Last fall, I happened to meet someone who has been involved with the San Francisco Giants and the Giants Community Fund for a number of years (he happened to be wearing his World Series ring at the time, and I got to hold it!). I mentioned the idea of this
Back when I wrote the very first post in this series, comparing what happened to the Mets and Dodgers foundations after their ownership changes, I flagged the Orioles as the other real case study worth watching, as David Rubenstein bought the team in 2024 and is now one of the
When I was going through the All-Star Legacy Initiative numbers for the last post, one finding jumped out at me: the Rangers' $7 million investment in 2024. In digging further into the data, I learned that this wasn't the largest Legacy Initiative effort: that title belongs,
The spike that pulled me into a rabbit hole The Astros rate well on IMPACT+ — a 104.3, slightly above league average, good for #12 of 29. But that's not what drew my attention when I pulled this one together. Take a look and see what question you
The "before" picture...now we just wait for the "after". The Padres are the most recent team to change hands — José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones closed on the franchise in May 2026 at a record $3.9 billion. That makes the Padres Foundation the next
As I noted in the previous post, MLB and host clubs have given nearly $125M to local communities through the All-Star Legacy initiative since its inception, dating back to 1997. I went back and looked at press releases and news stories to document the impact these efforts have made.
With the 2026 All-Star Game happening in Philadelphia, it's a good time to look at Phillies Charities. First, though, an interesting aspect of the All-Star festivities: since 1997, MLB has run the Legacy Initiative in partnership with the host club to support local organizations as well
Another story from childhood. This was back in the day before my family had a desktop computer. I must have been 8 years old, and the way we would find out what little league team we were on was from a phone call from the coach, who would have to
"Get your 50/50 raffle ticket!" If you've been to a baseball game, you've heard it. It's a lottery with decent odds, a good cause, and you're already there anyway — so why not? Five tickets, please. I got curious: what
With 20 years in fundraising, I advise donors and nonprofit leaders. I also research MLB team foundations to see how they stack up on community investment.
Do I need to add an asterisk? I was 13 when Cal Ripken Jr. played his 2,131st consecutive game and passed Lou Gehrig's record. One of the things I remember about that time is how some people thought the record needed an asterisk because of the strike-
Big spenders. That's probably the first thing everyone thinks when they think about the current Dodgers organization. By my count, they have eight players with total contracts worth >$100M+. This philosophy appears to apply similarly to their Foundation, so despite having the second-highest valuation per Forbes
While it's way too early in this project to draw any conclusions about the correlation between how teams are run and how they perform, this is one example of them matching up, and not in a good way. The last time the Angels won a playoff series was
I am sure no Mets fan wants to be reminded of the Wilpon era, and they probably never even thought about what it meant for the New York Mets Foundation. But as we look at the Amazin' Mets Foundation, we can see the impact of a change in ownership
When I was a senior in high school, I wrote an essay about my future career. I remember the theme of it was that while I knew I wasn't good enough to play baseball professionally, I was committed to working in sports in some way. This clearly didn&
Going from my hometown team to now my favorite team after growing up watching WGN (the Superstation!). Digging in here has led me to seeing that 990s do provide some insight into the value of 50/50 raffles and the impact of the COVID pandemic on fundraising and grantmaking that
First entry in a series that looks at each MLB foundation, how they rank along various metrics relative to each other, and highlights their top areas of impact. The IMPACT+ model views the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation very favorably. While their high score is in part reflective of being a mid-
IMPACT+ adjusts foundation spending for parent club revenue and valuation. The dispersion — from 30 to 304 — was unexpected. After collecting IRS 990 data on all MLB team foundations, I'm introducing a beta version of the IMPACT+ score. Indexed to 100 like ERA+ and wRC+, IMPACT+ aims to measure
Of the 18 MLB foundations with assets over $5M, 10 hold investments in securities. The numbers tell an uneven story. I've been working through all 30 MLB team charitable foundations' 2024 tax filings. One thing that caught my attention early on: how foundations with large asset bases
In 2024, MLB team foundations collectively generated $122M+ in community impact. Here's what the 990s reveal — and what they don't. For years, I've wanted to combine my curiosity about philanthropy with my love of baseball. With Claude's help, I finally took the