Goldenfairway.com, from the MVP Network (St. Louis, MO), provides online custom golf games to businesses and organizations, including nonprofits. The games provide a unique way to make money, give away prizes and create brand awareness.

"It's about you making money from three of the world's biggest and most profitable growth markets: the Internet, advertising and online games," says Robert Dobbins, distributor for Egolfinternational.com. In no time at all, an organization can raise anywhere from $10,000 to $1 million.

Here's how it works:
Goldenfairway.com provides you with a private label, 18-hole golf game that you own and they manage. The company's systems handle everything on the back end. There's no downloading, so there's no danger of computer viruses.

All you have to do is make a general announcement or send out an email message letting supporters know that your game is online for them to play and win prizes. Each time a person plays your online golf game, your organization makes money.

It works just like an arcade game machine. Fifty percent of each $1 play token used by a player is paid to your organization. Every token allows a person to play a full 18-hole game or take 18 shots in other contests, such as hole-in-one or closest to the pin.

Players pay for their tokens online by credit card. In addition, you can receive sheets of tickets to sell supporters, just like cookies or candy. Tickets come in $5, $10 and $20 denominations. Each ticket is programmed with a unique code that takes the user to your private golf course online.

Here's what the bottom line looks like in terms of fundraising: Every Friday, your organization is paid half of all the money your supporters spend. If 1,000 people play, you make $10,000.

If your supporters use up their tokens and buy more, you get paid all over again. You can run tournaments as often as you like, creating a steady stream of income.

"Our clients usually find that tournaments start out slowly, and then build fast as word spreads and more people start playing," says Dobbins.

To increase your income even further, you can offer to make local businesses "hole sponsors." There are spaces for 21 sponsor advertisements to appear during each game. You can sell these ads if you want, give them away or just leave them out. If you do sell them, you keep the money entirely. Your distributor can recommend prices for advertisements. Alternatively, you can exchange your ad space for special giveaways, such as TVs, computers or other high-end prizes.

There is no up-front cost for nonprofit organizations. At the end of the tournament, you pay the distributor 40 percent of all tickets sold. Any unsold tickets go back to the distributor at no charge.