The Denver Broncos haven’t made the NFL playoffs in six seasons, but the team never missed a step when it came to winning charitable efforts in the metro Denver community, especially the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Denver.

For more than three decades, the football team, the Denver Broncos Charities (a 501(c)3 non-profit organization) – and the Pat Bowlen Foundation have supported multiple community organizations.

Allie Engelken, vice president of Community Development for the Denver Broncos Football Club, estimates the charitable organization raises more than $1 million per year. And with no staff, all donations go straight to charity.

“Our core mission is improving lives in the community,” she said. “We really have five key focus areas that we hone all of our financial support and in-kind support and volunteerism to: Youth development; quality of life; health and wellness; youth football and civic engagement.”

Woody Paige: Making sense of Broncos' web of ownership

Lauren Dartt, vice president of Marketing and Communications for the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver, estimates the team and foundation have spent almost $8 million specifically on the Montbello club – which it has fully sponsored since 2003. That doesn’t include a $300,000 capital improvement campaign in 2020. Or the $164,000 of in-kind donations – like football equipment, game tickets, etc. She estimates some 14,500 children have been impacted by those outreach efforts, and the thousands of hours Broncos players have spent volunteering as mentors.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that kids get to know a professional athlete who looks like them, maybe even comes from their community or one like it, and who cares about them,” Dartt said.

The Broncos last month won an ESPY Award: The 2022 ESPN Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year Award. It is “given to a sports franchise that demonstrates how teamwork can create a measurable impact on a community or cause.”

The Broncos are one of two NFL teams to ever win the award (San Francisco 49ers in 2017 was the other) and one of only three organizations to be named a finalist three or more times.

What does the new ownership group mean for that level of support?

The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group officially bought the Denver Broncos on Tuesday for a record $4.65 billion. The group includes Rob Walton, Greg Penner, Carrie Walton-Penner, Condoleezza Rice, Mellody Hobson and Lewis Hamilton.

Right off the bat, metro Denver area youth will benefit to the tune of $41 million dollars.

Walton-Penner ownership group detail structure, vision for managing Broncos

According to an agreement with PDB Sports LTD. (former owner Pat Bowlen’s corporation) and the Metropolitan Football Stadium District – coincidentally signed Aug. 12, 1999 – 2% of any sale proceeds would go back to the municipalities and counties that make up the district “with the funds to be used for youth activity programs.”

District Spokesman Matt Sugar said there are about 40 such entities, and officials are still working out exact amounts for each.

The 23-year-old contract specified that amount be at least $1 million.

“They beat that by about $40 million,” Sugar said. “That’s a pretty significant benefit.”

No such clause exists with the new ownership group, he verified.

In staff meetings with players and administrative workers this week, the new group assured everyone the commitment level to charity would not drop.

“I don’t think anyone could question, or worry, about their dedication to that commitment to the community,” Engelken said. “This is a group of incredibly talented people coming in as part of the ownership group. They all are incredibly philanthropic in their own rights, and in their own industries and family foundations.

“I could not be more excited to work with this dynamic group to identify what that strategy is and really create the next era and next chapter of giving by the Broncos to the community.”

Not to mention the team brought on the 2020 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year award winner in Russell Wilson. The award, considered the league’s most prestigious “recognizes an NFL player for outstanding community service activities off the field, as well as excellence on the field.”

Wilson has already been seen visiting patients at Children’s Hospital, and inked a deal with Centura Health to contribute $500,000 a year to local and regional nonprofit organizations through his non-profit foundation Why Not You.

Wilson and his pop singer wife’s Ciara fashion brands sold at their House of LR&C (which recently opened in Park Meadows) has an element of “giving back.” Every sale includes a 3% “profits less product cost” donation to the couple’s foundation — a “nonprofit dedicated to education, children’s health and fighting poverty.”

Justin Simmons seems to be the volunteer leader on the defensive side, as Dartt talked repeatedly about his commitment to the Club.

Last year, 109 Bronco players made some 690 appearances and volunteered more than 1,230 service hours.

That’s not part of their contract, either, Engelken said.

Walton-Penner group hope to continue winning legacy after approval as new owners of Denver Broncos

“When you see them at the Boys & Girls Club, volunteering at a school, packing meals at the food bank, that’s truly volunteer work,” she said. “There’s a sign-up board outside the locker room.”

“This is my 12th season in the NFL. This locker room and this organization supports community work like I’ve really never seen before, internally or externally,” she said.

One of the programs that helped the Broncos win that ESPY was a gun buy-back program it has been doing monthly since March. With partnerships from Denver City Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, District 5, and At-large Aurora City Councilman Curtis Gardner, as well as the non-profit organization RAWtools, they collected more than 600 guns and destroyed them.

“Every season, players have an opportunity to direct funding from our team’s social justice fund,” Engelken said. “Gun violence awareness and gun violence prevention was a topic that came up during the 2021 season.”

Some players had lost family or friends to gun violence, others were growing increasingly concerned about school shootings and others have children “and wanted to focus on protecting youth.”

The guns are voluntarily donated, then destroyed in front of the owner. RAWtools makes gardening tools out of them.

The next event is Saturday, Aug. 20, at Living Waters Christian Center Church, 1585 Kingston St, Aurora. For more information, check the denverbroncos.com website. 

“A gun off the streets could prevent a death, it could prevent an accidental misfire, it could prevent a theft when the owner can’t control how it’s being used,” said Engelken. “This is something we know that we’re making an impact on individual families across the community.”