UPWARD for Children and Families, founded in 1958, serves children with special needs.  Their purpose is to help children with special needs achieve their highest potential, while empowering their families to thrive. A number of the children who attend UPWARD programs are severely disabled and medically fragile and could not attend programs on campus without nursing on-site.  Thunderbirds Charities has been a strong supporter of this critical Nursing Program at UPWARD for many years.

Thunderbirds Charities recently donated $300,000 to St. Mary’s Food Bank in an effort to bolster their Kids Café Program, which will help purchase two new refrigerated trucks and additional food to help reach more of Arizona’s hungry children.

First Place is a residential property for people with Autism and other neurodiversities. The property contains 55 apartments housing 79 people and represents a new wave of thinking behind community life for people with autism.

For the past nine years, The Thunderbirds – hosts of the Waste Management Phoenix Open – have partnered with the PGA TOUR Wives Association to support Blessings in a Backpack.

The Thunderbirds – hosts of the Waste Management Phoenix Open – raised a record $12.2 million ($12,213,207) for local charities through proceeds from the 2018 tournament, Thunderbirds Big Chief Carlos Sugich announced today.

Thunderbirds Charities recently donated funds from the spring funding cycle to UMOM and Tumbleweed to help them serve Arizona’s homeless communities. UMOM and Tumbleweed, with the help of Thunderbirds Charities, serve 10,000 individuals per year by giving some of the area’s most vulnerable people the tools and guidance to move into permanent housing. 

Thunderbirds Charities – the charitable giving arm of The Thunderbirds – was on hand for the iCan Swim summer camp put on by the Down Syndrome Network.

The 2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open pumped $389 million into Arizona’s economy according to an economic impact study released by the Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business. The study, which also included ASU’s L. William Seidman Research Institute – the applied research and consultancy arm of W.P. Carey School of Business – was commissioned by tournament host The Thunderbirds.

The Thunderbirds, hosts of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, raised a record $10,147,441 for local charities through proceeds raised from the 2017 tournament, Thunderbirds Big Chief Andy Markham announced today at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. This is the highest single-year charitable donation in tournament history, breaking last year’s record total of $9.3 million and the first time eclipsing $10 million in tournament history.