Capitol Connection: A Tournament for Many Causes

It’s Travelers Championship week, and all eyes are on Connecticut. While our state may not be home to any professional sports teams, sports do play a big role here. We are the home of ESPN, great college sports and many local teams. We also have a rich history in golf in particular, which has been estimated to have a $1.1 billion impact on the state’s economy, according to the Connecticut Golf Alliance.

This week, as international athletes, super fans and news crews flock to Connecticut, I got to wondering just how this tournament tradition came to our state, why it is so loved, and how it has stayed here for so long. What I ended up learning about was the true driving force behind the Travelers Championship – the hundreds of incredible charities this tournament helps support.

The June tournament was initially founded in 1952 as the Insurance City Open. In 1967 it was renamed to the Greater Hartford Open. Today, it holds the name of its title sponsor, Travelers, which took over in 2007. The Travelers Championship is committed to donating 100 percent of all net proceeds to over 100 local charities. Since 1952, the tournament has raised over $31 million for charity. In 2013 alone, the tournament raised $1.25 million for about 180 non-profits.

To me, what is most compelling about this event is not necessarily the glitz and the glamour of national attention, celebrities and fanfare. It is the opportunities created for Connecticut charities and nonprofits.

Through two main tournament programs, Birdies for Charity and Chip In for Charity businesses and people can support hundreds of charities. In the Birdies program, non-profit organizations can solicit pledges based on the number of birdies made during tournament week, similar to a walk-a-thon fundraiser. The Chip In program allows businesses and organizations to sell general admission tickets to the Travelers Championship at a discounted rate, with 50% of the profits to be donated to the charity of their choice.

These programs allow a huge amount of organizations to benefit from just this single event. Essentially, the tournament gives small local charities access to a huge fundraiser most organizations could only dream of hosting on their own.

Perhaps the best example of the impact this tournament has made on Connecticut is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, the primary charity supported by the Travelers Championship. Located in Ashford, this nonprofit provides a summer camp experience for seriously ill children, serving more than 20,000 local children and their families each year. Since Travelers took title sponsorship of the tournament, $1.7 million has been raised for the camp, including $1 million for the camp’s Hospital Outreach Program, which extends camp programs to hospitalized children across the Northeast. Thanks to this funding, Hole in the Wall continues to grow.

So, this week as I tune in to watch the champions play on our home turf, I’ll be thinking not just about the putting skills, the longest drive or who will get the end prize. I’ll also be thinking about the real prize – the prize that every participating charity will receive thanks to one huge event. For that opportunity alone, we can all be fans.