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Fundraising in difficult economic times poses a significant additional challenge: with everyone tightening their belt, fundraising is bound to contract. Just don't tell that to Shmuel Weiss.

Weiss and his wife Miriam, of Edison, have been able to expand the reach of their fundraising on behalf of Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva (RPRY) with the annual Golf Outing.

The tournaments, which are held at the Forsgate Country club, Jamesburg, draw on the corporate and professional worlds that would not be reached with traditional fundraisers. Miriam, who is a personal injury attorney, and Shmuel, who is a real estate developer and self-proclaimed golf fanatic, knew that asking local businesses and community members to donate could only go so far.

"The problem with the community school is every time they go to raise money, they go into the community, and there's only so much you can go to the community more," Shmuel said. "Under normal circumstances, a Fortune 500 [company] or a ShopRite would not be interested in a Hebrew day school. That's when I came up with the idea to come up with a golf outing."

Shmuel and Miriam Weiss were recently honored at RPRY's annual dinner for their service to the school, which includes Shmuel's yearly golf tournament that raised $100,000 to date. The event has become more than just a fundraiser; shattering the old mold of bringing in charitable donations to a local school, it's opened up the community to formerly untapped reservoirs to help the Orthodox Jewish day school meet its financial needs.

Shmuel, who is on the RPRY board, said that his Golf Outings are appealing because it's "guilt-free golf": professionals who enjoy golfing can spend their time earning for charity as well as playing the sport they love.

"It's been very successful because it hasn't gone back to tap the well of the community, which is already drying up because there's so many different organizations and causes inside the community," Shmuel said. "They are paying a high tuition and this is a great way to start the process of trying to fundraise [outside the community]."

Shmuel also said that the event appeals to golfers because it is held in a country club, which is not open to the public without a pricey membership.

"[For] the people who don't belong to golf clubs, coming to a country club for a day is very appealing," he said.

In the golf tournament, golfers find sponsors for them to play a game of "best ball" golf, where teams of golfers play to see who can hit the ball closest to the hole. The golfers find sponsors to cover the cost of their entry plus something extra, so sponsorships don't go to cover the overhead. Some golfers pay for themselves, and some attend the tournament to watch for the price of a sponsorship. The day includes a lunch, a dinner, awards, and a raffle.

"It's a very beautiful and unique event for a yeshiva day school," Miriam said. "We go to our business relationship people and raise money from them every year instead of reaching out to a local business [for sponsorship of an event]. It's a different type of group than other fundraisers."

"It's a social event with a lot of networking," Shmuel added about the other perks of the outing. "It's an enjoyable time [and] an elegant place."

The Weisses chose to focus their fundraising efforts on RPRY after seeing how happy their three children were at the school.

"The minute our kids went to RPRY, they loved the school," Miriam said. "They adjusted quickly, they loved the teachers, and they were very happy from the first minute. It was a pleasant experience. The kids were happy to go to school."

Both parents were impressed with the education their children were receiving, recently demonstrated with their 11th-grade daughter, Malia, who spoke at the Feb. 22 dinner that honored her parents.

"The reason we had her speak is because as much as we can talk about how great the school is, Malia is a product of the school," Miriam said. "She spoke so well and so poised, the best representation of the product RPRY produces. People said afterwards that all we needed to do was to have Malia speak because it shows how terrific RPRY is. RPRY prepared her for Bruriah (Malia's high school). Her grade has 100 girls, and she's able to go into that environment and excel. RPRY was really the foundation for her to go on and blossom further."

Their fundraising efforts extended to help at the dinner as well, for the Weisses said they did not want to accept an honor without helping the cause. They were willing to accept the challenge of fundraising in tough economic times, and Miriam was very happy with the undisclosed amount of money her efforts raised.

"We wanted to do our very best effort to help the school, whether it was phone calls, emails, or personal letters with follow-ups," she said.

The Weisses have not scheduled this year's tournament yet, but they are planning it for late 2009 or early 2010.

"We're always trying to think of new ideas to fundraise outside the parent body," Miriam said. "Right now, we are just planning for the future of the Golf Outing."