How ANF’s second annual charitable golf tournament turned corporate strength into local impact.
The morning light always seems a little brighter over Jacaranda Golf Club, and this December it shined on something more meaningful than another corporate outing. ANF brought back its Charitable Fund Golf Tournament for a second year, and the event grew beyond the boundaries of a typical day on the course. The company is treating golf as a conduit for connection, philanthropy, and something increasingly rare in South Florida’s business landscape: a collective investment in community well-being.
For ANF CEO Al Fernandez, the tournament isn’t an accessory to the company’s brand. It is part of the firm’s DNA, a chance to prove that building structures and building community are not separate missions. He calls it an opportunity to “make a positive impact” through action instead of sentiment, and the numbers support that claim. The tournament raises money for a list of nonprofits so broad it reads like a cross-section of South Florida’s greatest needs: organizations addressing everything from hunger to healthcare, youth development to emergency relief. It was a sweeping demonstration of what a business can accomplish when it takes its role as a local stakeholder seriously.
This year’s tournament had an even larger turnout than last year, with industry leaders, business owners, and longtime charitable partners. The day began with registration at 7 a.m., where the air around the clubhouse was thick with handshakes, caffeine, and early competitive chatter. The 8 a.m. shotgun start sent golfers streaming down fairways still wet with morning dew, many of them playing not for bragging rights but for the causes quietly carried in their scorecards.
What distinguishes ANF’s event from countless other charity tournaments is its purpose-built structure. Every hole, raffle ticket, and luncheon conversation feeds back into the central engine of the ANF Charitable Fund, established under the leadership of Alberto Fernandez, Nelson Fernandez, and Alberto Gil through the Community Foundation of Broward. The fund targets three high-need areas: education and employment, economic inequality, and health and the environment, ensuring that the tournament’s success has a measurable, wide-ranging effect. Dealers and business partners who attended the event recognized the disciplined approach: ANF isn’t scattering goodwill; it’s applying strategy to generosity, the same way it approaches construction and development projects.
The beneficiary list also tells a story. Organizations like the Dan Marino Foundation, Habitat for Humanity of Broward, Boys and Girls Club, Jewish Family Services, and the American Heart Association represent dramatically different missions, yet the common thread is resilience: building individuals and families up so they can thrive. The event doesn’t just raise funds; it raises awareness of the ecosystem of nonprofits sustaining the region behind the scenes.
When the final putts dropped, golfers transitioned into the luncheon and awards ceremony, where camaraderie replaced competitiveness and the raffle became its own spectacle. These gatherings tend to reveal what the scorecards never do: how people from entirely different sectors can be drawn together when the goal transcends business. That’s the secret to why the tournament works. Even the most profit-driven executives understand the value of belonging to a community that cares enough to support itself.
For dealers, sponsors, and industry partners, the day creates a rare space where relationships form organically. It’s the kind of event where collaboration begins with small talk over tee boxes and evolves into real partnerships by the time dessert is served. Dealers who attended noticed how naturally philanthropy and business align here; supporting good causes builds goodwill, and goodwill often circles back as opportunity.
The tournament’s return is also a reflection of something shifting in South Florida’s corporate culture. Companies are no longer applauded merely for writing checks; they are expected to show up, participate, and give their people a reason to invest emotionally in the place where they work. ANF understands this instinctively. The company’s philanthropic model isn’t passive, it’s active, recurring, and rooted in community presence.
Anyone wanting to join or support the tournament next year can explore sponsorship packages that offer visibility across signage, social platforms, and event marketing. Sponsorship, in this context, isn’t transactional. It’s a statement that a company sees the same needs ANF sees and is willing to stand beside them in meeting those challenges.
There’s an unmistakable sense that the second annual ANF Charitable Fund Golf Tournament surpassed the first…not just in attendance or dollars raised, but in the depth of its influence. It reinforced a truth businesses sometimes forget: when a company invests in its community, it strengthens its own foundation. And sometimes that work starts with a tee shot into the morning light.
