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DICK’S SPORTING GOODS AND THE DICK’S SPORTING
GOODS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE A $25MM MULTI-YEAR COMMITMENT TO
INSPIRE AND ENABLE KIDS TO PLAY SPORTS
Pro Football Analyst Jon Gruden, Actor
Michael B. Jordan Serve as Ambassadors for DICK’S
Foundation’s ‘Sports Matter’ Program
March 7, 2014 –
DICK’S Sporting Goods and The DICK’S Sporting Goods
Foundation today announced a $25 million multi-year
commitment to support youth athletic programs including
donations to local sports teams and the launch of the DICK’S
Foundation’s “Sports Matter” initiative. The Sports Matter
program aims to address the growing issue of underfunded
youth athletics nationwide through an extensive public
awareness campaign and a new proprietary crowd-funding
platform in which the DICK’S Foundation will match community
donations to award up to $2 million in grants to disbanded
or financially challenged youth sports teams.
The data is telling: Billions have been cut from youth
sports programs nationwide in recent years and 60 percent of
children must now pay a fee to play(1). An alarming study
predicts that by 2020, 27 percent of U.S. public schools
will not offer interscholastic sports programs(2). Yet,
evidence shows that students who play sports are
significantly more likely to stay in school and go to
college, and prove better at social skills like managing
emotions, resolving conflict, appreciating diversity and
resisting peer pressure(3).
“We believe youth sports instill important character traits
and teach life lessons that people carry with them
throughout their lives,” said Lauren Hobart, Director of the
DICK’S Foundation & SVP/CMO DICK’S Sporting Goods. “Studies
show that increasingly significant financial shortfalls are
preventing young athletes from participating in organized
sports, and through ‘Sports Matter’, we are taking important
steps to raise awareness for this issue, contribute to
financial needs and provide access to organized sports.”
“Every year we're seeing more and more cutbacks in sports,”
said Jon Gruden, DICK’S Foundation’s ambassador for the
Sports Matter program. “Budgets are being decreased,
coaches are being eliminated, and fewer players are going
out for youth sports. We have to do something about it!”
The DICK’S Foundation is currently accepting
applications and will provide teams accepted into the
program with guidance to help raise half the funding
necessary for one year of operation through a crowd-funding
mechanism and will match the other half, up to $2 million. Teams
must be K-12 age, be affiliated with a school, nonprofit or
league with 501(c)3 status and have been eliminated, at risk
of elimination or never able to form because of financial
limitations.
Additionally, the DICK’S Foundation partnered with Tribeca
Digital Studios and director Judd Ehrlich to create We
Could be King, a documentary
that cuts to the heart of the issue. The film depicts two
rival Philadelphia high schools that were forced to merge
due to severe budget cuts, and how their merged football
teams have
to learn to work together not only for the team’s sake, but
also for the fractured community they represent on the
field. The
film will premiere in April during the Tribeca Film Festival
and then make its TV debut on Sat., April 26 at
8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
The DICK’S Foundation and Tribeca Digital Studios will host
the Sports Matter launch celebration on Sat., March 8 at
SXSW Interactive, featuring Gruden, actor Michael B. Jordan,
four-time Olympic gold medalist track star Sanya
Richards-Ross and others who believe that together we can
save youth sports.
For more information visit: www.Dicks.com/SportsMatter#SportsMatter
About The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation
The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation is an exempt 501(c)(3)
non-profit corporation with a mission to inspire and enable
sports participation. It was created by DICK’S Sporting
Goods, Inc. as a private corporate foundation to support
DICK’S charitable and philanthropic activities.
Sources :(1) Up2Us; (2) The Sharp Center; (3) The Decline of
Youth Sports
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