How First Tee Greater Detroit uses Jotform to empower youth through golf

Golf is a game of fine margins. It demands precision and power, skill and resilience. Mastering the sport requires patience, consistency, mental fortitude, knowledge of the rules, and respect for the game. 

If these seem to be moral characteristics as much as the pathway to golf stardom, it’s because they are; similar to many sports, the building blocks of success in golf mirror those we find in real life.

First Tee is a nonprofit organization that recognizes this and leverages it to help children and teens worldwide. 

With more than 150 chapters around the globe, First Tee’s mission is to impact young people by providing educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values, and promote healthy choices through the game of golf. Since 1997, First Tee has engaged 17,000 volunteers to mentor 9 million children. 

Less exciting, however, is all the paperwork required to make this vision a reality. Fortunately for at least one of the chapters, Jotform has been able to help.

The Detroit chapter of First Tee holds classes at the Durfee Innovation Society, a former school with decades of history that’s been turned into a community center for over 30 local nonprofits.

John Page, Programming Director at First Tee Greater Detroit, was the first to discover Jotform when searching for an easier online solution to collect student information. 

The thing I like most about Jotform is that it’s so simple to use. We were using paper for a lot of our events and our waivers, and that was a pain getting all those signed and accounted for.

John Page, Programming Director, First Tee Greater Detroit

John began implementing Jotform to automate data collection and management for his local First Tee chapter. It was a significant process improvement over printed documents, both on the administrative end and for those submitting the forms — quick to set up and simple to fill out on a mobile device at events via Jotform Mobile Forms. 

Before long, First Tee Greater Detroit was using Jotform for waivers, feedback, and information collection from students, coaches, and volunteers alike — all accessible in a central location on Jotform’s secure platform via Jotform Tables. This not only made it easier to collect and access important participant data anywhere, but it also provided another crucial benefit for the team at First Tee Greater Detroit: saving precious hours of time.

First Tee Greater Detroit hosts events at local golf courses (top picture) plus smaller classes and lessons at the Durfee Innovation Society (bottom two pictures). Photos courtesy First Tee Greater Detroit

“Jotform has saved us countless hours just on admin alone,” John says, “so I can use the time that we spent managing paper forms and really refocus all that on our participants and our program to have the most impact.”

Beyond that, John has explored more unique ways to implement Jotform at First Tee — like using Jotform Smart PDF Forms to turn form submissions into consolidated printable PDFs for their programs.

Even after all this, John still feels as if he’s just beginning to unlock Jotform’s potential. He continues looking for new ways Jotform can be used to aid in First Tee’s mission of helping kids cultivate life skills through the game of golf. 

There’s so many different ways that you can use [Jotform], I feel like we’ve really just scratched the surface. For whatever need we have, I think there’s going to be some solution with Jotform.

John Page, Programming Director, First Tee Greater Detroit

We’re thrilled that First Tee has been able to use Jotform to make a difference in the lives of children and teens. If you’re interested in getting involved with First Tee, you can find more information on becoming a coach, volunteer, or participant here. 

How can Jotform help your organization or nonprofit achieve similar success? Leave a comment below to let us know — we’d love to hear from you.