Sports 4 Life Grants

The Sports 4 Life Grants, co-founded by the Women’s Sports Foundation and ESPN, aim to promote the health and development of girls in underserved communities. This initiative focuses on increasing participation and retention rates of Black, Hispanic, and Native American girls in sports through funding for coaching, equipment, and facilities. By fostering leadership and self-esteem, the program seeks to empower young girls and provide them with lifelong benefits from sports participation.

Sports 4 Life Partner Funding Cycle
Sports 4 Life offers community funding and seeks to effect sustainable improvement to the overall health and development of girls in these communities through grant making, leadership training and capacity-building efforts.
Sports 4 Life, cofounded by the Women’s Sports Foundation and ESPN in 2014, was created based on the knowledge that while sports participation offers tremendous life-long benefits – from improved physical health and self-esteem, to better grades in school and enhanced leadership skills – young girls do not have equal access to play. For example, African-American girls are less likely to be current players (28.3%) and most likely to have never played sports (54.5%) compared to other groups examined (Zarrett, Veliz, & Sabo, 2020). Additionally, girls of color are shortchanged in the public-school setting where they have far more limited opportunity to participate in physical activity/sports than boys of color and white peers (NWLC, 2015).
The program seeks to address the disparities in access to sports.
2026 funding is made possible by co-founding partner ESPN.
Grant Allocation
Funding can be used for coaching, curriculum, equipment, uniforms, transportation, facility rental, tournaments and/or team-building activities, all while fostering the Sports 4 Life benefits: leadership, self-esteem, confidence and perseverance.
Together, the Women’s Sports Foundation and its partners will award $10,000 grants in 2026.

Eligibility

In general, the applicant should be a non-profit school, parks and recreation department, non-profit organization or an amateur sports league. Eligible applicants must demonstrate that their program meets the following criteria:Serves predominately Black, African-American, Hispanic and/or Native American girls (representing more than 70% of the enrolled program participants)Has the ability to deliver structured, developmental sports programming to girls ages 11 to 18 through experienced and committed leadershipHas the ability to provide ongoing funding to implement sports programming after the life of the funding has expiredComplies with all of the applicable Federal Civil Rights laws, including the requirements pertaining to developing and submitting an Equal Employment Opportunity Plan (EEOP), reporting Findings of Discrimination, and providing language services to Limited English Proficiency (LEP) personsSports 4 Life Partners that have received prior funding should demonstrate how funding has resulted in the growth of girls participating in sports. Any subsequent funding is contingent upon receipt of a satisfactory final and/or mid-term report.

Ineligibility

Sports 4 Life Partners that have received three years of consecutive funding will not be invited to apply until 2027.