Inside the Dugout: Tracking Philanthropy Across All 30 MLB Team Foundations
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 first step: building a comprehensive spreadsheet tracking financial data across all 30 MLB team foundations.
The Numbers
In 2024 alone, these foundations collectively distributed $76.7M in grants, deployed $45.8M in direct programming, and generated $122M+ in total community impact. That's a meaningful amount of money — and it's mostly flying under the radar of anyone who isn't reading 990s for fun.
Three Operating Models
The story gets more interesting when you look at how teams actually do this work. After going through the data, I identified three distinct models:
Pass-Through Grantmaking (17 foundations). Foundations like the Brewers, Phillies, and Blue Jays allocate 68%+ of expenses to grants, acting primarily as funding vehicles for community organizations. They're not running programs — they're writing checks to the people who do.
Direct Programming (5 foundations). The Giants, Reds, Rangers, Dodgers, and Nationals invest heavily in their own programs — youth academies, educational centers, and direct services — with grants representing less than 40% of expenses. These foundations are operators, not funders.
Balanced Approach (8 foundations). Teams like the Cubs, Yankees, and Astros split resources between grantmaking and running their own initiatives. Neither pure funder nor pure operator — a hybrid model that reflects different strategic choices about where the leverage is.
Methodology
I pulled data from IRS Form 990 filings via ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. I haven't verified every line item, but spot checks give me confidence in the overall accuracy. Two notes: the Oakland A's data is from 2022, the most recent available; and Ilitch Charities combines Tigers and Red Wings programming, so the Tigers number isn't cleanly separable.
What This Doesn't Capture
These financials don't reflect the full scope of team community engagement. The Red Sox–Jimmy Fund partnership has raised tens of millions since 1953 — that doesn't show up here at all. (Disclosure: I worked at Dana-Farber from 2008–2012.) Similar long-standing partnerships exist across the league. This analysis focuses specifically on what's reported in foundation 990 data, which is a meaningful but incomplete picture.
What's Next
This is just the beginning. The dataset is live and I'll keep building on it. What I'm most curious about: year-over-year trends, any correlation between team payroll or valuation and foundation spending, and a deeper look at the foundations that are doing the most interesting programmatic work. If there's something you'd find useful or want me to dig into, reach out.