Since its founding in 2010, Spartan has been a partner in supporting a wide range of charitable causes, from multiple local military charities to organizations that fight childhood obesity and assist disabled athletes. These organizations include Homes for Our Troops, Green Beret Foundation, and Rod Dixon’s Kids Marathon Foundation, among many others.
For example in February 2014, Spartan hosted the Tampa Special Ops Spartan Sprint which generated a combined $67,486 in cash and in-kind support for local military groups. This included a $5,000 donation to the Green Beret Foundation and a $2,486 donation to USSOCOM Care Coalition. In addition, Spartan provided a platform for racers to donate directly to the Green Beret Foundation – this resulted in raising an additional $2,500.
Complimentary race entries valued at $45,000 were distributed within the Tampa community, and we sponsored MacDill Air Force Base special events in the amount of $5,000.
Additionally, five charities received in-kind donations of booth space at the Tampa Race to promote their causes for a total value of $12,500, including Team RedWhiteBlue, Operation Enduring Warrior, Green Beret Foundation, Black Dagger Military Hunt Club, and Special Ops Survivors.
Our support in Tampa is a recent example of our belief that the most effective strategy is to offer charities the opportunity to raise funds by leveraging the power of the Spartan brand and its reach. The tremendous response from over 35 charities, who are now part of the Spartan Charity Partner Program nationally, demonstrates the appeal within the charity community to use the Spartan community to bring awareness to their causes.
Specifically, funds are raised for charitable organizations through a variety of techniques as the non-profits leverage the awareness they receive at races and through social media. In this way, the non-profits benefit from the support of new and repeat donors.
In 2014, Spartan named Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) as the official Charity Partner of the 2014 U.S. Reebok Spartan Race. CAF is the world leader in helping individuals with physical challenges get involved – and stay involved – in sports.
"Operation Enduring Warrior has a good relationship with Spartan that has definitely been beneficial for our organization. While we haven't received monetary donations, they have given us complimentary race entries for our entire team in quite a few Spartan races as well as allowing us to set up our booth at those same races. These races have gained OEW exposure and most importantly have given recognition to our wounded veterans. This in turn has allowed us to help more wounded veterans, which is the lasting legacy we want to leave." -OEW President, Scott Blough