W|W WEDNESDAY NEWSLETTER: JULY 23, 2025
The theme of our Downloads this past week can be summed up with three words: Football, Fussball, Futbol.
🏈 In the land of American football, EA Sports’ College Football ‘26 video game will feature The Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards, which directly benefits the American Heart Association.
⚽ In Germany, the Fortuna Düsseldorf, club of second Bundesliga, is offering free tickets to all the club’s home games, and redirecting 50% of sponsorship revenue to community programs.
⚽ And back in the US of A, MLS GO, RCX Sports, and the National Recreation and Park Association are teaming up on a multi-year partnership to increase access to youth
futbolsoccer.
We think we’re spotting a trend here…
In other news, the WNBA held its All-Star Game in Indianapolis last weekend — and despite Caitlin Clark’s injury, it was the second most watched ASG in the W’s history. However, the players really stole the show during pregame by wearing warmup shirts displaying a simple, yet powerful message: “Pay Us What You Owe Us.” Our Mic Drop goes to Minnesota Lynx’ star and All-Star Game MVP Napheesa Collier, who explains why the players felt it was necessary to rock such a powerful statement.
And rounding us out, our team dove deep into many athletes’ favorite pastime: chess. NFL and NBA players have held tournaments in recent months, and the opportunity to level this up seemed too good to miss.
We’re excited to see what today brings with the MLS All-Star Game in Austin, TX. There might just be more futbol in next week’s W|W Wednesday Newsletter, too. (Psst — check out the “What Else We’re Following” section for a sneak peek.)
Until then,
The WIN | WIN Team
ICYMI: THIS WEEK’S W|W DOWNLOADS
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COMMUNITY-BUILDING
German soccer club Fortuna Düsseldorf just launched 'Fortuna für alle' — a bold initiative offering free tickets to all the club’s home games, and redirecting 50% of sponsorship revenue to community programs — increasing access, and strengthening the club’s bond with local fans.
Read more →
Image credit: Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images
"We get a very tiny percentage of all the money that's made through the WNBA, which obviously is made through the entertainment we provide. So we want a fair and reasonable percentage of that.”
Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, after all the players sported “Pay Us What You Owe Us” tees at this past weekend’s WNBA All-Star Game.
Chess has been hitting a high note in the sports world recently — not just because it’s a great way for athletes to keep their strategy skills and mental flexibility sharp, but also because we’ve been seeing some high-dollar competition coming from this typically soft-spoken game.
Earlier this summer, for example, NFL safety Justin Reid (KC Chiefs) defended his BlitzChamps title against some fierce opponents. Then, just last week, NBA forward Grant Williams (Charlotte Hornets) won ‘Chesstival 2025’ in Las Vegas during the Summer League kickoff.
Both of these tournaments pitted their respective leagues’ best chess players against each other, head-to-head, to take home a cash prize for the charity of their choice.
Of course, we love it when athletes bring their off-the-field interests together with their community impact efforts. But one thing we’ve noticed is that the players’ chosen organizations don’t always get a ton of visibility in events like these, with the athletes themselves drawing most of the spotlight. And while the financial contributions the orgs receive is invaluable, we have an idea that might make tournaments like this even more impactful — for everyone involved.
Just like there are brand sponsors for events, why not have nonprofit sponsors, too? Same visibility, same marketing opportunities, but with the cash flow reversed.
Crazy? Nah, just hear us out:
Brand sponsors typically pay a hefty price tag to get their logo all over event materials, to get exclusive distribution rights to the content, and to generally be able to consider themselves an exclusive partner, giving them some cultural caché. All of those placements help drive awareness — and ideally, also boost revenue.
Nonprofit orgs and/or programs want to achieve those same goals: drive awareness and boost revenue. But they don’t have the same type of budget that brands do, and can’t afford to pour money into traditional sponsorships.
Here’s where the plot twist comes in:
Instead of each athlete in these chess tournaments competing on behalf of their own organizations, what if there was a single nonprofit partner/beneficiary for the event as a whole?
And what if the brand partner — take Adidas or FanDuel, for example, or even the NFL or NBA themselves — sponsored both the tournament AND the nonprofit, kicking in some of the funding needed for them to have more visibility on-site and across any content? What might be a huge financial ask for a nonprofit is likely pocket change for a major brand. And it all evens out in the wash.
Now, with this new model, we’ve got a much more power-balanced and lucrative playing field, with major upsides for everyone involved.
Brands: Same visibility blitz and potential for an immediate revenue bump, but with even more long-term goodwill and loyalty because of their nonprofit support.
Nonprofit: Game-changing awareness through the brand’s support, and a guaranteed financial boost because every athlete is playing on their behalf. Economic predictability is critical for NPOs so they can allocate program funds, so this shift helps meet that need in a major way.
Athletes: While playing for their own charities definitely adds a competitive edge, there might be something even more interesting about a dynamic where they’re trying to one-up each other for the same organization. We’d bring the athletes in on what this looks like — does the org get more $$ depending on the winning score? Is there a 50/50 between the athletes’s charity of choice and the main partner? Are there different prizes besides just “tournament winner?” Most Flair, Best Unexpected Move, etc. that could come with additional incentives?
We don’t have all the answers, but definitely feel like there’s an opportunity here, just waiting to be explored.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE FOLLOWING
📚 Summer Reading in KC - The Royals will be giving away free reserved seating tickets to the first 100 fans through the gates that donate a new children’s book. Why aren’t more folks doing this to fill the stands?
⚽️ All-star impact - Austin FC, 4ATX Foundation, and MLS funded a new soccer pitch at Huston-Tillotson University, providing on-campus training for student-athletes and strengthening the HBCU's community impact.
💵 The ACC is cracking down on court storming this year with bigger fines, and we’ve got an idea. Since the kids in the ACC have a lot of access to courts, why not force a donation from offending schools to help create more access to local courts in their communities? 💡
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