The Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy

For over a decade, the Sports Philanthropy Project (SPP) has supported the growth of philanthropy through professional sports and has encouraged excellence in the field. In 2005, SPP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established the Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy to acknowledge professional sports organizations and individual sports philanthropies that have made an exceptional effort in deploying all their unique resources toward a mission that serves and improves the lives of others. Like Steve Patterson, these philanthropies support a vision that is bigger than they are.

Since 2005, an impressive list of past champions provided shining examples and included: the Philadelphia Eagles Youth Partnership (2005), the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation (2006), the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation (2007), The Moyer Foundation (2007), the San Francisco Giants Community Fund (2008), the Steve Nash Foundation (2008), the Marvin Lewis Community Fund (2009), the Red Sox Foundation (2009), The U.S. Soccer Foundation (2010) and the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation (2010).

Steve taught us not to wait for excellence to reveal itself, but to seek it out and inspire it in the hearts and souls of others. To him, that was the essence of coaching. We offered this award to celebrate Steve's life and to continue his legacy.

Beginning in 2010, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation administered The Steve Patterson award in-house. Please refer to www.stevepattersonaward.org for further information. SPP would like personally to extend our appreciation to all winners and participants over the award's five year creation. It has been a privilege to come to know and to share the depth and the passion of all or your philanthropic work. A special thanks to RWJF for having supported the work of the award over this time. And, of course, a very special and lasting thanks to Carlette and to Steve Patterson.

WATCH OUR VIDEO and learn more about the history of the award and its past winners.

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