Green Bay Clinic Awarded 250K Grant

Trillions upon trillions of dollars have been spent on COVID relief since the pandemic first took off in America last year. Generally speaking, the lion's share of this money came directly from government. Though there have also been quite a few private organizations that have pitched in with huge donations to ensure that money gets to where it needs to go, given just how many people have been affected by this virus and the subsequent shut-downs and closures. Sporting franchises in America have been among the most generous in awarding grants over these past 20 months. The most recent sporting franchise to give out a big grant was the NFL's Green Bay Packers, who just today, Aug 12, announced a $250,000 grant to a local Green Bay clinic.

The N.E.W. Clinic in Green Bay is one of the community's most trusted clinics, and a clinic that does great work with a range of under-served communities. In order to grow their presence around the area, the clinic is hoping to have a new $4.5 million building constructed, but it's been hard for them to raise that kind of funding. Even with all the money given to Wisconsin through the CARES Act and other federal measures, that sort of money still isn't available to small, local clinics like N.E.W.

So when Packers' president Mark Murphy announced that he would be giving a $250,000 check to the clinic, a lot of spirits were certainly lifted in the Green Bar area. This grant, like most grants, does have stipulations. This money is expected to be put toward the construction of the new building, so that N.E.W. can greatly expand on the good work they're doing. Unlike a lot of other grants, however, there isn't going to be mountains of paperwork involved. It was basically a donation, from the Green Bay Packers to the N.E.W. Clinic.

Unlike a lot of clinics, this particular Green Bay clinic isn't set up specifically for any one demographic, such as LGBT people or racial minorities. Instead, they seek to help people who do not have medical insurance at all, or people whose medical insurance will not cover certain procedures. To this end, the clinic relies a whole lot on charity, as most of the patients they see are not paying them much if anything at all.

This is far from the only grant Green Bay has handed out through their Packers football team. Since 2013, the Packers have awarded over $6 million to similar locations throughout the Green Bay area. Compared to some other teams, like the Dallas Cowboys or any New York football teams, this doesn't seem like a lot of money. However, the Packers are the smallest market team in the league, pulling in less revenue than even perennially bad teams like the Cleveland Browns. Plus, the Green Bay Packers are privately owned by the citizens of Green Bay and not by single ownership or a large corporation.

Community Over Image

One of the things that members of the Green Bay community like the most about this sort of charitable work from their Packers football team is that it's always about the community and never about the image. For instance, when a team like the Ravens donates money to a battered women's shelter, it's fairly clear that they're just seeking good PR, since one of their players was caught on tape physically abusing a woman. Or like if the Dallas Cowboys placates an organization like Black Lives Matter with donations, when it's clear they're just seeking to appease the public and shield themselves from criticism.

It's a good thing for the recipients of these grants, regardless of the reason that the teams give them out. Though when it comes to the Green Bay Packers, there's always a sense of community that just comes along with this team. No matter how well they do in the playoffs, or how many different superstars they have on their team, the Packers organization proves every single year that they're willing to put their community first over the PR. This is something that's very rare in the sport today. It's becoming a rare thing for the genre of grants in general.

Hopefully, with a grant for $250,000 and some more charitable donations, the N.E.W. Clinic will be able to have a bigger building and can thus continue helping out the citizens of the community who need their help the most. For the Packers, that's what's important.