Augie In Action! Augie In Action! - Ihrsa
Augie In Action! Augie In Action! - Ihrsa
Augie In Action! Augie In Action! - Ihrsa
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<strong>In</strong> the case of AQ, the donors are treated like investors, the ALS patients<br />
like customers, and the research like the product.<br />
Approaching ALS pragmatically as “a business problem awaiting a solution,”<br />
<strong>Augie</strong> set out to develop AQ as he would a corporate brand, making himself,<br />
as it were, the “face” of that brand. Recognizing that there were lots of worthy<br />
causes competing for charitable dollars, he distinguished his own, in part, by<br />
insisting that all dollars raised go fully and directly to medical research. “There<br />
will be no set-asides for overhead,” he promises, “and our books will be made<br />
available to anyone who cares to see them.”<br />
<strong>Augie</strong>’s insistence on transparency was well received and has produced<br />
impressive results. Just 24 months after its inception, AQ has raised more than<br />
$12 million and is on schedule to meet, or exceed, its three-year goal of<br />
$18 million. A number of independent fund-raising activities have contributed<br />
significantly to the cause. Among them: online auctions; ironman competitions;<br />
golf tournaments, including one conducted by ClubCorp that raised over<br />
$600,000 for AQ in one day; and Clubs for a Cure, an ongoing industry-wide<br />
initiative launched by the Atlantic Club, of Manasquan and Red Bank,<br />
New Jersey, that hopes to generate $3 million.<br />
For the past two years, however, the most conspicuous and<br />
successful fund-raising event has been one held on the closing<br />
night of the IHRSA convention.<br />
Christened “The Bash,” the first one was held in Las Vegas in<br />
March 2006, and featured such celebrities as Lance Armstrong<br />
and the Doobie Brothers; it raised nearly $3 million, setting a<br />
record for the most productive single-day fund-raiser in the<br />
MDA’s history. It was followed, in 2007, by the Black and Blue<br />
Bash, a black-tie and blue-jeans affair featuring singer John<br />
Ondrasik and author Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays with<br />
Morrie, which attracted 1,000 attendees and raised over<br />
$2 million.<br />
The 2008 sequel, the Beach Bash, will take place this month,<br />
on March 7, during IHRSA’s 27th Annual <strong>In</strong>ternational Convention<br />
and Trade Show in San Diego. It will feature Today Show<br />
host Natalie Morales and NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott,<br />
whose close friend and former NLF player, Eric Scoggins, was<br />
diagnosed with ALS early last year.<br />
Each Bash builds on its predecessors’ successes and always sells out<br />
the 1,000-plus seats, notes John McCarthy, IHRSA’s executive director<br />
emeritus and chairman of the ’08 Bash committee. McCarthy credits<br />
<strong>Augie</strong>’s flair for theater, along with an intense sense of unified purpose<br />
within the industry, for the overwhelming support. “The goal, as always,”<br />
he says, “is to make ‘giving’ a fun, social, and enjoyable experience,”<br />
he indicates. “We want everyone to be glad that they participated and glad<br />
that they gave.”<br />
Targeting unmet needs<br />
<strong>Augie</strong>, for his part, attributes much of AQ’s stunning fund-raising performance<br />
to donations from executives with the foresight to “engineer<br />
savvy philanthropy into their corporate genetic code.” This, he points out,<br />
represents a dramatic change from the way things used to be. “The<br />
relationship between business and philanthropy has changed radically<br />
over the years,” he explains. “There was a time when giving was a<br />
common tax strategy, a kind of fiduciary afterthought. My experience with<br />
AQ has taught me that those days are long past.”<br />
Nieto, singer Paula Abdul<br />
www.ihrsa.org | MARCH 2008 | Club Business <strong>In</strong>ternational 65