NFL owners, players renew grants to nine social justice organizations
A little more than a week after taking its latest step to help conquer the digital divide in the Cleveland area while simultaneously hosting the draft, the NFL, through its Inspire Change initiative, on Monday announced the renewal of nine national social justice grant partnerships totaling $2.5 million.
Spurred by the efforts of the Players Coalition, the NFL since 2017 has donated more than $160 million to 33 national grant partners and hundreds of grassroots organizations across the country. In all, the NFL and its players have awarded more than 1,450 grants to nonprofit organizations since the owners joined forces with the Players Coalition in 2017.
In years past, the Inspire Change initiative has seen the league expand its roster of organizations. This year, however, the joint committee of owners and players — Gayle Benson (New Orleans Saints), Michael Bidwill (Arizona Cardinals), Arthur Blank (Atlanta Falcons), Dee Haslam (Cleveland Browns) and Shad Khan (Jacksonville Jaguars) and Players Coalition members Kelvin Beachum (Cardinals), Anquan Boldin, Josh McCown and Josh Norman — opted to devote resources to renewing contracts with previous partners. They share the goal of furthering the mission of fighting racial and systemic oppression.
“Every year through our Inspire Change campaign, we look for organizations that are doing the most impactful work on the four key social justice areas that we’ve identified as priority areas, which are education, economic advancement, police-community relations and criminal justice reform,” Anna Isaacson, NFL senior vice president of social responsibility, told USA TODAY Sports.
"We have built relationships over the last year or two years and we’re impressed and moved by their work enough to re-up with them.”
This year’s nine partnership renewal organizations are:
Alabama Appleseed, which focuses on criminal justice reform.
City Year, which benefits students at systemically under-resourced schools in 29 different cities across the country
Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc., which champions diversity in the legal field.
Community Justice Exchange, which fights to end money bail and pretrial detention on the local and national level.
Gideon’s Promise, which last year trained 300 summer law clerks and funds mentorship programs for public defenders.
Metropolitan Family Services, which attempts to fight violence in Chicago while partnering with the Chicago Police Department.
Operation HOPE, which focuses on financial wellness coaching nationwide.
UNCF, which works to provide Pell Grants for incarcerated individuals.
VOTE, which focuses on advocating for voter registration and restoring voters rights for individuals with felony convictions.
News of the grant renewals comes on the heels of Inspire Change’s efforts to conquer the digital divide through its Huddle Legacy program in the Cleveland area, where the NFL draft was held two weeks ago. The league donated $75,000 and partnered with technology partner Cisco to upgrade and refurbish the Cleveland Public Library’s tech center and computer labs to ensure that students and their families have adequate access to the internet and technology.
The league plans to provide similar contributions in the communities that will host the Week 1 kickoff as well as at the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL re-ups financial commitments to nine organizations
