Maryland Business

By: Liz Farmer

This week, the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship announced its “Tickets Fore Charity” campaign in which local charities can sell tickets and keep 75 percent of the proceeds while the remaining 25 percent goes to the tournament’s local charitable donation.

It’s an age-old practice (selling Girl Scout cookies as a kid comes to mind), but the concept is new to the annual PGA seniors tour stop at the Baltimore Country Club. And when faced with an economy that’s seeing declines in both spending on sporting events and charitable contributions, this fund raising campaign is getting two birds with one stone.

First Tee of Baltimore, however, will be the only charity benefiting from that 25 percent of charity ticket sales. In the past, First Tee, the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Union Memorial Hospital and the Baltimore Community Foundation have each typically received $100,000 annually from the tournament since the pros began playing here in 2007.

According to Steve Schoenfeld, the tournament director,  the other charities are all still aligned with the tournament as beneficiaries.

“We chose to include The First Tee for the 25% share of the TICKETS Fore CHARITY program because it was a PGA TOUR initiative that founded The First Tee years ago and it is near and dear to our business (obviously),” Schoenfeld wrote in an e-mail. “In fact, The First Tee is tied in to the TICKETS Fore CHARITY program at all of the events that Championship Management…runs.”

OK, I understand that. But if I’m working for one of the other charities, I see a recession that’s both taking a toll on charitable donations nationally and slowing spending at sporting events — and I’m wondering how much the golf tournament will still be able to help out with its donation this year.

Seems like this program would be a good opportunity for those charities to both try and make up the difference and help themselves by boosting ticket sales (and thus attendance and spending at the event) by participating in the fundraiser, too.

And in the end if it all comes out in the wash as “CEG Senior Players Championship matches ticket sales and charitable contribution from last year, despite a down economy,” well that’s why they call it a win-win, isn’t it?