I recently met the fabulously passionate staff of Tickets For Charity, an organization that uses the demand for sports and concert tickets to help charities nationwide.

Teams and concert promoters provide Tickets For Charity tickets to high-profile events which the organization turns around and sells at the market value. That premium price you would usually be paying then goes to a charity group as opposed to a profit margin. Tickets For Charity also develops VIP packages that provide fans access to events that they couldn’t get unless they were in the know.

Currently, Tickets For Charity has Boston Red Sox regular season tickets and both Boston Bruins and Celtics playoff tickets. With each purchase, you can designate what group receives the charitable portion of your purchase price, including the official charities of the Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox.

I hung out with the Tickets for Charity crew at Jerry Remy’s (a very neat take-in in itself), and was impressed at how dedicated they are to the cause and how knowledgeable they are about sports. This is code for, “We had a long conversation about the woes of the Buffalo Bills” and “We talked college hockey.” These aren’t folks oblivious to the passion of sports fans – they’re sports fans themselves.

If you’re going to be paying out the nose to get to a must-see sporting event – especially a playoff game – why not help out others in the process?

During the Red Sox season, Tickets for Charity will be giving you the opportunity to win some unique ticket packages, including Green Monster seats for a Yankees-Red Sox game, Fenway Park tours plus lunch, and tickets to the Red Sox Foundation’s Picnic in the Park. Stay tuned – I’ll have more info as we get closer to these giveaways!