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Congratulations, OL Reign fans – your tweets in support of Black Future Co-Op Fund helped the organization win a $20,000 award from Nationwide as part of the NWSL’s first Nationwide Community Impact Award. The winner was revealed in a ceremony at Lynn Family Stadium at halftime of the NWSL Championship game.
“OL Reign and the Black Future Co-op Fund are a winning partnership to confront anti-Blackness and promote a liberated future for Black Washingtonians,” said T’wina Nobles, one of the co-founders of the Black Future Co-Op Fund and Washington state senator. “Our gratitude to the National Women’s Soccer League and Nationwide for this Community Impact Award.”
The initiative, which was first announced in September, had each team in the league partner with a local community partner or service project, who were celebrated at a home game that month and received a small initial grant of $2,500 to help further their mission. Part of the initiative also involved a team-led service project with their community partner, with a designated player ambassador to champion the effort. Midfielder Dani Weatherholt served as OL Reign’s player ambassador for their project.
Fan tweets were one part of the final voting process to select the award winner, with a panel of four judges also reviewing the entries to select the overall winner.
With the Black Future Co-Op Fund winning the fan vote on social media, Nationwide doubled their initial donation total to $5,000. This was provided on top of the overall prize of $20,000 that was announced today.
BECAUSE OF YOU @OLReign fans, Nationwide and the @NWSL will DOUBLE the grant total ($5k!) that the @BlackFutureWA will receive as winners of the #NationwideImpactAward FAN VOTE. CONGRATULATIONS! pic.twitter.com/Fuva6bJcfX
— Nationwide (@Nationwide) November 9, 2021
OL Reign have partnered with Black Future Co-Op Fund since 2020, when they were the Reign’s 2020 Fall Series partner, and they feature prominently on the front of this year’s Reign jerseys.
The Fund is Washington’s first cooperative philanthropy by and for Black Washingtonians, with a mission is to ignite Black generational health, wealth, and well-being across the state. The Black Future Co-op Fund collects and distributes funds to Black-led organizations, such as Greentrike, which provides critical inclusive and expanded programming to students across Tacoma.