Charity Golf Tournament

Self-Help for the Elderly strives to promote the independence, dignity and self-esteem of seniors by providing a comprehensive range of multicultural and multilingual programs. These programs are designed to address the needs of older adults, empower them to make lifestyle choices, enhance their standards of living and to optimize their quality of life. Self-Help for the Elderly began in 1966 to respond to the dire needs of isolated seniors in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Over the past 43 years, the agency's programs evolved and expanded to address the changing needs of the growing population of older adults. Programs currently include: employment/training and job placement, meals and activities in social centers, computer learning centers, housing facilities, residential care facilities, adult day care programs, in-home supportive services, licensed home care and hospice program and social services and case management. Today, Self-Help for the Elderly annually serves approximately 25,000 seniors in four counties: San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda.

Donations from the public play a crucial role in ensuring Self-Help for the Elderly’s success. At our recent Charity Golf Tournament held on September, 2008, Self-Help for the Elderly introduced a new idea to alter the impression golf players have about a Charity Golf Tournament— playing golf merely for fun and /or fitness purpose. We desired to deliver a more inspirational message to our players that the tournament they played for Self-Help meant more than an ordinary golf tournament. With the power and assistance from Adobe Photoshop CS3, we were able to create a customized front cover for the program book by combining several still photographs into one. The front cover of the program book left a vivid image on each player’s mind and had a huge positive impact on their participation. Self-Help for the Elderly was able to draw exceptional attention from the players and generate 10% increase in donations than the past year. By performing the design work in-house using Adobe Photoshop CS3, an Adobe product requested through the Techsoup donation program, Self-Help for the Elderly was able to save advertising/designing costs and attracted three quarters of the players from 2007 Tournament to participate in the 2008 Charity Golf Tournament. We also engaged new participants who were motivated by the invitation’s design. Participants now have a strong and clear understanding that they are not only playing golf for fun at their leisure time, but also helping our community and making a difference in other people’s lives at the same time.

Most of the donation collected was used to enhance our diversified programs and implement new programs such as replacing old computers and purchasing new ones at the computer learning centers to increase number of seniors served, including a Digital Television Assistance Center at our office to educate and prepare clients for the upcoming digital television conversion, performing various outreach on how to avoid telephone scams and fraud. All of this would not be possible without the help from Adobe products.