Nike has gathered a total of $2.75 million to invest in Black-led organizations throughout the U.S.
The sneaker company is giving away money to different causes but will focus mainly on education and social justice issues. Nike has already announced the names of a few of the 44 organizations they’re donating to. In addition to Children Striving Together, an organization that focuses on mentoring and tutoring kids, Nike is helping further All Star Code, a program to help teach coding.
The company is also helping financially support Big Brothers Big Sisters of America which focuses on giving children an older mentor to look up to. Besides education programs, Nike is donating money to the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that helps free those who were wrongly incarcerated and works towards prison reform.
“These strategic investments across the U.S. have the power to fuel transformative change, and we applaud each and every grantee for their focus and passionate commitment to reach and uplift their community,” said Karol Collymore, Nike’s senior director of inclusive community for social and community impact, in a statement.
These grants are part of Nike’s bigger program, Black Community Commitment. The program was created in June 2020 following the start of the George Floyd protests in 2020. Working alongside the NAACP and famed basketball player and Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, the plan of the Black Community Commitment program is to donate a total of $140 million to Black-led non-profit organizations over the course of ten years.
Applications for the opportunity to receive the donations opened up on Jordan’s birthday, Feb. 17. Organizations will have until March 17 to submit their information for consideration. To be considered, the non-profit organizations need to be at least three years into their mission, starting in 2019 or before.
They’ll also have to have a yearly budget between $100,000 and $3 million dollars and a main goal that works in conjunction with Nike’s focus areas. These focus areas include increasing the presence of Black entrepreneurs, decreasing the wealth gap between white and Black businesses, helping bring educational resources to Black students and diversifying communities. Nike is also looking to invest in organizations that will help promote Black history and bring about reform.
In the program’s first year in 2021, Jordan and Nike contributed $1 million to 18 non-profit organizations, including the Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn, New York and the Middle Georgia Access to Justice Council in Macon, Georgia. The success of the donations prompted the development of programs such as this in other major cities located in different countries such as London.
“Our local communities raise us,” said a spokesperson in a statement on the Nike website. “We, in turn, are committed to uplifting them.”
