$10.8 million latest effort, headed by Deanna Strable raises charitable total past $83 million
The Principal Charity Classic, the PGA TOUR Champions stop that has become one of the marquee philanthropic events on the senior golf circuit, announced this week that its 2026 tournament generated a record $10.8 million for youth-focused causes across Iowa, eclipsing last year’s high-water mark of $10.6 million and pushing the event’s cumulative charitable total past $83 million since Principal Financial Group became title sponsor in 2007 .
The announcement, timed to coincide with Principal’s 20th anniversary as title sponsor, caps a milestone year for a tournament that has quietly become the largest single charitable fundraiser on the entire PGA TOUR Champions schedule.
If there is a single top giver behind two decades of Des Moines philanthropy, it is Principal Financial Group itself. The Des Moines-based financial services company, which employs more than 19,000 people worldwide and traces its roots back 147 years, has bankrolled the tournament’s title sponsorship every year since 2007, a run that has transformed a modest regional golf event into a fixture of Iowa’s charitable calendar. “As we celebrate 20 years of Principal serving as title sponsor, the Principal Charity Classic continues to showcase what is possible when a community comes together,” said Ken McCullum, board chair of the Principal Charity Classic and a Principal Financial Group executive.
“For two decades, this tournament has created meaningful opportunities for youth, and we are proud to continue building on that legacy of impact”.
Principal’s giving extends beyond a check-writing sponsorship.
Deanna Strable, the company’s president and CEO, has publicly set a goal of pushing the tournament’s lifetime charitable total to $100 million by 2028, the year Principal’s sponsorship commitment, extended in 2023, is set to run through.
“We’d love to see the impact to charities the golf tournament has had get to $100 million by 2028,” Strable said earlier this year.
“We believe we can hit that mark, or hopefully exceed it”.
At the current pace of growth, with contributions climbing from $8.6 million in 2024 to $10.6 million in 2025 and now $10.8 million in 2026, that target looks well within reach.
Behind Principal, a tier of corporate co-givers has helped drive the tournament’s fundraising machine. Sammons Financial Group serves as the lead sponsor of the Birdies for Charity program, the mechanism through which the tournament matches pledges to more than 70 participating Iowa nonprofits, adding an eight percent bonus on top of whatever those organizations raise on their own, up to $125,000 per charity.
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has stepped in as presenting sponsor, while Polk County has signed on as a platinum-level sponsor for 2026, joining a roster that swelled to 215 sponsoring companies during last year’s event alone.
Those dollars, layered together, are what allow the tournament to funnel money simultaneously into four permanent Tournament Charity Partners, dozens of grassroots nonprofits, and a workforce-development initiative for teenagers.
The four Tournament Charity Partners, which receive the bulk of proceeds each year, are Blank Children’s Hospital, MercyOne Children’s Hospital, Variety – the Children’s Charity of Iowa, and United Way of Central Iowa. Blank Children’s Hospital alone has received $2.2 million from the tournament since 2007, funding its STAR/Children Development Center, perinatal and pediatric palliative care programs, the Blank Compassion Fund, and, more recently, a fund that helps families cover the substantial out-of-pocket cost of hearing aids for infants and children who lack insurance coverage for the devices.
Beyond those four flagship partners, the Birdies for Charity program has widened the tournament’s reach to more than 70 nonprofits working on everything from food insecurity to housing to academic support, while the Legacy Project: Career Ready Collective, now in its third year, has grown from roughly 100 participants to 390 high schoolers, offering a six-week career-readiness curriculum with stipends so students do not have to choose between a summer job and career training. Together, tournament organizers say, these three pillars now touch more than 130,000 Iowa youth every year.
None of the giving would have a stage without the golf itself, and this year’s tournament delivered a storyline tailor-made for the home crowd.
Zach Johnson, the Iowa City native, Cedar Rapids Regis graduate and former Drake University golfer, won the Principal Charity Classic in his very first appearance as a Champions Tour rookie, closing with a five-under 67 at Wakonda Club to finish 17-under for the tournament, four strokes ahead of runners-up Richard Green and Retief Goosen (Des Moines Register, PGA Tour).
Johnson became just the fourth player in tournament history to win in his tournament debut, and he did it in his home state, in front of the record crowds and record dollars that followed.
Tournament director Alex McCarty framed the fundraising record as proof the event has outgrown its origins as a golf tournament that happens to raise money.
“We are proud to bring world-class golf to Des Moines, but the lasting impact of the Principal Charity Classic is measured by the opportunities it creates to empower future generations,” McCarty said.
“This record result is a fitting way to celebrate our 20-year strategic partnership with Principal and gives us momentum as we look toward the tournament’s next chapter”.
Jo Christine Miles, chair of the tournament’s Charitable Purpose Committee, credited the broader ecosystem of givers for the milestone: “We are proud of all that has been made possible through the dedication of our sponsors, volunteers, charitable partners, fans, and community leaders. Together, we are investing in youth, helping build a brighter and more prosperous future for them and the communities they will one day lead”.
The Principal Charity Classic will return to Wakonda Club June 2–6, 2027, with organizers already eyeing another record year as they chase Strable’s $100 million target. For now, the tournament’s real leaderboard sits off the course: Principal Financial Group as the anchor giver of the last two decades, Sammons Financial Group and Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield as the sponsors amplifying every dollar raised, and a network of more than 200 corporate sponsors and thousands of ticket-buying fans whose collective generosity turned a single week of golf into $10.8 million for Iowa’s children.