Join us for S2:EP39 of the Sports Philanthropy Podcast as Natalie Hummel, sits down with our host, Roy Kessel, to discuss how Every Kid Sports is focused on creating participation opportunities for kids whose families cannot afford the fees required by many leagues.
Natalie is the Founder and Executive Director of Every Kid Sports. She is super passionate about giving all kids the same opportunities to play sports that she had growing up. Imagining a world without kids in sports drives her passion for launching Every Kid Sports higher. Natalie brings more than 25 years experience of coaching, leading, and consulting a wide-spectrum of CEOs and Senior Executives ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small entrepreneurial start-ups to her work here at KIDS in the GAME. For several years she has served on many different nonprofit organization boards, including the Working Wonders Children’s Museum.
As an athlete from childhood into her adult life, Natalie loves sports of all kinds. She played volleyball through college and played competitive and not-so-competitive softball for years. She brings leadership, technology design, compassion, and team spirit to Every Kid Sports. Natalie is the mother of two beautiful kids and wife to her amazing husband Steve. She has coached her son’s soccer team for several years, leads Girl Scout Trips with her daughter and in her free time enjoys cooking, gardening, kickboxing, mountain biking, hiking, and traveling with her family.
We fulfill our purpose and manifest our mission through a dignified, efficient, and proven process that gets kids off the sidelines and into the game. Fast.
With the financial support from individual donors, corporate partnerships, and grants from foundations focused on amplifying the lives of kids through sports, we’re a highly-effective organization, and have been for over a decade.
We’re motivated by the positive aspect of sports participation.
We’re all aware of the health challenges that come with inactivity. Yet it’s so much more than that. We’re driven by the ecosystem sports creates for increasing the physical, social, and emotional welldoing of kids. And the data speaks for itself.
Kids of active moms are 2x more likely to be active, themselves.
A survey of 400 female corporate executives revealed that 94% played a sport and 61% shared that sports contributed to their career success.
Kids who play sports have fewer emotional and behavioral problems and are less likely to do drugs or have bad body image.
HIGHLIGHTS OF NATALIE’S PODCAST
- 00:30 Background and Education
- 02:00 Walk-on career at Colorado State
- 03:30 Sports that Natalie played in High School
- 07:30 Work as a coach
- 11:00 Every Kid Sports paying for recreational sports
- 17:00 Funding from corporate partners
- 25:00 Disappearance of intramural sports
- 30:00 Natalie’s professional career
- 31:00 Her work as an executive coach
- 31:30 Launch of Every Kid Sports
- 35:00 Impact on kids and their families
- 38:00 Best way for listeners to help Every Kid Sports
- 30:00 Natalie in charge of the world of football
