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CTRF reaches out to other non-golf turf entities to expand its fundraising potential

The Canadian Turfgrass Research Foundation has been transforming in recent years in the wake of strained turf research sponsorship resources, but its efforts have yielded some notable results.

Two new donor contribution pages have been created, including one at its own site – https://turfresearchcanada.ca/ – and another hosted by the Golf Canada Foundation found here. The CTRF has also also created a new ‘Legacy Giving’ initiative, currently targeting golfers via the BC Golf Association and Golf Quebec websites with the goal of exposure on all provincial golf association websites in the near future.

Meanwhile, renewed monetary support from the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association and Golf Canada has come at a fortuitous time with the realization of a huge potential for funding outside of golf, i.e. soccer, football, baseball and other field sports. With that in mind, every major Canadian amateur sport organization, along with respective provincial groups, has been solicited for turf research contributions, leveraging golf’s long-standing support of turf research with these other organizations while promoting the benefits of turf to all interested stakeholders.

Behind the scenes, work has been done to ensure the CTRF webpage is constantly up-to-date with project reports, CTRF news, and announcements, including full French translation. Its list of turf researchers has been expanded to include hundreds of important contacts, and it continues growing.

As for research projects, the CTRF has provided more than $2.3 million in project funding and is currently supporting Laval University’s two year study called Understanding and predicting pesticide use on golf courses using deep machine learning by Dr. Guillaume Gregoire for $59,225 and Oregon State University’s Enhancing turfgrass carbon sequestration to improve sustainability and market access by Alec Kowalewski for $16,000. The Quebec Turfgrass Research Foundation has provided additional funding support.

In the short-term, the CTRF will be circulating its 2023 Research Funding Call for Proposals in early September. In the medium term, an educational opportunity in the form of a webinar for spring 2023 along with new opportunities to be involved with the CTRF are in the works.

As with many charities, fundraising has been a challenge for the CTRF over the past two years. Even prior to COVID, there was considerable strain on its turf research sponsorship resources to the extent that the foundation questioned its long-term viability. While prudent to discuss all possibilities, member organizations were quick to conclude that driving turf research remains important, relevant and worthy of continued attention and efforts.

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