The Team Foundation Report - MLB - Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation
From their official website:
The Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation was established in 1997 before the D-backs ever played a Major League game. The mission of the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation is to support three main areas of need: homelessness, indigent healthcare and children's programs of all types, including education and youth baseball and softball field building and renovation, outreach programs and equipment….
….To date, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation have made charitable contributions totaling more than $75 million to non-profit organizations and charitable programs across Arizona.”
The organization has been around for 25 years now and so that means they’ve given out about $3M annually on average. Per the most recent 990 (2019), they made grants of $5.2M+ in that reporting year.
The majority of funds are raised through events and programs such as the annual Evening on the Diamond Gala, 50/50 Raffle, D-backs Celebrity Golf Classic, D-backs Race Against Cancer, Diamonds Back Field Building Program, License Plate Program, D-backs Authentics, Chase Field Tour Program, Mystery Ball, Online Auctions and major gifts from our players and partners in our community.
It appears most of their revenue is generated not from individual gifts but from a variety of events and programs. They distributed over 90% of their revenue in this reporting year, and are very transparent about who runs the Foundation.
Our Program Grants and Ken Kendrick Grand Slam Awards application process is conducted on a yearly basis. Any 501(c)3 non-profit organization in Arizona is welcome to apply. The grants are reviewed by a committee of Arizona Diamondbacks employees and the Executive Council who score the grants and make a recommendation to the Board. The Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation Board of Directors, a 13-member voting board consisting of Arizona Diamondbacks and Maricopa County appointees, is responsible for annually approving all grant applications.
Something I expect to be true of many MLB team foundations is the focus on supporting local and youth baseball players and organizations.
Since 2000, the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation has built or refurbished 43 baseball and softball fields as part of the Mike Kennedy ‘Diamonds Back’ Field Building Program representing a charitable investment of more than $10 million.
So this equates to about two fields annually. Is that a lot? I can’t say though it’s something I hope to track throughout these posts.
One of my least favorite parts of their report is the following grant program:
In 2012, the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation partnered with the University of Phoenix to launch the D-backs School Challenge, a statewide grant program that challenged public, private and charter schools to "make their best pitch" for a $5,000 grant. By the end of 2012, $250,000 had been awarded to 51 schools from across the state. The charitable grants totaling over $1.2 million since 2012 have funded everything from library upgrades to robotics programs, literacy projects to school gardens, and so much more.
I worry that needing to make a “pitch” (I am guessing pun-intended) would lead to the exclusion of many schools where teachers and administrators don’t have the time, bandwidth, or expertise to take on such a task. It would be interesting to see the breakdown of the schools that received these grants to see if it were equitable.
Overall, the Foundation raises and distributes a significant amount of money annually and has, at least at this surface level, a transparent process for administrating these funds.