Nike Announces New Partners As Part Of $140 Million To Its Black Community Commitment For Black History Month

In 2020, sports apparel giant NIKE, Inc. committed a combined $140 million over 10 years to invest in and support organizations focused on economic empowerment, education and social justice to address racial inequality for Black Americans.

Nike’s Black Community Commitment will invest the money over the next 10 years to national and local organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Black Girls Code, Black Girl Ventures, and Black Voters Matter.

Nike will also invest an additional $2.75 million to support 44 local organizations in seven U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Boston, St. Louis and Memphis as part of its commitment.

“NIKE, Inc.’s purpose is to move the world forward, breaking barriers and building community to change the game for all,” Karol Collymore, senior director of Inclusive Community for Social & Community Impact, said in a statement. “Our Black Community Commitment embodies this belief and drives how we are showing up to advance racial equality for Black people.”

Over the past 20 months, Nike has invested $16 million to 90 local and national organizations geared toward innovative solutions to boost economic empowerment, social justice, and education innovation. The investments will work toward securing a better, stronger future by meeting communities where they live, work, and play and building frameworks that will set the stage for national change.

This month, NIKE, Inc. is announcing new investments totaling $5 million to support 10 national organizations, including four new grantees: Son of a Saint, All Star Code and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in the education innovation space, as well as the Equal Justice Initiative,

Danny Rojas, the executive director of All-Star Code, said Nike’s commitment would help thousands of children learn tech skills and training that would have otherwise been out of reach.

“Through our grant from Nike, the single-largest investment we’ve received to date, we’re able to expand and grow our network to 100,000 Black and Brown boys for whom these opportunities may have been out of reach. There’s an urgency to changing the face of tech, and we need to be part of it, because having the faces, ideas, and voices of Black and Brown leaders in the design rooms, and someday the boardrooms, is the biggest transformation that we imagine.”