Up2Us Sports, in partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF), launched the seventh year of the LADF Field Champions program in 2025 — training coaches to use sports as a vehicle for mental wellness, gender equity, social justice, and economic mobility in underserved communities.
Since 2019, this AmeriCorps-funded program (one of several that Up2Us Sports facilitates) has trained over 3,900 coaches who have impacted nearly 100,000 young people. And here's the TL;DR for all the data-lovers out there: every $1 invested in sports-based programs generated $2.74 in social benefits.
The model:
Team foundation funding + national nonprofit infrastructure + nonpartisan federal agency reach = scalable, sustainable coaching infrastructure with measurable ROI.*
* Perhaps the most interesting piece of this is that no traditional “consumer brand” was involved. Each partner recognized its role as both “brand” and “impact agent,” and together, they were able to leverage their strengths, resources, and audiences to make a difference.
How it works:
In 2019, the partnership was initially announced as a three-year regional agreement — the first of its kind for Up2Us Sports. The LADF would provide funding (including from their 2022 All-Star legacy grants) and access to their youth programs, while Up2Us Sports would bring the coaching infrastructure and training expertise. Together, they created Field Champions: a program where AmeriCorps members can serve as paid coach-mentors for one year, supporting young athletes in the Dodgers’ Dreamteam youth baseball network.
What makes this training partnership different, and has allowed it to grow exponentially over the last seven years, is its focus on helping both the kids and the coaches develop life skills, not just baseball skills. Before the Field Champions coaches ever talk to a team, they go through 30+ hours of Up2Us training in trauma-informed approaches and youth development.
"Our coaches play a critical role in helping youth in our communities heal and thrive," said Nichol Whiteman, LADF CEO.
The training also includes the "Living Jackie's Nine" playbook — based on Jackie Robinson's nine values — which teaches young athletes about courage, teamwork, and determination both on and off the field.
Why it matters:
Many brand + team partnerships, even the social-impact ones, focus on one-off events like charity games, donation drives, photo ops, or single-season efforts.
Field Champions, however, is all about creating a long-term infrastructure built on a shared vision, as well as each collaborator’s unique strengths.
There’s very little that could be improved here, but we did have an idea specifically tied to our NILi: NIL for Impact work.
Imagine if LADF Field Champions, as a “brand” itself, sponsored a team of college baseball and softball players on the program’s behalf. The group of student-athletes, who would be selected based on their ties to the LA area, could engage in a modified version of the 30+ hour training, and be placed as “visiting coaches” on local teams according to their season’s schedule. Because the existing model already pays its participants, the student athletes would receive compensation, too, without any additional funding needed.
An NILi partnership like this would unlock incredible new audiences for AmeriCorps, Up2Us, and the LADF, creating a regenerative cycle that attracts more fans, more members, and more awareness for the effort as a whole.
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Indeed, The LeBron James Family Foundation, and UNINTERRUPTED champion skills-first hiring and equitable career opportunities for non-traditional talent
Coming soon:
Comcast and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation empower Ezra Frech’s nonprofit, Angel City Sports, to expand adaptive sports access in Southern California
Dexcom builds an NIL network and mentorship platform for young athletes with Type 1 Diabetes