Northern California cornhole craze makes millions for charity
What once was thought of as a passing craze is now creating millions for charity. One company is showing us cornhole isn't just for weekend warriors anymore
Since 2008, Joe Schwartz and his wife, Becky, have been hammering out a business plan around the game of cornhole. It started in a backyard.
It's a great game with great potential to grow, and pretty soon, Schwartz was building boards.
"And then running some public tournaments, had a corporation — DPR Construction — where we started doing their cornhole tournament for them," Joe said.
From there, the California Cornhole Association, or CCA, was created.
"We get everything set up for them -they come there. They put the boards out and run the event from there
Companies like Anrak Corporation saw they could have a good time and raise money for a good cause.
"So we started doing it for GSTA, for military that die in service, special ops to support their kids to mentor them to help them through adulthood," said Tom Schmidt with Anrak.
They've expanded to raise funds for autism and breast cancer research. Schmidt says the CCA makes it easy, managing events with up to thousands of players.
"They take care of all the scoring, make sure everybody knows how it works. They have stuff on their phones so they check in, see how they are doing in the tournament,"
They charge a fee, but he says it's worth it. The CCA has raised more than $2 million in revenue for non-profits over the last five years, and they are growing.
The next big cornhole event is Battle of the Bags at the Grounds in Roseville on February 7, where they will try to break the world record for longest toss.