Indianapolis – Minor League Baseball on Monday named the Charleston RiverDogs the winner of the 2025 MiLB Together Award, presented at the annual MiLB Awards Show at the MiLB Business Summit in Indianapolis.
The award recognizes a team that demonstrates an outstanding, ongoing commitment to charitable service, support, and leadership within both their local community and within the baseball industry. The RiverDogs were selected from a group of 10 finalists and named the winner across the 120 Minor League Baseball clubs around the country.
Supporting the local community has been a key tenet of the RiverDogs’ success in the Charleston-area for its more than 40 years of ownership by The Goldklang Group. The RiverDogs received the award both for that long-standing commitment and for taking their commitment to the Charleston community to new heights in 2025.
"Minor League Baseball is all about serving the communities in which we play, and all 120 teams do fabulous work in their local markets,” RiverDogs President and General Manager Dave Echols said. “So, to be recognized by our peers and MiLB leadership as one of the nation's best Clubs in community engagement is a tremendous honor and one that motivates our team to continue elevating our efforts."
In August, the RiverDogs presented a $100,000 donation to MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, directly supporting pediatric care, research, and family services — its largest-ever charitable donation to a cause the Club has proudly supported for more than a decade. Money was raised through the RiverDogs’ annual yearlong series of non-baseball events, sponsored by the Marino Family, which include the team’s Run Charlie Run 5K, Golf Tournament, Legends in the South softball game and a notably successful Hot Stove Banquet.
The RiverDogs also doubled their in-kind donation total from 2024 and supports hundreds of worthy causes in the Charleston-area monetarily and otherwise. The team also attended nearly 100 community events through August, as part of its longstanding commitment to volunteerism in partnership with REV Federal Credit Union’s #UpTheGood Foundation. Some of those events included the team’s annual Niceness Week, presented by Breeze Airways, in which front office staff members, coaches and players volunteered at various causes in a “community blitz” during a week August.
Inside Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park, the RiverDogs hosted major nonprofit events such as the Heart Walk, Walk to End Alzheimer's, 9/11 Stair Climb, Lowcountry Food Bank drives, and school fundraisers. By offering their venue and resources, the Club helped amplify the missions of dozens of local organizations.
Among many community platforms, the Club is particularly proud to be a major supporter of Charleston’s strong military and veterans community, in partnership with Boeing; literacy and early childhood education through its Reading Around the Bases program, in partnership with the Charleston County School District; and a growing youth sports program, thanks to a new partnership with Low Country Chevy Dealers.
The MiLB Together Award is the latest in a long line of awards recognizing the RiverDogs as an industry leader, including winning several Golden Bobbleheads and the inaugural Patriot Award in 2016.