The DICK'S Sporting Goods Foundation Quarterly Giving Series: YE 2024

Originally published on DICK'S Sporting Goods Sideline Report

TOGETHER, WE CHANGE LIVES

The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation is proud to present the latest edition of our quarterly giving series, celebrating the 10^th anniversary of our Sports Matter Program and shining a light on all of the incredible efforts in 2024 to fuel our mission of empowering young athletes and making sports accessible to all!

Read on to learn more.

Where Are They Now: Anchorage Girls Hockey

To celebrate The DICK’S Foundation’s 10^th anniversary, we returned with Sports Matter Grants to three youth sports organizations we first visited a decade ago: Harlem Lacrosse, MLK High School Football and most recently, Anchorage Girls Hockey.

After learning that the Anchorage School District in Alaska would need to drop girls’ hockey to save money in 2015, The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation arrived with a $200,000 Sports Matter Grant and new equipment to keep players on the ice. Almost a decade later, the program and its alums continue changing lives through sport, but the program was in need once again. And once again, The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation delivered.

Watch here as two Anchorage Hockey alums showed up to practice nearly 10 years later and presented the program with a $100,000 Sports Matter Grant and new gear!

Workout Room Refresh

After Sports Matter funded a new indoor turf field in the workout room, The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation returned to McKeesport Area High School, near Pittsburgh, and surprised student athletes with all new equipment donated from Sole Fitness and ETHOS.

“We have a state-of-the-art facility for our students, and we’re thrilled to have such good support from The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation,” said Head Football Coach Matt Miller.

Watch the big reveal here, and read more about The DICK’S Foundation’s partnership with McKeesport Area School District here.

Supporting the Next Generation of Champions

The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation is proud to support fellow partners with a shared belief in the power of sport and recognize the need to help youth athletes and organizations across the country. In 2024, we granted: 
 

- $2 million to support 20 infrastructure initiation projects to create safe spaces for kids to play with LISC. 
- $2 million to provide more than 73,000 pieces of equipment to over 44,000 kids with Good Sports. 
- $2.5 million to Every Kid Sports cover registration fees for youth athletes. 

Spreading Holiday Cheer & Sports Matter Grants

DICK’S Sporting Goods launched a Texas-sized holiday campaign with Texas athletes Simone Biles, Dak Prescott, Chris Paul and Quinn Ewers. The sports icons engaged in some friendly competition by decorating the DICK’S Sporting Goods stores in the Texas cities they call home to earn the title of DICK’S Holiday Decorating Officer.

As part of the campaign, The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation committed to give each athlete a $100,000 Sports Matter Grant to award to the youth sport organization(s) of their choosing*. A few organizations chosen by the athletes were:

- Benfer Elementary (Biles) 
- The Chris Paul Foundation (Paul) 
- The Dak Prescott Football ProCamps (Prescott) 
- Merging Vets & Players (Ewers)

*All organizations must meet certain qualifications to receive a Sports Matter Grant. You can read more about our eligibility criteria here.

Giving Back on Giving Tuesday

We celebrated Giving Tuesday at DICK’S Sporting Goods headquarters with sweepstakes, a 50/50 drawing and limited-edition Sports Matter t-shirts. Corporate teammates raised over $10,000 for The DICK’S Foundation! Teammates also voted on which deserving Pittsburgh organization should receive a $25,000 Sports Matter Grant – Perry Traditional Academy or Jasmine Nyree Campus – but in the spirit of giving, The Foundation granted $25,000 to BOTH organizations!

THESE MOMENTS ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SPORTS MATTER FUND. IF YOU'D LIKE TO DONATE, VISIT WWW.SPORTSMATTER.ORG.