Most people who give to a cause never get to see the moment their money mattered. You give, you get a receipt, and you trust that something good happened somewhere.

Giving to the Seventh Base Foundation works differently, because what we buy is a physical object that sits on a specific field in a specific town, and it either prevents an injury or it doesn’t.

Here’s exactly what your contribution does.

The gap we’re closing isn’t knowledge — it’s budget

The safety case for breakaway bases has been settled for more than thirty years.

A three-phase study led by orthopaedic surgeon Dr. David Janda at the University of Michigan found that using Rogers® Breakaway™ bases in recreational softball reduced sliding injuries by 98% and associated medical care costs by 99%. Field research has projected that widespread adoption could prevent roughly 1.7 million injuries a year in the United States and save more than $2 billion annually in health care costs. Across the body of research, reported reductions in sliding injuries range from about 80% to 98% depending on the study design and population — a remarkable result for any single piece of equipment.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommends breakaway bases be installed on all playing fields, and encourages physicians to promote them in their own communities. Little League International has required disengage-able bases in U.S. leagues since 2008.

So why are stationary bases still bolted into fields across the country?

Because a volunteer-run league operating on registration fees, snack-bar revenue, and a raffle has to choose between bases, uniforms, umpire fees, insurance, and field maintenance. Safety equipment loses that argument more often than it should — not because anyone doubts the research, but because the money isn’t there.

Your contribution removes the choice.

What your dollars actually buy

We fund complete Rogers® Breakaway™ base systems — not a single base, but the set a field needs to be genuinely safer. A breakaway system includes the anchored rubber mat and grommets that hold the base in place during normal running, plus the base itself, which releases under the force of a slide.

Depending on the age group and field, that might be an Original BreakAway™ set, a Change-Up BreakAway™ set, or a configuration with a double first base to reduce collisions at the most crowded bag in youth baseball.

Because bases are durable equipment rather than a consumable, a gift made once keeps working:

• One field typically hosts multiple teams across multiple divisions.
• One season at a busy park can mean hundreds of games and practices.
• One set of bases serves that traffic year after year.

The cost-per-child-protected drops every single season the equipment stays in the ground. Very few charitable gifts compound that way.

Prevention costs less than injury — dramatically less

Consider what a single serious sliding injury costs a family. An ankle fracture or a posterior cruciate ligament injury can mean an emergency room visit, imaging, orthopaedic consultation, possible surgery, weeks in a boot or brace, physical therapy, missed work for a parent, and a season lost for the child.

Now compare that to the cost of the equipment that would likely have prevented it.

This is the arithmetic behind the $2 billion national savings estimate, and it holds at the level of a single park in a single town. Prevention is not just the kinder option. It is by a wide margin the cheaper one.

Ways to contribute

Give once. A single gift of any size goes into the pool that funds the next field. Small gifts aggregate into base sets faster than people expect.

Give monthly. Recurring donors are the reason we can commit to leagues before a season starts rather than after. Predictable income lets us say yes with confidence.

Sponsor a field. If you want your contribution tied to a specific place — your hometown park, the field where your own kids played, a program in a community you care about — field sponsorship makes that direct connection.

Partner as a business. Local businesses have always been the backbone of youth sports. Community partnership puts your name behind measurable child safety rather than another banner on an outfield fence — and it’s the kind of story customers actually remember.

Give in someone’s honor. Many of our donors give in the name of a coach who shaped them, a parent who drove them to every practice, or a player who was hurt on a stationary base. It’s a fitting tribute in a sport built on passing things down.

Give what you have that isn’t money. Skills, connections, and time count. Volunteers help with outreach, events, logistics, and getting the word to leagues that have never heard of us.

Where the money goes, and how you’ll know

We are a single-issue organization, which makes accountability straightforward. We don’t run a dozen programs with overlapping budgets. We fund bases.

Our board includes a CPA serving as Audit and Finance Chair specifically so financial oversight isn’t an afterthought, and our progress toward our funding goal is published openly on our site rather than tucked into an annual report nobody reads.

When we place bases, we share it. Recipient programs may be featured by the Foundation and join our growing network of supported youth organizations — so donors can see the fields, the leagues, and the kids their giving reached.

The part that’s hard to put in a brochure

You will never meet the child your donation protects. There is no letter from a grateful ten-year-old, because the injury they didn’t sustain leaves no trace.

What exists instead is a runner who takes off from first base on a Tuesday evening, drops into a slide she’s done a hundred times, and gets up, dusts off, and calls time. Her parents don’t hold their breath. Her coach doesn’t reach for a phone. The game keeps going.

That ordinary, unremarkable moment is the product. It’s what you’re buying.

Make a donation and put a safer base on a field this season