Memphis Grizzlies Organizational Spotlight

The Memphis Grizzlies Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to harnessing the power and promise of sport to transform lives, through mentoring. The Foundation is focused on funding and creating youth mentoring and development programs that help students discover and meet their potential.

Our Story

We began as the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Fund in December 2001, when the Grizzlies granted $1 million to a fledgling youth sports ministry with merely 800 participants to build a state-of-the-art neighborhood center for youth in the Alcy-Ball neighborhood of Memphis.

The Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation was officially established in 2004, with the mission to assist at-risk Memphis youth through mentoring and education.

Currently, the Grizzlies Foundation aims to increase the number of youth with access to quality mentors invested in preparing them for success in college, career and life.

Overview

MENTOR Memphis Grizzlies (MMG) unites a broad range of local community organizations, businesses and civic leaders to promote, support, and advocate youth mentoring. With a focus on increasing the number and impact of mentor relationships in Memphis, the Partnership provides resources, leadership, and, in some cases, funding to more than 70 local mentoring programs serving over 4,300 young people across Memphis.

MENTOR Affiliation

MMG is an affiliate of the National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR), the unifying champion for expanding quality mentoring relationships in the United States. MMG serves as a clearinghouse for training, resources, awareness, and advocacy, providing the critical link between MENTOR’s national efforts and local organizations and programs that foster and support quality mentoring relationships.

TEAM Mentor Program

The TEAM Mentor Program is part of a network of programs operated by the Memphis Grizzlies Foundation to leverage the mentor relationship to better prepare students for success. A unique and innovative model, TEAM Mentor places three volunteer adult mentors with six students to form a TEAM; each TEAM functions as a micro-community with its own identity, culture, values and voice.

Using curriculum developed in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, the program is designed to help young people in middle school.

Make sense of their social context and how they fit into it
Create sustained relationships with adults who can provide them with knowledge, motivation and networks to succeed
Act collaboratively with others to promote a better future for themselves and their communities.

Memphis Grizzlies Scholars Program

The Memphis Grizzlies Scholars Program (MGSP), in partnership with Memphis Area Ford Dealers, is a selective high school prep program for rising 8th graders at Memphis Grizzlies Preparatory Charter School in Memphis, TN. The program’s mission is to increase the number of young men with access to academically rigorous, competitive high schools as a pathway to success in college and career.

MGSP is a one-year immersive learning experience designed to accelerate student preparedness for a competitive high school environment through academic enrichment, counseling, leadership development, and mentorship.

The Memphis Grizzlies Scholars Program has worked to connect with a diverse group of community organizations that have the expertise and resources to develop the academic and artistic talents of each scholar. Those community organizations include: