Chicago Cubs Charities Snapshot
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 I will continue to look into as I complete more of these snapshots.
The Cubs are a major market team with the 4th highest valuation and 3rd highest revenue figure. However, based on the IMPACT+ score, they punch well below their weight. But within the data, there is a story of responsiveness and growth that indicates at potential to do more. As a lifelong fan and as someone who loves to celebrate the power of philanthropy, I certainly hope to see that potential become reality.
The Rickett Family purchased the Cubs in 2009, and so their own reporting notes how much they've done since that year. Some basic back-of-the-envelope math brings us to about $3M annually since then.
Unlike the Diamondbacks Foundation, the Cubs Charities operates a hybrid model with about 50% of their expenses going to grants to other organizations and the other half towards programs they run directly, like the Cubs Scholars. Selected scholars receive a $20K scholarship for college and mentoring support. They report that since the program's founding in 2013, they have supported 85 area students and committed $1.7M in scholarship funding.
In looking at their major grantees over the years, the McCormick Foundation is prominent. In short, the Foundation manages the Cubs Charities Community Fund, and contributions to the Fund are matched 50 cents to the dollar, so the nearly $850K given last year turns into nearly $1.3M. The McCormick Foundation then supports community organizations through its grantmaking. This partnership began in 1990 and has led to $28M in grants with an average grant of $64K in 2024.
The 2020 Covid year also presents some interesting data. The 990 shows that "Net Gaming Income", which I am assuming to be proceeds from the 50/50 Raffle operation was down significantly compared to other years ($340K versus the typical $1.5M). In addition, total revenue was down over 50%. Yet, the Cubs Charities stepped up and increased its grantmaking significantly. They dipped into their strong asset base to do this, and as the graph above shows, they have been slowly recovering from this ever since.
In addition, they started to leverage their assets to generate investment income, which is now over $650K up significantly from just a few years ago when it was below $50K. Between that and the jump in grantmaking and their increase in revenue over the past few years, hopefully we will see an uptick in their IMPACT+ score in the years ahead.