Jam Band Charity Returns to Saratoga; New Local Beneficiary Needed

SARATOGA SPRINGS — It’s been nearly two years since the Western Sun Foundation, a charity run by fans of the jam band Goose, raised a record sum for Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga. And now, with Goose storming the SPAC stage on Fourth of July weekend, the charity is back and ready to raise more funds for a local nonprofit.

A golf tournament dubbed “Red, White & Birdies” will be held at the Saratoga Spa Golf Course on Independence Day. It’s a sequel of sorts to “Goose on the Green,” the fundraising golf event held at the same course in 2024, when Goose last played at SPAC. But this time, everything promises to be bigger. Two years ago, 18 tee times were available. This year, there will be at least 20. Two years ago, Western Sun was a relatively new charity supporting a relatively new band. This year, all that’s changed.

“We’re getting more awareness and we’re getting more trust,” Western Sun’s president Sarah Blazincic told Saratoga TODAY. “We used to have to fully explain what our mission was and what our intentions were to the community, and now people know us. People are trusting and knowing what we do and what our mission is. We less have to convince people that we’re up to good because they have seen the proof.”

In 2024, the proof was $7,500 raised by Western Sun for Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga. At the time, the sum was the fan-run charity’s largest gift yet. But Western Sun likes to spread the love around and generally doesn’t donate to the same nonprofit twice within two years. That means they need another beneficiary for their upcoming “Red, White & Birdies” event.

Beneficiaries need to be based in the Capital Region and meet the following criteria:

• Classified as a “Public Charity” with tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (individual or private foundations are not eligible)

• Operating budget less than $1,000,000 

• Focuses on one of the following areas: music education; music therapy; safety, health, and personal wellbeing of women and children; or climate action and environmental sustainability 

Finding smaller charities to serve as beneficiaries can be a challenge, at times, for Western Sun. In 2024, the charity connected with Therapeutic Horses thanks to an article published in Saratoga TODAY (not that we’re bragging or anything). This year, the prize is still up for grabs. (Who knows, perhaps someone reading this will score the bag.)

Since Goose last played SPAC, their charity has grown exponentially, much like the band itself, which sold out Madison Square Garden for the first time in 2025.

“Each year, we have grown anywhere between 30 and 50% year over year from the last year,” Blazincic said. “We are rapidly growing, and we keep thinking it’s going to plateau. We thought this is the year it would plateau, but it turns out it’s just going higher and higher.”

Western Sun was launched by a group of Goose fans in 2022. The Goose community, akin to the Phish and Grateful Dead fan bases that came before it, often attends multiple shows every year, obsessing over the setlists, solos, and sound mixes of each tour. Phish’s Mockingbird Foundation and the Grateful Dead’s Rex Foundation both served as examples for Goose fans looking to give back. 

“We decided to take this big energy that was Goose and the music we get from it, transform that into action, and raise money for the communities that we’re traveling through,” Blazincic told Saratoga TODAY in a 2024 interview.

Local organizations that meet the criteria listed above can contact Sarah Blazincic at westernsunfoundation@gmail.com. The deadline to determine a beneficiary is June 1.