2022 Regular Season Charity Du Jour #CDJ Wrap-Up

It’s been a minute since our #CDJ machine was cranked up to full speed. 2021 left us without a real season (barring some academy games), but 2022 we returned to semi-normal with STL CITY SC’s inaugural season in MLS NEXTPRO. While attendances weren’t what they were with STLFC, it was still pro soccer (US Division 3) and there were tailgate parties & the CDJ team did their work. Obviously the first season of a new team (and a development team at that) we didn’t know what to expect as far as our gameday fundraising goes. I think I can officially announce that we overshot our expectations (thanks to help from friends, hard work from members and generous donations from you.)

For those new to the group, our #CDJ program started pretty simply. We just started putting out a collection jar at tailgate parties and randomly picking charities that our members suggested. Each week we’d pick a new charity. Sometimes we’d put some merch sales toward it or people would donate extra tickets to a match in exchange for a donation. Sometimes we do targeted campaigns or online fundraisers. Sometimes it was literally change from pockets. But a funny thing happened, it started to snowball. What was once $50 in a bucket became hundreds, then thousands, then donation matching from our corporate friends. To date our #CDJ arm has raised over $250,000. That is amazing. We plan to carry this tradition forward into the STL CITY SC years and 2022 was a good start. Collecting money at #CITY2 matches we raised a total of $30,595 this season. Here’s the breakdown:

$9,225 donated at tailgate parties.

$415 in Amazon Smile Contributions.

$5,955 in Prideraiser Pledges/Donations.

$5,000 from St. Louis CITY SC in matching donations for our Prideraiser campaign.

And finally (a very generous) $10,000 from World Wide Technology to continue their matching donations from STLFC days. (Huge thank you to Jim Kavanaugh and Tom Strunk- they were under no obligation to do this but they volunteered to match our tailgate donations to honor our history and because they’re amazing people.)

Charities we supported this season:

SQSH

Best Buddies

YWCA

NAMI

Hope Clinic

MO Abortion Fund

Trevor Project

Metro Trans Umbrella Group

St. Louis Area Foodbank

Lil Bit Foundation

The Bennett Project

The Josh Yaro Foundation

Casa De Saluud

Autism Speaks

So, Over $30k raised this year. BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET! We still have events this off-season and we always work with local charities over the holidays. We’ve got a Halloween/FKW party coming up. We usually do something for Thanksgiving. We’ll have a Christmas/Holiday/Toy Drive event in December. And before you know it, it’ll be time for our Annual Winter Classic New Year’s soccer match vs American Outlaws for St. Louis Foodbank. Giving back to our community is a core value for our group and we couldn’t do it without all of you. Thank you so much for everything. Let’s keep crushing it. #StlSupporterCulture #BigThings #MoreThanAGame

Special Shoutout to the Louligan CDJ team who puts this all together and organizes the campaigns. Mitch & Sarah for basically doing everything. The Carver Family for collecting, curating and organizing all the Schlaffles. Love to Schlafly and everyone who donates. And to the merch team that sells tickets and collects donations- The Metcalfs, The Hakes, The Carver Kids and anyone else that steps in to help. We appreciate you all and it wouldn’t be possible without you.