Athletes for Hope is a nonprofit organization that works to educate professional athletes about philanthropy, connect them with charitable causes, recognize these efforts and inspire others to get involved in the community. AFH emphasizes that its focus is on the athlete's time and not their money.

The CEO of Athletes for Hope is Ivan Blumberg, a former sports agent who began his career at Proserv, Inc. in 1983. While at Proserv, Ivan represented many athletes including Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Arthur Ashe and Yannick Noah. After ProServ was acquired by SFX/Clear Channel, Ivan became the President of Athlete Representation and managed the representation of over 750 athletes in nine sports. Ivan has also served as a senior consultant to SFX Sports where he managed their relationship with Andre Agassi. In addition to leading Athletes for Hope, Ivan also serves on the Board of the Andre Agassi Foundation and is both a board member and the volunteer Vice-Chairman of Hope and a Home, a charitable organization in the District of Columbia for at-risk families. He also runs a camp at his home in Maryland each summer for underprivileged inner-city children.

History

Athletes for Hope was founded in 2006 by Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong

Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...

, Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi

Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...

, Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...

, Warrick Dunn

Warrick Dunn

Warrick De'Mon Dunn is a former American football running back, and current minority owner of the Atlanta Falcons. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 12th overall in the 1997 NFL Draft, after playing college football at Florida State...

, Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon

Jeffery Michael "Jeff" Gordon is a professional NASCAR driver. He is the driver of the #24 Drive to End Hunger/DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet Impala. He is a four-time Sprint Cup Series champion and a three-time Daytona 500 winner. He is third on the all-time wins list, with 85 career wins, and has the...

, Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm

Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm is a retired American soccer player. Hamm played many years as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team and was a founding member of the Washington Freedom. Hamm has scored more international goals in her career than any other player, male or female,...

, Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk

Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk , nicknamed "The Birdman" is an American retired professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk gained significant fame for completing the first 900 as well as his licensed video game titles distributed by Activision...

, Andrea Jaeger

Andrea Jaeger

Andrea Jaeger is a former World No. 2 professional tennis player from the United States whose brief but highly successful tennis career ended prematurely due to major shoulder injuries. Jaeger reached the singles final of Wimbledon in 1983 and the French Open in 1982...

, Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jacqueline "Jackie" Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those four different events...

, Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux, OC, CQ is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He is acknowledged to be one of the best players of all time. He played 17 seasons as a forward for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League between 1984 and 2006...

, Alonzo Mourning

Alonzo Mourning

Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat....

, and Cal Ripken, Jr.

Cal Ripken, Jr.

Calvin Edwin "Cal" Ripken, Jr. , nicknamed "Iron Man", is a former Major League Baseball shortstop and third baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Baltimore Orioles ....

 All of the founding athletes had already established their own foundations and created Athletes for Hope to support athletes who share their desire to help others.

Agassi, Armstrong and Hamm, along with the leaders of their respective foundations, began to discuss the creation of Athletes for Hope in 2005. These discussions began an 18 month process of developing an organization that looks to facilitate the involvement of more professional athletes with philanthropic and charitable organizations.

On April 25, 2007, the founding athletes launched Athletes for Hope on Good Morning America

Good Morning America

Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...

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Grants

In 2010, Athletes for Hope was awarded a $2 million grant by Kellogg Foundation. This grant will be used to fund two new programs: Causeway and Good Game. Causeway will educate professional and Olympic athletes as well as their advisors on philanthropic best practices and will serve as a resource throughout the athlete's philanthropic journey. Causeway will also provide alternatives to forming a foundation and will teach best practices to athletes with established foundations.

Good Game is a program that has been created for recreational athletes aged 8-18. It will use sports drills to show how the same mindset and skills used in athletic competition can be translated to making a positive impact in the community.