Impact | Sports Non Profit Organizations | Athletes for Hope

2020 Impact

A Year Unlike Any Other

At Athletes for Hope, our unwavering commitment to educating athletes about sports philanthropy means we are never satisfied with the status quo. We are a data driven organization and we regularly evaluate and enhance our programs to show our increasing impact.

It goes without saying that the landscape of the world dramatically shifted in 2020, bringing many changes to our lives. Yet, the need for service and connection to others remained stronger than ever. As a leader in the sports philanthropy space with over 8,000 athlete members and hundreds of charitable partners, Athletes for Hope activated our powerful network to strengthen, support and inspire communities around the globe during this challenging and unprecedented time.

AFH Fit

Virtual meeting of athlete and group of students

This year we shifted our focus of AFH FIT to offer virtual visits and other digital resources to help promote the physical and mental health of our nation’s youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 200 professional, Olympic and collegiate athletes filmed videos demonstrating their favorite physical fitness activities to do at home without equipment with the purpose of inspiring underserved children and families to stay active. Those videos have now been viewed more than 500,000 times!

We also adapted our AFH FIT school visits to virtually deliver our C.H.A.M.P.S. (Courage, Honesty, Accountability, Mindfulness, Perseverance, and Sportsmanship) Leadership program to underserved students around the United States. We are on pace to facilitate 120 virtual visits this year, reaching almost 300,000 children.

We also adapted our AFH FIT school visits to virtually deliver our C.H.A.M.P.S. (Courage, Honesty, Accountability, Mindfulness, Perseverance, and Sportsmanship) Leadership program to underserved students around the United States. We are on pace to facilitate 120 virtual visits this year, reaching almost 300,000 children.

95% of schools rate the visits good or excellent | 90% of the schools rate their students' activity level at active or very active.

AFH University

Group of workshop students and athletes collection donations

This year we adapted the AFH U workshops, hosting 12 virtual workshops with more than 332 student-athletes. We also added our tenth AFH U college campus, Howard University, providing a diverse network of equality, social justice, inclusion, education, health and nutrition opportunities for Howard Bison student-athletes.

Thank you to our AFH U community partners! This year we worked 30 different organizations with 63 community connections.

90% of AFH athletes reported that they felt empowered to do more volunteering after their AFH U experience. | 93% of AFU athletes felt they had a strong positive impact through their volunteer efforts | 16,460 hours: Since its inception in 2013, more than 4,800 AFH U athletes volunteered more than 16,46,460 hours at 600 community organizations

AFH Equality Program

Athletes for Hope is dedicated to promoting equality and inclusivity throughout our programming and recently launched an expanded Equality Program aimed at leveraging the power of sports to advance issues of equality. Through partnerships, global exchanges, service projects, advocacy, activism and virtual opportunities, AFH empowered athletes to engage in initiatives and dialogue around social justice, race relations and gender equality.

At the AFH U level, we were focused on expanding to more HBCUs throughout the country, providing minority student-athletes the education and tools to promote social change.

We also teamed up with ESPN and I am a voter. to encourage athletes and their networks to vote and ensure their voices were heard in 2020 local, state and federal elections. The campaign garnered a remarkable 9 million impressions on social media!

Earlier this year, in conjunction with the US Department of State, Sports Diplomacy Division and World Learning, AFH hosted a team of Tanzanian basketball players as part of a two-week exchange program focused on empowering girls and young women through basketball and sport.

Additionally, AFH engaged its staff, board, and athlete membership in a series of virtual racial equality workshops to explore topics such as social identities, cycles of socialization, and individual and societal biases. We will continue to offer these workshops in 2021 and beyond, with the goal of expanding upon our collective dialogue, mutual understanding, knowledge, and community engagement in this critical area.