USATF study: Running raises $520 million for charity

Here's an interesting article about charity running from the USATF...

BOSTON – USA Track & Field (USATF) on Saturday named the Boston Marathon the 2002 USATF Charitable Race of the Year, while the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training was honored as 2002 Charitable Organization of the Year.

The first such awards ever given by USATF are an outgrowth of USATF’s inaugural study into charitable running in the United States.

Conducted internally by USATF – the national governing body of track and field, long-distance running and race walking – the study revealed that more than $520 million was raised for charitable causes by runners in 2002. USATF gathered data from the 20 top charitable race series/organizations and 70 of the top 100 road running/walking races, as determined by participation. The study also included a random sample of the more than 4,000 USATF-sanctioned races of all sizes.

“Our study has helped to put hard numbers on what obviously is true,” said USATF CEO Craig A. Masback. “Charity running in the United States is a major economic force, and one in which Americans promote fitness as well as charitable giving. It transforms a sport that is individual in nature into a phenomenon with a wide-reaching, positive effect on society.”

Masback announced the Charitable Race of the Year and Charitable Organization of the Year Saturday at the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) Champions Breakfast, held as part of the 107th Boston Marathon, which will be held Monday, April 21.

Committed to encouraging and promoting fitness through athletics, the B.A.A. and Boston Marathon developed its program with charitable organizations in 1994. Known for its world-class international fields and tough qualifying standards, the marathon currently provides 1,100 guaranteed entries to runners who have signed up to raise money for 16 Massachusetts-area charities. The B.A.A, also encourages all qualified runners to aid in these efforts as well. Including expected 2003 receipts, The marathon’s charity program has raised $41 million to date.

Team in Training (TNT) is the largest endurance sports training program of its type in the world. It includes training for the marathon and half-marathon, among other endurance events. Participants help raise funds for blood cancer research and patient services in exchange for training programs, coaching and other support. Since TNT’s inception in 1988, 190,000 participants have raised more than $430 million, including $78 million in 2002 alone, to fund research to find cures for leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma, and to provide education and patient services for patients and their families.

“Our inaugural awards are in recognition not just for the money that the Boston Marathon and Team in Training raised last year,” Masback said. “They also recognize the prominent roles and historic significance of these two organizations. The most historic and elite of U.S. marathons, Boston embodies the ideal integration of grassroots charity running and elite racing – and how the two can feed off each other and grow.

“Team in Training has been a leader in charity fundraising in the running community for years. You can now go to nearly any major road race in the United States – even around the world – and find runners proudly wearing their Team in Training shirts.”

For more information on the Boston Marathon’s charity program, visit http://www.bostonmarathon.com/BostonMarathon/Charity.asp

For more information on Team in Training, visit www.teamintraining.org

For more information on USA Track & Field, visit www.usatf.org