are the ingredients needed to make a successful female golf entrepreneur? Take 1 part vision, add a large dose of love for the game, and finish it off with an unlimited supply of believing in yourself. Jennifer Pennington, Founder/CEO of PIN-UP GOLF has used this recipe well, and is now celebrating her 13th year as the owner of this unique business that specializes in fundraising for charity golf tournaments.
PIN-UP GOLF is the brainchild of Pennington who, armed with a marketing degree from Louisiana Tech, originally moved to Southern California for a career in modeling and acting after graduating from college. As a model, she was hired to make appearances at charity golf tournaments and during this time, she was bitten by the bug and fell in love with the game. Aside from posing for pictures and signing autographs at the tournaments, Jennifer also helped organizers out by helping to sell raffle tickets and getting participants excited about donating to the charities. This didn’t go unnoticed, and she started getting more and more requests from other groups to help at their tournaments.
The sudden passing of Jennifer’s mother in 1998 gave her the drive she needed to go after her dream. “My mother always taught me that I could do whatever I wanted if I believed in myself, and if I worked hard enough,” said Pennington. Jennifer felt that the time was right for her to make a difference in the world. She had a vision, she was looking for a new career, she loved golf, and she loved helping others. She put all of these components together one day and said, “This is a business.” She created the idea for professional fundraising golf hostesses and PIN-UP GOLF was born.
Jennifer Pennington – Founder/CEO Pin-Up Golf
Jennifer’s idea was to organize a staff that loves to play golf, respects the game and the etiquette, has outgoing personalities, and that she could train to learn fundraising skills. In 1998, there was no business model, so she created her own system from scratch. She says it took an entire year before she ran her first tournament in 1999. Now after 13 years, PIN-UP GOLF has handled fundraising for more than 2,000 tournaments and raised over $8 million for charity.
In the beginning, Jennifer’s biggest challenge was convincing potential clients that PIN-UP GOLF was a real professional business with a staff that is trained in fundraising. “They’re not just girls hanging out decorating the golf course.” says Pennington. Her staff takes their jobs seriously, they’re all golfers, so they love the game, and now after 13 years, they have a proven track record.
Jennifer’s staff is an experienced group of fundraisers that comes on board to help charity tournaments organize their day of activities that includes mulligan or skills packages, helping to sell raffle tickets and auction items, and assisting with registration and hospitality for the players.
The main goal for these tournaments is to raise as much money as possible for charity. Pennington added, “A lot of the tournaments that I used to work with had volunteers handling most of the activities, and the volunteers weren’t real comfortable asking for donations. Overall, many tournaments think their volunteers can do what PIN-UP GOLF does.” Jennifer emphasizes that having her staff at an event will double, triple, or even quadruple fundraising for the day because they’re experienced in it and it’s their profession. “Sometimes organizers think they’re doing good, but they haven’t seen greatness,” says Pennington. “They’re lowering their standards because they really don’t know how much money they COULD be making.”
Jennifer is an excellent role model for both male and female entrepreneurs with a dream. And her advice to them is simple– “Believe in yourself. Believe you can do it.” Her favorite quote is “Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s doing whatever it takes despite one’s fears.”
It’s a safe bet that courage is definitely another ingredient needed to make a successful female golf entrepreneur.
For more information about Pin-Up Golf, the company’s website can be accessed at www.pinupgolf.com.
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