Community

FundPlay Friday: How LeagueApps Got Together to Support Our Community

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By Melissa Wickes
November 23, 2021
3 min

At LeagueApps, we take advantage of every opportunity to get the team together for meaningful and impactful activities, now more than ever. Last Friday, we participated in our first annual FundPlay Friday—where we dedicated the day to supporting our FundPlay partners through volunteering, strategizing, and planning to help our FundPlay partners grow their organizations. 

Through our FundPlay program, we provide technology, training, and support to sports-based youth development organizations (SBYD) across the country. FundPlay is a huge part of what makes LeagueApps such a special place to work and it’s a constant reminder of why the work we do matters. Watch this video below from one of our FundPlay partners—The Lighthouse Inc.,—to get an idea of the support we provide our partners with.

 

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On FundPlay Friday, we were able set aside our typical work for the day to offer all kinds of support to a number of FundPlay partners to drive their organizations forward, learn a lot about the amazing work these organizations are doing, and devise plans for how we can continue to support them in the future. Over 60 members of the LeagueApps team dedicated their day to these impact-driven activities—both in-person and virtually—to bolster our community. We can’t wait for the next opportunity to get everyone together for an impact-led event. 

The South Bronx United 11th Annual Benefit

To kick off FundPlay Friday, a few members of the LeagueApps team volunteered their time at South Bronx United’s 11th Annual Benefit on Thursday evening. Volunteers helped with set up, registration, raffles, clean-up, and overall facilitation of the event—resulting in nearly $200,000 raised for the organization. Learn a little bit more about the impact SBU has on its youth by watching this interview between SBU’s Javi Lopez (also an SBU Academy graduate) and New York City FC’s Tayvon Gray below:

You can support SBU by making a donation here.

Fostering Equipment Donation 

Equipment is something we’re looking to provide to organizations more and more to add value beyond software. We’re always looking for ways to improve our donation strategy, so we met with Max Levitt and Kaitlin Brennan, founder and executive director and program director of Leveling the Playing Field—an organization that collects lightly used or new equipment and distributes it to sports-based youth development organizations and community organizations.

You can make a donation to Leveling the Playing Field, to help sports organizations receive donations to support their youth programs, here

Building Our Employee Volunteer Program

Another point of focus on FundPlay Friday was ensuring that the LeagueApps team can volunteer in a number of different ways in the future. With the help and ideas of four of our FundPlay partners, we brainstormed volunteer ideas, philanthropy events, policies, and incentives to build out the LeagueApps volunteer program so we can have many days similar to FundPlay Friday in the future. 

Using Our Network to Support Our First FundPlay Partner

RallyCap Sports—an SBYD providing sports opportunities to children with special needs—holds a very special place in the heart of LeagueApps because it was our first ever FundPlay partner. We were overjoyed to spend time on FundPlay Friday working with Luke Sims, executive director of RallyCap Sports, to determine how we can use our vast youth sports network to support their marketing efforts. It was especially exciting to reconnect with RallyCap because two members of the LeagueApps team just raised $6,111 for RallyCap running the NYC Marathon. You can make a donation to support the mission of RallyCap Sports here

With Giving Tuesday coming up, we’ll be posting on our social media channels highlighting ways you can support  sports-based youth development organizations in your community. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to stay updated!