Angel City Football Club Launches the Angel City Impact Fund

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NWSL Angel City FC

Angel City Football Club Launches the Angel City Impact Fund

July 29, 2024 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release


LOS ANGELES - Angel City Football Club (ACFC) today announced the launch of the "Angel City Impact Fund," the philanthropic arm of the LA-based women's professional soccer team. With a mission deeply rooted in leveraging the combined power of sports and service, the Angel City Impact Fund aims to create a more equitable world for all.

The non-profit's inaugural initiative will be expanding ACFC's community partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks with the goal of overcoming the significant challenges young girls and gender-expansive youth face in the soccer ecosystem across the region. Over the next two years, the planned initiatives will collectively serve over 7,000 youth annually across Los Angeles, providing no-cost and low-cost access to soccer, leadership training, and a robust coaching pipeline.

Community Impact Commitment from ACFC

Since its inception, ACFC's innovative sponsorship model has reallocated 10% of all sponsorship revenue to community initiatives and programs. This has put more than $3.5 million directly into the Los Angeles community, impacting nearly 160,000 Angelenos, and garnering an ESPY Award for Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year in 2024.

In establishing its own non-profit arm, ACFC will ambitiously expand the scope of its impact through a collective giving model that invites the community to inform and invest in flagship initiatives.

"Our sponsorship model has been groundbreaking and in just three years, has established the club's fierce commitment to making impact a pillar of our identity," said ACFC Head of Community and Marketing Catherine Dávila. "Now, with the launch of our own non-profit, we can amplify these efforts, empowering ACFC and our community to collectively expand our impact and drive systemic change in sports."

The initiative will tackle the following critical issues:

The notable lack of representation among coaches, particularly those identifying as BIPOC, female, or gender expansive.

Narrow and inconsistent coaching standards.

The prohibitive participation costs that disproportionately affect families in under-resourced communities.

The absence of dedicated spaces and programs designed explicitly for girls and gender expansive youth.

An overemphasis on elite-level training at the expense of broader participation and engagement.

These challenges contribute to girls and gender expansive youth quitting sports at twice the rate of boys. The nonprofit's efforts are designed to dismantle these barriers, ensuring girls, women, and gender expansive individuals enjoy the lifelong benefits of soccer.

In collaboration with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, Angel City has already made significant strides to increase programming that serves high school-aged girls and gender expansive youth, evolving it from a single team in 2022 to 22 teams in 2024, serving over 500 participants. This growth is just the beginning.

"The City is thrilled to expand our partnership with ACFC," said Jimmy Kim, General Manager of the Department of Recreation and Parks. "This partnership represents a significant milestone forward toward our shared commitment to gender equity, and further builds on the City's Girls Play LA Program which has been dedicated to breaking down barriers for girls in sports for the last 25 years."

Additional Growth:

In the Angel City Impact Fund's first two years, flagship initiatives will collectively serve over 14,000 youth across Los Angeles, providing no-cost and low-cost access to soccer, leadership training, and a robust coaching pipeline.

Highlights:

2024: Launch of expanded no-cost soccer programming for girls and gender-expansive youth, ages 5-17, across more than 100 Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks sites, including seasonal programs, camps, and clinics.

2025: Expansion of the ACFC Coach Network to recruit, train, and hire a minimum of 100 coaches who are representative of the communities in which they're working.

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