The Beyond Sport Foundation Wraps Up Biggest Year to Date

2018 has been biggest and most successful year to date for the Beyond Sport Foundation. In our tenth anniversary year, we received over 400 applications to the Beyond Sport Global Awards, representing our most diverse applicant pool and Official Shortlist yet. We’re thrilled to be a part of the growing movement of inspirational people using sport for good.

As we head into the new year, we’re recapping a year of milestones and records - and looking forward to an even more successful 2019. 

About the Beyond Sport Foundation 

The Beyond Sport Foundation celebrates, supports, raises awareness and provides funding for organizations using sport to help make the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) a reality. Identified together with our expert partners, we support inspirational people and projects that are using sport to make a resounding and powerful impact in some of the most disadvantaged and excluded populations around the world.

We do this by funding, advising, and elevating the very best organizations in this space. We go beyond the traditional grant-giving model by not just funding projects, but providing organizations tools to grow and improve. 

Since 2009, we’ve administered over $1.5 million in cash funding and $8 million in long-term strategic support. Identified through the Beyond Sport Global Awards, we support organizations demonstrating best practice in harnessing sport to make a positive impact in their communities. Each year, we award winners in a variety of categories, from Health and Wellbeing, to Peace and Social Justice and Climate Action.

A YEAR OF GROWTH 

• Our family has gotten bigger.  195 new Organizations joined the Beyond Sport Global Network - bringing our total to over 2,700 sport-for-development groups worldwide.

• We’re using more sports than ever. 53 unique sports were represented this year’s applications. Members of the Beyond Sport Family are using cheer, capoeira, boccia, kickboxing, sailing, indigenous games, and many other sports to make a profound impact in their communities

• We’re expanding our global reach. This year’s applicant pool contained entries from 6 Continents and 94 countries, bringing the total number of countries in our network to 150. In the past year alone, we’ve doubled the number of entries from both Africa and South America. 
  

OUR 2018 GRANT RECIPIENTS 

These 8 organizations received a combined $350,000 in cash grants in addition to comprehensive strategic business support. Throughout next year, they will use these funds and support to enhance and expand their already cutting-edge programs to grow sustainably. 

• Basketball Health Corps, Shooting Touch - Rwanda
  
  • Using basketball to empower at-risk youth and women in the Eastern Province of Rwanda while teaching vital health lessons on HIV, malaria, and hygiene.

• Looking for a Place to Dream, GAME - Lebanon
  
  • Enabling youth to design their own dream public sports spaces through an  innovative and free sports app.

• Women Economic Empowerment Through Sport Tourism, 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking– Nepal
  • Teaching local Nepali women the necessary skills for trekking and guiding in the Himalayas, providing sustainable employment through adventure tourism

• Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), Spirit of Soccer – Iraq
  • Using soccer games and drills to teach simple but important lessons for ‘Fighting Age Males’ who are most at risk of recruitment by extremist groups.

• Rugby for the Emancipation of Young Girls, Terres en Mêlées - Madagascar
  • Promoting mental, physical, and emotional health in young girls in Madagascar through the pairing of rugby and education sessions on sexual health

• Developing Game-Changing Skills Among Children & Youth, Thanda - South Africa
  • Using skateboarding to combat unemployment, food insecurity, and poor education opportunities on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• Promoting Health and Well-being through Inclusive Sport, Indochina Starfish Foundation (ISF) - Cambodia
  • Working with disadvantaged Cambodian children and youth living in extreme poverty and marginalized due to disability or HIV status

• Sweat For Good, Positive Tracks – USA
  
  • Empowering young people of all backgrounds to develop and exercise philanthropic projects with a focus on sport, developing empathy, grit, and civic leadership by “sweating for good.”

BEGINNING OUR JOURNEY WITH THE 2018 WINNERS

After celebrating the amazing work of the organizations at our Beyond Sport Global Awards in New York this September, we're ready to get to work and support the inspirational people and groups using sport to change the world. We've just launched our grant cycle with these cutting-edge projects and we can't wait to see what we will accomplish together. 

“Funding will strengthen our programming which will further enhance our health outcomes for the 1,500+ your and women we serve on a daily basis,” Co-Founder and Executive Director of Shooting Touch, Lindsey Kitteredge said.  

As a result of the funding provided by the Foundation, Shooting Touch will be able to increase their field staff, enhancing their on-ground focus groups and home visits to ensure their sports-health curriculum is on track and addressing all problems within the communities they serve. 

After reaching an agreement with the Nepalese government, the 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking program will be officially recognized by the tourism industry, meaning that the group will be able to legally provide guide licenses to the women in their program.

Lucky Chetri, Co-Founder of the organization, said: “With the support of Beyond Sport Foundation, It will allow us to continue working in our mission to help many of the underprivileged women of Nepal.”

JOIN US ON OUR JOURNEY

Thank you to all of our incredible partners and friends who have helped us make this such an incredible and impactful year. 2019 promises to be our biggest year yet - we hope you join us on our mission to make the world a better place through sport. 

To donate to the Beyond Sport Foundation, visit our Give Lively page. 

To learn more about the Beyond Sport Foundation, or get in touch today by contacting Peter at [email protected]