Tim Finchem launches a campaign in 2005 for the PGA Tour to surpass the $1 billion milestone in charitable contributions.
MIKE EHRMANN, GETTY IMAGES
By Scott MICHAUX
When the PGA Tour brought in private-equity investment and shifted to a for-profit model in 2024, there was understandable concern about what that meant for the future of the most successful charity-generating platform in sports. The tour’s plans should allay any fears that its commitment to philanthropy will change.
Propelled by a gift of $13 million from former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and his wife, Holly, PGA Tour Charities will launch a new chapter coinciding with the tour’s new competitive model that begins in 2028. Its mission is to build on the decades-long platform Finchem and the tour helped foster into the most successful and distinctive model in sports, generating more than $4.4 billion charitable dollars powered through local tournaments and benefitting more than 3,000 charities in communities that play host to PGA Tour events.
The Finchems are proud to help extend the tour’s charitable legacy.
“This donation to PGA Tour Charities, as it is reimagined for future generations of impact, is more than a capstone on Tim’s unwavering commitment to charity,” Holly Finchem said. “It is a celebration of our belief in this great game and the PGA Tour. We can’t wait to see all the good this gift will inspire through the organization Tim and I love so much.”
As the tour enters a new era of growth and visibility, the relaunched PGA Tour Charities aims to build on that existing decentralized charitable foundation and enhance it with a coordinated, tour-wide platform that can raise and deploy resources, align priorities, engage partners and tell a clearer story of its impact.
Brian Rolapp, PGA Tour CEO, will officially announce the launch on Tuesday ahead of the Tour Championship at East Lake.
“What the tour was built on is to benefit charity since the beginning. When we say we’ve generated $200 million or $250 million each year, you’ve watched those totals grow to more than $4 billion in our lifespan.”
Laura Neal
The tour stresses PGA Tour Charities’ mission is a matter of strengthening, not replacing, the authentic local tournament model that has defined the PGA Tour’s charitable legacy.
“What the tour was built on is to benefit charity since the beginning,” said Laura Neal, the tour’s newly appointed executive vice president of strategic philanthropy. “When we say we’ve generated $200 million or $250 million each year, you’ve watched those totals grow to more than $4 billion in our lifespan. The bulk of that is through the tournaments. Taking credit for the work of the tournaments across our schedule is nothing to be ashamed of. I think that’s the beauty of the model itself. These tournaments know what the markets, the communities need, what the priorities are and how to fund them. And if it weren’t for the tour coming to town, that wouldn’t be possible.
“What you’re seeing here [with PGA Tour Charities] is not taking one thing and doing another – it’s the tour getting in the charitable game itself. That requires identifying priorities and establishing campaigns and funding them.”
Rolapp – who will succeed Jay Monahan and become the tour’s fifth commissioner in January – will roll out the tour’s philanthropic priorities next spring and a national campaign next summer before the formal relaunch alongside the new competitive model in 2028.
Neal stressed that the foundation of the philanthropic model will remain rooted in local needs, relationships and community-specific impact, and that PGA Tour Charities will provide a public home to create future initiatives to attract new resources with clearer ways to support and engage.
“There’s opportunities to amplify and incentivize the work that tournaments are already doing, but also invest from a national standpoint,” Neal said. “So at the end of the day for everybody there’s a bigger lift, regardless of how it’s already working.”
The tour can provide an invaluable platform to “shine a more focused light on the work that’s being done,” Neal said.
“It’s a bit of a victim of everyone’s own success,” she noted. “There are 3,000 charities, and it’s just hard for people to put their finger on exactly what great work we’re doing. So a more consistent, more clarified approach should help that.”
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp looks to continue the tour’s commitment to charity.
KEVIN C. COX, Getty Images
Neal has been with the PGA Tour for nearly 20 years after spending nine years in public relations with the LPGA. Her shift from executive VP in media and communications to a new CEO committee-level position focused entirely on philanthropy is emblematic of Rolapp’s passion for the tour’s charitable role and the need for direct leadership in that area.
“I had a conversation with [Rolapp] to make sure this was a real job – like, are we really doing this, or is this just a PR campaign?” Neal said. “He said, ‘No, this is central to not just the tour’s history, but our future.’
“We need to do it because it’s the right thing to do, absolutely. But if we don’t get this right, then all of the commercial aspirations are going to fall flat,” Neal added. “Because fans and partners and communities and tournaments and our players, they care about this part. So the two things being more coupled, it’s the opposite of it being left behind. I think it’s being more prioritized for both reasons because you should do it, and we want to do it. We want to continue our legacy. If the charities do better commercially, we’ll do better. If we do better commercially, we’ll do better charitably. Those two things feed off of each other.”
Lucas Glover, who was elected chairman of the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council in February, made reemphasizing the tour’s philanthropy and getting it “back into the front of people’s mouths when they talk about the PGA Tour” the central point of his campaign. Glover volunteered to lead a select group of veteran players to engage and provide guidance to help build a more connected, visible and scalable philanthropic platform.
“What I grew up with on the tour is the charity and giving back. The philanthropy arm was kind of the focus,” Glover said. “I just feel like the last four or five years it’s been money, money, money in the players’ pockets – which is nice, don’t get me wrong – but I’d like to get some of the focus back on what the tour stands for and what it’s about, and that’s charitable giving and helping the communities that we play in and all those things. It’s not that we haven't been doing that, it’s just the focus has been lost.
“Ensuring that remains the case is one of the reasons I ran for PAC chairman, and I know it’s incredibly important to my fellow players as well. Building on what our tournaments have accomplished through the years is key, with fresh eyes on how we bring even more focus and resources from the tour level. This is what I want to accomplish while leading the charitable group of players, and I’m excited by the direction and leadership Brian has put in place to help make it happen.”
“This is an incredible thing that you’re doing, and we will not let you down.”
Brian Rolapp, to Holly finchem
The tour’s plan to increase its focus on philanthropy was already underway when the Finchems approached about providing a $13 million gift. Rolapp sat across the table from Holly Finchem to walk her through the plan and mission for PGA Tour Charities. “This is an incredible thing that you’re doing, and we will not let you down,” Rolapp assured her.
“It really does feel like, quite frankly, God’s timing on it,” Neal said. “The ability to be building this and then have the Finchems decide that they trust what we’re building and recommitting to and want to be a part of it, I think is amazing. We keep using the word catalyst as this really endorses or shows confidence in the fact that what we have been doing throughout our history and what Commissioner Finchem was a huge part of is what we’re going to build on and go forward in the future.
“We hope that this gives confidence to our fans and our partners and our players that not only are we building something, but we have this endorsement and this momentum built thanks to the Finchems’ generous gift.”
Neal began her career with the PGA Tour working closely with Finchem. “Charity was always central to every project that we worked on,” she said.
“What a legacy and what a beautiful gift for the family to recognize that this is continuing to fuel what he built. I think it is such a lovely gesture that means a lot. It will mean a lot to communities across the country, but it means a lot inside our building, too.”
