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2005 Women's Sports Foundation Highlights

"I would like to see my children grow up in an atmosphere of appreciation for sports participation, for boys and girls equally....The Women's Sports Foundation is working every day to ensure this will be the reality for all of our kids."
-Geena Davis, archer, actor, mother and Women's Sports Foundation Trustee

• Former Foundation president and gender equity expert attorney Nancy Hogshead-Makar wrote the amicus brief for the successful Supreme Court case Jackson v. Birmingham on behalf of the Foundation. This victory in the courts now allows protection for any whistleblower who raises a gender equity issue in his or her workplace.
  
• The Foundation convened a Save Title IX Coalition of national organizations to work on multiple legislative, legal and political strategies to get the Department of Education's March 2005 “clarification” loophole rescinded. This interpretation threatened to roll back the enormous progress that Title IX has made by eliminating the current requirement that schools have to make the same effort to recruit female athletes as they do to recruit male athletes.
  
• Under the leadership of Julie Foudy, the Foundation's new Public Policy Officer, the Foundation continued to work with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to address sex, race and disability discrimination within open amateur sports.
  
• The Foundation worked with the USOC and international women's sports organizations to encourage the International Olympic Committee to reverse its decision to eliminate women's softball effective in 2012 and to add women's boxing, canoe, ski jumping and Nordic combined as new Olympic sports as early as possible.

• The Foundation distributed more than $700,000 in cash grants and offered capacity-building and other assistance to 1,300 organizations to provide new sports and physical activity participation opportunities for thousands of girls and women nationwide who most needed our help.
  
• The Boston Girls' Sports and Physical Activity Project completed its second year of grant making to organizations and continued researching the challenges of keeping urban girls active.
  
• Gatorade Ambassador Grants ($50,000) rewarded high school teams and individuals for getting younger girls active, and RYKÄ Fitness Grants ($50,000) helped older women use fitness to address life challenges.

• The Foundation's GoGirlGo! curriculum provides educational materials that enable adolescent girls and coaches and program leaders to discuss smoking, drinking, body image, nutrition and other critical issues confronting them. This Foundation program was the winner of a 2004 National Health Information Gold Award and, thanks to our lead funder, was delivered free to 333,000 girls in 2005.
  
• Through national and local outreach events, more than two million pieces of educational materials that teach and inspire healthy decision-making for girls and their parents, as well as women of all ages were distributed.
  
• GoGirlGo! Atlanta, the first GoGirlGo! community program, was launched in 2004 with the assistance of our grant-making partner, The Atlanta Women's Foundation. In its first year, ending in November of 2005, the Foundation provided assistance to 305 organizations serving 185,000 girls and awarded $166,666 in grants to 14 girl-serving organizations—creating 2,073 new participation opportunities—and delivered the GoGirlGo! curriculum to 180 organizations running programs reaching 9,350 girls.
  
• GoGirlGo! Chicago was launched in February of 2005 with the help of grant-making partner, The Chicago Foundation for Women, and with lessons learned in Atlanta, delivered stronger results. The Foundation assisted 325 girl-serving organizations serving 250,000 girls and awarded $163,810 in grants to 15 girl-serving organizations—creating more than 3,600 new participation opportunities—and delivered the GoGirlGo! curriculum to 202 organizations running programs reaching 11,448 girls.
  
• The GoGirlGo! Network was launched, providing a Web-based community where leaders of girl-serving organizations, volunteers, coaches, girls and parents (in Atlanta, Chicago and Boston) convene online to find resources for physical activity and sports involvement.
  
• The It Takes a Team! (ITAT) program disseminated educational information and assistance to athletic administrators, coaches, parents and athletes on how to create respectful learning environments and deal with issues related to gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender players. The ITAT kit was delivered to 700 NCAA member institutions as part of the NCAA CHAMPS Life Skills curriculum. Test results of students and administrators before and after they watched the DVD demonstrated a positive shift in all attitudes around gays and lesbians in sports. The Foundation assembled a team of facilitators to assist institutions (athletic departments and other departments) in implementing the curriculum within their standard diversity training tools.

• The 26th Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner honored the Sportswomen of the Year as well as other award winners.
  
• The inaugural Ladies First Celebrity Golf Outing was held in California.
  
• The Foundation was represented at events across the country, including National Girls and Women in Sports Day Celebrations, the national AAPHERD Convention, WBCA Convention and the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championships to name some highlights.
  
• The Annual Sports Philanthropy Conference featured a presentation on the Foundation's GoGirlGo! curriculum.

• Women's Sports Foundation received the Outstanding Foundation Award from OverTime Magazine.
  
• Donna Lopiano was awarded the International Olympic Committee's highest award as the Woman of the Americas.