When Peters and Yaffee (PY) takes a swing at fundraising, it’s all about driving home an ace. The 29-person engineering firm, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, with a branch office in Denver, focuses on traffic and transportation engineering design, and holds an annual Build Putt Give food and scholarship drive.
During the event, participants—mostly from the local A/E/C industry—build miniature golf holes out of nonperishable food items, using cans, boxes, and other props. Their creations feature tunnels, ramps, loop-de-loops, and even working windmills.
“They do what they do best—being crazily creative and competitive as they construct elaborate, multitier mini-golf holes,” says Russell Yaffee, vice president of the company.
But the competition doesn’t stop there. Everyone plays a round of mini-golf while networking with other industry professionals. PY also awards participants for achievements, such as Most Food Donated, Most Creative, Most Industry- Related, A for Effort (for newcomers), and, for 2023’s Halloween theme, Spookiest Hole Design.
The biggest award—literally—goes to the company that builds the best hole. It’s called the Russell T. Yaffee Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence—a silly name for a 5-foot trophy that Yaffee asked the designer to make “the tackiest, ugliest possible. But firms fight to get it.” (PY judges the awards, but it can’t win them.)
Then comes the “Give” part of Build Putt Give: Funds raised during the event are divided between the Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry (BEAM) food pantry in Jacksonville and the University of North Florida (UNF) for engineering scholarships. Fundraising efforts include sponsorships ($500-$1,000), individual entrance fees ($75), raffle tickets (for donated prizes, such as TVs, bicycles, and drones), and a liquor bottle ring toss (for donated bottles). In addition, collected food and essential items are boxed and donated to BEAM.
“No contribution is too small. It doesn’t take much to change someone’s life.”
RUSSELL YAFFEEVICE PRESIDENTPETERS AND YAFFEE
“No contribution is too small,” Yaffee says. “It doesn’t take much to change someone’s life.”
In the past decade, Build Putt Give has donated 67,682 pounds of food to families in need, $25,653 to food pantries, and $11,750 to UNF for engineering scholarships.
Yaffee says the food is “very much appreciated by our community’s families who need assistance making ends meet.”
When the fundraiser began in 2014, donations went to a regional food bank, Feeding Northeast Florida. “When they came to pick up the food, they brought only one medium-sized box truck and had to get a second one,” recalls Whitney Anderson, a traffic engineer in PY’s Denver office. “It was so moving to see their utter shock and joy to get that much from one company in one go.”
Unfortunately, the firm lost money on the inaugural event, not raising enough to cover the costs of signs, food, golf balls, putters, trophies, and a photographer. So adjustments were made and, by 2018, Build Putt Give became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit—a separate entity run by the PY staff.
“That gave us the ability to make purchases tax-free and make others more comfortable to donate,” says Yaffee. The firm also chose to stay closer to home, designating BEAM as its food bank.
In 2020 and 2021, the pandemic forced Build Putt Give to pivot to an online fundraiser. Even so, after setting a yearly goal of $10,000, the online events raised $7,153 in 2020 and $10,006 in 2021 via the fundraising platform Fundly.
“I spent a lot of time hunting down people to give, and I cashed in all my chips with friends, relatives, and the engineering community,” Yaffee says.
Held at UNF, the 10th annual event in October 2023 cost PY an estimated $1,000 for its sponsorship, $800 for food, $700 for building materials, and wages to cover employees’ time (90 percent of employees participate).
The results of the Halloween-themed event were a hole-inone: 8,975 pounds of food and $3,000 each for BEAM and UNF—the most successful fundraising effort yet.
Attendance also shot up, from 130 to 200 participants. “At one point, we ran out of putters,” Yaffee says. Nineteen firms participated, up from 12 the first year. They’re alerted in advance of the event about the food bank’s needs.
“It was so moving to see their utter shock and joy to get that much from one company in one go.”
WHITNEY ANDERSONTRAFFIC ENGINEERPETERS AND YAFFEE
“BEAM has been great in sharing details about where our donations are going,” says Jay Snyder, transportation engineer and leader at PY’s Denver branch. “Credit also goes to the engineering community of Jacksonville for being so engaged and inventive. The event is tremendous fun.”
HDR’s team wore black turtlenecks and slacks with witches’ hats. Anderson was master of ceremonies and wore a Jack Skellington (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) costume, while Snyder dressed up as Saturday Night Live’s David S. Pumpkins.
Halloween is big for Yaffee, the son and grandson of engineers, who used to keep a storage unit full of spooky props. His father’s Halloween decorations once drew TV news crews—as did his own a generation later.
Yaffee is already plotting how to outdo the huge faux electric chair and jail cell he built in 2023 (and the haunted house and cemeteries of other teams). “I might add a coffin, another level, and strobe lights that go off when your ball gets into the hole,” he says.
“Credit also goes to the engineering community of Jacksonville for being so engaged and inventive. The event is tremendous fun.”
JAY SNYDERTRANSPORTATION ENGINEER/DENVER OFFICE LEADERPETERS AND YAFFEE
PY was launched by Yaffee and company President Dow Peters 15 years ago. They only had one intern, Anderson, and three employees, including themselves. But they identified a niche in the industry: traffic safety studies and signal and pavement marking design. That expertise has brought them big projects, including signage, pavement, and signal work across the state of Florida and now in Colorado via their Denver office.
As much as the work itself, they sought a company culture that valued each employee. They’re also a minority-owned business and focus on diversity, with a staff of 40 percent women.
Build Putt Give isn’t their sole largesse, but it’s their main effort. Seven employees serve on the Build Putt Give board, and 15 to 20 people volunteer for the annual event.
“Everyone helps who is able to. If they don’t have a work or family obligation, they’re there,” says Snyder, who joined PY in 2016 and helped open the Denver office in 2019.
“We hire good people, and good people generally care,” says Yaffee, who’s so passionate about Build Putt Give that he mentions the event during job interviews. “I tell candidates we work hard, we play hard, and we give back. Those are the kind of people we hire.”
Michele Meyer is a management and marketing writer based in Houston. She has written for Forbes, Entrepreneur, and the International Association of Business Communicators.