The John Deere Classic returns to TPC at Deere Run this week, and local charities are looking forward to the results from the tournament’s Birdies for Charity fundraising event, which provides crucial funding for their programs. According to the organization, things are off to a great start this year.
“We see it right on track with years we’ve seen before and it’s been very busy,” says program director Micaela Booth. “We’re always really busy this week. The John Deere Classic week is kind of Birdies for Charity coming to a head and ending with really big momentum and excitement. What we’re seeing right now is pretty on track, (but) it’s still a little early. A lot does happen in the final few days, so it’s a little early to say where we might land compared to prior years. We have a really good look at it and it’s looking like it’s going to be an amazing impact for charity.”
It’s not too late to make a pledge for this year’s Birdies for Charity, says Booth. “You can make pledges or donations as long as they are in by Friday, July 7th, so we have a few days yet make a donation to your favorite charity and make sure that they receive the minimum of a 5% bonus on that.” The fastest and easiest way to pledge is to visit the Birdies for Charity website. Donors can select any or several of the charities listed. Close to 500 charities participate in the program, says Booth, and some of them are newcomers. “We’ve seen several new charities get signed up this year. We never know that final number until we know how many people have collected pledges, so it looks like it’ll be a little bit up from last year.”
Donors don’t have to worry about how much of their money will get to their designated charity. “Every donation that you make to a charity through Birdies for Charity, that charity that you designate will get 100% of every dollar that you give to them.” There are no administrative fees deducted from donations, so groups receive all monies donated to them, plus extra. “In addition to that, they also receive a bonus, so anything that you give, they’re guaranteed to get 5% more than that and it’s been anywhere up to 10% in the past,” says Booth. These funds are vital to the charities to keep their operations going. “We have so many charities that express and share with us how important, especially the bonus dollars are, for those unrestricted funds to use directly to go back into the communities and their mission work and the good work that they’re doing and making an impact here where we live. It’s really important to them that the fundraising opportunity also gives them a good opportunity to use that momentum and excitement that surrounds the tournament, which is happening this week. It’s a big deal for our community and it’s something that the charities can then use to their benefit.”
Pledges have been coming in steadily this year, which Booth and her staff appreciate because it makes entering the information easier when there aren’t dozens of pledges coming in at once. While they hope for record pledges, they keep their expectations realistic. “We love to make those records but internally we use the $1 more. We are pretty small when it comes to PGA Tour stops. We’re a small market and we consistently ranked #1 per capita in charitable giving and we’re usually somewhere in the Top 3 overall, so the amounts that we’re raising are incredible.” The program is so successful that they’ve licensed it to several other PGA Tour tournaments.
If you can’t decide which charity to choose, Booth has the answer. “If someone doesn’t have a specific charity in mind and wants a way to make an impact on a lot of charities all at once, consider the Bonus Fund. People can donate to the Bonus Fund where our own bird is bird number 1041. A donation there goes directly to giving that 5% match and hopefully more than that come October, so it’s a great way to check a lot of boxes all in one donation and make a big impact.”
