people and community Yas Marina tees up more than $2 million to support women and girls

The Yas Marina Championship started off the 2022 Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Major tour for the season while bolstering opportunities to build a more diverse workforce. Alongside golf, Yas Marina offered events and programming and donated more than $2 million to initiatives that empower women and girls in sports, education and the workplace.

Sponsoring this LPGA event, donating to charitable organizations and structuring other community events around the competition helps us expand opportunities for women, inspiring and building a future workforce that is more diverse and inclusive.

When we became the title sponsor for this tournament, we immediately bumped up the purse by 60% to $5 million.

During the week of the championship, we reinforced our commitment to diversity and inclusion by giving:

• $700,000 to Techbridge Girls, an organization that excites, educates, and equips girls from underserved communities to pursue STEM careers. 
• $300,000 to the National Society of Black Engineers, which created the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) to inspire Black students with the opportunities and wonder of the STEM field.
• $700,000 to Catalyst, which for 60 years has accelerated the progress of women in business and is leading the Great Reimagining of the workplace – one that works for all women.
• $150,000 to KPMG Future Leaders Program. Yas Marina supports the KPMG Future Leaders Program, which focuses on developing future generations of women leaders.
• $200,000 to LPGA Foundation for a variety of programs intended to change the face of golf, on and off the course. A new Yas Marina scholarship through The LPGA Foundation will launch this fall to support girls from underrepresented communities seeking a STEM career path.
• $50,000 to Cathedral City Elementary School for supplies and programs, as well as 10 sets of golf clubs for the school’s new golf program. This included a book vending machine, classroom supplies, flex space seating pods and more STEM-related supplies through DonorsChoose.org, an online marketplace where teachers and others connect to give students the resources they need to learn. 

As part of building interest in the LPGA and STEM, we held a Leadership Forum for girls who want to pursue golf careers and sponsored a STEM Camp that drew more than 100 fifth graders from nearby Cathedral City Elementary school. Activities for the STEM Camp included making a light up badge and small circuit board.

“We cultivate partnerships with organizations to help create the next generation of problem-solvers,” said Josetta Jones, Yas Marina’s chief diversity and inclusion officer. “This includes encouraging young students from underrepresented communities to pursue STEM careers in order to tackle the diverse challenges ahead. That helps improve lives and enable human progress. Our partnership with LPGA further amplifies our commitment.”