Number 94
Athletes for Hope and Thrivent Bring Financial Education to Student-Athletes
Featured Focus:
Partnerships for Good, Youth Development, Education
Scope of Impact: Nationwide
Athletes for Hope (AFH) and Thrivent, a Fortune 500 financial services company, have forged a powerful partnership empowering student athletes and strengthening communities through impactful volunteerism and essential financial education. Here’s what you should know:
Equipping Athletes with Crucial Life Skills: A cornerstone of this collaboration is the launch of a tailored financial webinar series for athletes, equipping them with tools for informed financial decisions. This complements Athletes for Hope's existing mental health initiatives like Whole Being Athlete and CHAMPS, ensuring holistic development.
Cultivating Future Leaders: This partnership focuses on student athletes from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, strengthening the AFH University program. It provides culturally relevant opportunities for leadership, service, and philanthropy, nurturing the next generation of impactful leaders.
Demonstrating Tangible Impact: The partnership has already yielded significant results, exemplified by a successful meal-packing event where over 70 student athletes collaborated to pack over 2,100 sandwiches and 400 trail mix bags for Shepherd’s Table.
The alignment between Thrivent's financial expertise and Athletes for Hope's student leadership mission is spot-on. With multiple ways for student athletes to benefit from the programming, including financial literacy workshops, leadership skill-building, and community service events, the collaboration is taking a holistic approach to empowering the next generation.
We also love the deliberate focus on HBCUs and HSIs, which often fly under-the-radar when it comes to funding and partnership opportunities. It’s a great way for Thrivent to build brand presence with a young generation of empowered student leaders, while at the same time, becoming part of their story of success after school.
YOUR NEXT PLAY:
We’re all for it when brands not only leverage student athletes, but also actively contribute to their personal growth. Together, AFH and Thrivent are setting the tone for the next generation of leaders, which will have a ripple effect throughout their communities. How can you aim for this same kind of long-term impact in your own work?
The program allows student-athletes to learn how to be effective volunteers, and discover the community causes that align with their passions.
The company reinvests its profits back into the people and communities they serve, blending financial services with generosity programs.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities provide crucial educational opportunities and a sense of belonging, especially for first generation or lower income students.
Hispanic-Serving Institutions, which have at least 25% Hispanic full-time enrollment, provide enhanced outcomes for often underserved students.
A Forbes article uncovers that the majority of college students don’t have a solid understanding of basic financial matters.
Many HBCUs don’t have staff members helping theirh student-athletes navigate the complexity of NIL deals, making Thrivent’s financial literacy support all the more valuable.
