CSR: The View From the Field

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CSR The View From the Field
Greg Johnson, Executive Director
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What is Sports Philanthropy?

• Corporate and individual philanthropy, involving
  institutions and athletes wielding unique assets
  because of their involvement in professional and
  college sports
• Cash/celebrity cachet/powers of
  convening/associated media, sponsors, season
  ticket holders, luxury suite holders,
  vendors/professional staff/ownership/tickets/facil
  ities/ employment opportunities/economic
  development opportunities, etc.

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SPP Survey Foundations Included

• AFL 19
• Athlete 75
• NBDL 13
• ECHL 26
• LPGA 1
• MILB 113
• MLB 36
• MLS 12
• NASCAR 1
• NBA 32
• NFL 34
• NHL 31
• PGA 1
• WNBA 11
• Total 405

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Charity Program Focus Areas
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Foundations Reporting Revenues of
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Top 10 Charities by Revenue
134 Reporting
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Top 10 Charities by Grants Disbursed
109 Reporting
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Top 5 Athlete Foundations, By Revenue
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Some Best Practices (FILES)

• Focused
• Impactful
• Leveraged
• Evaluated
• Sustained

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San Francisco Giants Community Fund

• Established in1991
• 30 member board of directors
• Direct service program, Junior Giants
• 14 years old
• 13,000 kids (5-11) free non-competitive 30
  girls
• Emphasizes self-esteem and scholarship
• Provides free training and equipment in 70
  underserved communities
• Built in character building, scholarship,
  community service, coach training

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More

• Junior Giants
• Each league completes extensive annual
  evaluations
• One new field constructed each year
• Former players coming back to serve as mentors
  and coaches
• Three committees funded by community fund to add
  the following to Junior Giants
• Summer reading program
• Dental screening
• Violence prevention program

SF Giants Community Fund
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The Steve Nash Foundation

• New foundation (about 3 years old)
• Focuses on British Columbia and Arizona, working
  closely with Phoenix Suns Community Relations
  Department in Arizona
• Nash spends a lot of his time working with the
  foundation
• Steve Nash Youth Basketball has been expanded
  across Canada into the national youth basketball
  development model
• 30,000 children this fall 75,000 over 3 years
• boys and girls 5-13 regardless of socio-economic
  status
• Generous grants program-- _at_ 350,000 annually

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More

• Steve only partners with companies willing to
  help with his foundation efforts
• Steve presses sponsors and partners to commit to
  socially sustainable practices
• Ensured development of sugar free products per
  terms of his agreement with Clearly Canada
• Capital projects are funded only with community
  buy-in and mandatory follow-up and progress
  reports foundation continues to help with other
  programming and partnership

The Steve Nash Foundation
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Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation

• An affiliated fund of the Arthur M. Blank Family
  Foundation
• 10 million budget since 2002
• Focuses on youth sports and fitness, targeted
  towards underserved low-income youth
• Complements NFL Grassroots Program, having
  constructed or improved 11 additional playing
  fields since 2002
• Since 2005 much of AFYFs activity has centered
  in creating Falcons Fitness Zones designed to
  improve youth fitness and reduce obesity

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Falcons Fitness Zones

• 1.2 million per year directed toward five
  neighborhoods, in an attempt to increase the
  number of kids participating in organized fitness
  activities during and after school
• Same kids all year not one-time events
  consistent and ongoing measurement and evaluation
• 3,900 participants in 2007
• Web-based evaluation product introduced to track
  participation
• Additional extensive technical assistance
  provided to partners

Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation
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Major League Baseball Players Association

• Since 1996pools player charitable donations,
  including a portion of group licensing revenue
• Partners with an effective intermediaryVolunteers
  of Americawhich organizes support for daycare,
  recreational, health, and counseling programs for
  people in need
• Pools disaster relief contributions--1 million,
  for example, for rental housing to rebuild the
  Gulf Area

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The Jackie Robinson Foundation

• Since1973, The Foundation has donated more than
  14 million to over 1200 college scholars
• 560,000 annually
• 7,200 per scholar
• Engages multiple corporate, institutional, sports
  team and individual partners in order to sustain
  additional scholars
• Mentors the scholars throughout their college
  careers, achieving a 97 graduation rate

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More

• Requires scholars to engage in community service
  while in college
• Continues to mentor scholars after graduation via
  associated Education and Leadership Development
  Program, which affords extensive giving back as
  well as networking opportunities

The Jackie Robinson Foundation
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Conclusions and Metrics

• Sports philanthropy is impactful, measurable, and
  yet to achieve its full potential
• Efforts at community relations, fan development,
  and business development may be related to but do
  not substitute for quality sports philanthropy
• Measurement is not very useful when made in
  reductionist terms exclusively involving 990
  filings, administrative overhead/revenue ratios,
  grant size, etc.
• Truly successful sports philanthropy can best be
  understood in terms of evaluating impact
• This requires understanding in-kind value, the
  focus of the effort, and the quality of the
  outcome of the effort

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The Sports Philanthropy Project 340 Harvard
Street Cambridge, MA 02139 [phone]
telephone gjohnson_at_sportsphilanthropy.com
e-mail www.sportsphilanthropy.com