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The NFL’s Inspire Change initiative showcases how the players, owners and the league work together to create positive change in communities across America.
Working with the Players Coalition, an independent 501(c)(3) entity, NFL teams and the league continue to support programs and initiatives that reduce barriers to opportunity. Inspire Change focuses on three priority areas:
Education and economic advancement
Police and community relations
Criminal justice reform
Since 2017, more than $44 million in grants have been awarded to social justice organizations as part of the NFL's Inspire Change initiative. This includes more than 750 grants awarded to current and former NFL players for nonprofits across the country.
The new and renewed grants total $3.5 million and are in addition to national grants previously awarded over the last two years. Since 2018, the NFL has provided Inspire Change grants to 20 nonprofit organizations in support of programs and initiatives that reduce barriers to opportunity, with a focus on three priority areas: education and economic advancement, police and community relations, and criminal justice reform. In January, the league awarded nearly $3 million in social justice grants.
Also included in the $40 million total Inspire Change contribution are this year’s club-player matching social justice funds. Adopted in 2018 by all 32 NFL clubs, this initiative encourages clubs to match the contributions of their players and work collaboratively to support local social justice organizations.
NEW SOCIAL JUSTICE GRANTS
The Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO, Inc.) and Success For All will each use Inspire Change funding for educational advancement. CLEO, Inc., focuses on inspiring, motivating, and preparing students from underrepresented communities to succeed in law school and beyond. Success For All’s dollars will support programs to improve education for at-risk students through The Getting Along Together Program and professional development support for 12 schools in Nashville, Tenn., serving approximately 6,000 students.
Renewed Social Justice Grants
TheAnti-Recidivism Coalition(ARC) will use its funding to further its Hope and Redemption Team, a group of former life prisoners who go back into eight California state prisons to provide on-going programming, rehabilitative services, and reentry support to incarcerated individuals.
Big Brother Big Sisters of Americawill continue to use its funding to help bridge the gap between police officers and the communities they serve and provide more youth with a mentor who is always in their corner.
Gideon’s Promise will continue its mentorship program for the next generation of public defenders. This year’s funding will help to expand the mentorship program, supporting training and orientation for new mentors and mentees.
NAF will provide high school students of all backgrounds with life-changing opportunities that prepare them to succeed in post-secondary education and careers.
Operation HOPE will use Inspire Change support to encourage economic advancement, serving 37,964 adults and 14,688 youth in 2019, emphasizing financial literacy and the accessibility of financial wellness.
Vera Institute of Justicehas focused Inspire Change funding on theIn Our BackyardsandServing Safelyinitiatives. In Our Backyardsworks to stop the rise of incarceration in small towns and rural communities, demonstrating how the overuse of jails and prisons in our communities disproportionately and unjustly burdens the poor and communities of color.
VOTE NOLAcontinues its efforts to educate and protect the voting rights of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, VOTE provided 10,000 N95 masks to individuals inside Louisiana prisons and jails.
The Impact
New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis is working to help restore voting rights in Louisiana.
San Francisco 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead worked in his hometown of Sacramento in conjunction with Leataata Floyd Elementary School and 916 Ink to run a creative writing workshop to help the young students improve their skills.
