Number 141
Image source: NYCFC
New York City FC and Sherwin-Williams Partner For The Community
Featured Focus:
Partnerships For Good, Community Programs,
Local Economic Development
Scope of Impact:
Local
Scouting Report: Sherwin-Williams became the official paint partner of the New York City FC. Behind the brand marketing campaign is a strategic investment in urban communities built on shared values. Here’s what you need to know:
Empowering Communities: NYCFC’s nonprofit foundation, City in the Community, builds safe spaces for youth to play soccer and delivers free, innovative programming. Sherwin-Williams brings its legacy of "quality and community commitment" to this work.
A Strategic Collaboration: The partnership leverages a logical fusion of missions. NYCFC has built 54 mini soccer pitches across the city, while Sherwin-Williams focuses its philanthropy on community beautification and supporting access to safe housing. This collaboration allows for a material contribution of core product and expertise.
A WIN | WIN: This relationship extend ls beyond a typical sponsorship. NYCFC’s programs, such as Night Leagues, offer workforce development and career readiness opportunities. This aligns directly with Sherwin-Williams’s corporate social responsibility goal of advancing a skilled workforce, creating a natural talent pipeline.
This partnership subverts the traditional sponsorship paradigm by leveraging a brand's unique capabilities to empower a sports team’s existing community work.
The genius of this collaboration lies in its simplicity and profound authenticity: Sherwin-Williams's core business is about adding color and value to physical spaces, while NYCFC’s foundation is literally building and revitalizing physical spaces for youth across New York City.
We love that one brand's product is the other's fundamental resource. It is a living case study of a mutually beneficial collaboration in action. It demonstrates that the most impactful partnerships are not just financially robust, but fundamentally logical, rooted in shared purpose and mutually beneficial outcomes.
To be entirely transparent, all of the above comes from what we were able to decipher based on the City in the Community programming and on Sherwin-Williams other philanthropic efforts.
In the press release announcing the partnership, we learn close to nothing about what it entails from a philanthropic perspective. See for yourself:
“As part of the partnership, Sherwin-Williams will support various New York City FC community programs across the five boroughs, including the Club’s nonprofit foundation City in the Community.”
Can we get more details, please?
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. A number of brands bury this type of nuggets in their press releases when they should shine a brighter light on them.
