More than $130,000 will flow into North Central Florida nonprofits this year thanks to a cornhole tournament at the University of Florida — a fundraising haul nearly four times greater than what the same event raised just a year ago.
The UF Department of Planning, Design and Construction’s Annual Cornhole Tournament Fundraiser, held at the end of February at the university’s band practice field, has become one of the bigger contributors to the UF Campaign for Charities — a decades-old initiative that funnels donations from the campus community to more than 100 local nonprofit organizations.
“It takes a whole team effort,” said Kate Farmer, a project manager for the Department of Planning, Design and Construction, also known as PDC. “We couldn’t have done it without all the staff and the vendors that support PDC.”
The cornhole tournament began around 20 years ago and has since grown exponentially, with a total of 56 cornhole boards, 224 participants and 325 people in attendance this year.
The event raised about $35,000 in 2025, but organizers at PDC came together to brainstorm ways to top that amount this year. One way they decided to increase the draw of the event was to include the Guinness World Record Competition, to encourage more participation in the tournament. PDC’s sustainability coordinator, Dustin Stephany, got in touch with the world record organization to set up the cornhole toss. The communications team worked with the Guinness team to film each toss based on the organization’s specific guidelines.
This innovative idea helped the tournament succeed significantly in its fundraising efforts, and the UF Campaign for Charities — the campus-based initiative that encourages members of the UF community to give back to charities that make a local impact — benefited greatly.
Since 1993, the campaign has raised more than $29 million for groups providing everything from medical assistance and legal aid to hospice care and early childhood education across the region.
Last year, the campaign raised $783,088, much of which came from individual donations, as well as contributions from various UF colleges and departments.
“Some of it was just kind of a reinvigoration of our department and a change in our culture recently,” Farmer said about the event’s success this year.
The main group of sponsors for the event were vendors for construction projects on the UF campus. These vendors range in size, from small companies that provide equipment to larger companies that build entire buildings. The main fundraising push for the 2026 Campaign for Charities will kick off in September and run through November.