logo
Donate
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Magazine
  • Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Who Is the Most Philanthropic Baseball Team? Not the Yankees!

Rick Cohen
November 29, 2010

November 24, 2010; Source: MLB.com | It was a tough year for us born-and-bred Bostonians here at the Nonprofit Quarterly. Our beloved Red Sox sort of plooped out, playing with more aches and pains than 60-year-old writers. But during this holiday season, we still have much to be thankful for regarding the occupants of Fenway. They may have trailed the Yankees and the Rays in the American League East, but they led the league as measured by philanthropy. The Red Sox became the inaugural recipient of the commissioner’s Award for Philanthropic Excellence, partly because of the Red Sox Foundation’s support of the Red Sox Scholars program. Since the first class of Scholars in 2003, the Sox have worked with 200 kids from 6th through 12th grade, helping them attend games, participate in after-school programs, receive counseling from Sox staff, and work in summer camps or part-time jobs and even as Red Sox summer interns. Red Sox players (and fans) are wondrously charitable as well. Hero pitcher Curt Schilling, who many of us remember pitching the second game of the 2004 World Series with blood oozing into his sock due to sutures from surgery, is relocating his video game company (38 Studios LLC) from Maynard, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island (within the sphere of Red Sox fandom) and announced plans to be closely involved with charity and philanthropy. Pitching as slow as NPQ’s two staff 60-year-olds, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield won this year’s Roberto Clemente award, given annually to the major leaguer who reflects the community dedication of Clemente and possesses solid baseball skills as well. Nominated for the award seven times before, Wakefield led the Sox in charity event appearances in 2010. Maybe next year, the Clemente winner will be the Red Sox version of Hank Greenberg, first baseman Kevin Youkilis, who unlike most ballplayers stays in Boston year round and engages in plenty of charity events, including a fundraiser for the Hits for Kids Foundation to be held at the dueling pianos bar, Howl at the Moon. It is the end-of-the-year giving season, so our hope is to find Cliff Lee pitching at Fenway and Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia healthy for a full season.—Rick Cohen

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: FoundationsNonprofit News

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
A Primer for Participatory Grantmaking
Kelley Buhles
From Crisis to Capacity: 20 Years of Philanthropy after 9/11
Deepa Iyer
The Culinary Artist Putting Liberation on the Menu
Amy Costello and Frederica Boswell
How a Publicly Funded Foundation Can Lower Digital Inequality
Lester M. Salamon
Power and the Changing Role of Intermediaries
Tom David
Dangerous Thoughts
Cyndi Suarez

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
May 27th, 2:00 pm ET

Ask the Nonprofit Lawyer

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
June 26th, 2:00 pm ET

From Performance Management to Mutual Commitment

Fostering a Culture of Joyful Accountability

Register

    
You might also like
A piggy bank wearing a graduation hat and standing on a pile of cash, symbolizing how endowments for academic institutions can be accessed in difficult times.
Endowments Aren’t Blank Checks—but Universities Can Rely...
Ellen P. Aprill
Saving AmeriCorps: What’s at Stake and Why We Must Act Now
Hillary Kane
A building on Harvard University’s campus in Cambridge, MA, the wealthiest university in the world.
US Colleges and Universities Have Billions Stashed Away in...
Todd L. Ely

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.