Supporting and partnering with other organizations working for the advancement of women and girls is at the heart of Women Connect4Good’s mission. In honor of the Women’s Sports Foundation’s (WSF) 51st anniversary of service championing women and girls, Women Connect4Good is supporting WSF’s efforts to continue to advocate for greater awareness and compliance of Title IX, and combat inequities across the women’s sports ecosystem.
Billie Jean King founded the WSF with $5,000 to help protect and support Title IX 51 years ago. This small step launched a multifaceted organization that has since invested over $115 million to empower girls and women to play, compete, and lead. In fact, the recent surge in popularity for women’s sports probably would not have occurred without the relentless efforts of the WSF. They remain focused on Billie Jean King’s original goal, working daily to safeguard and champion Title IX.
Over the past five decades, WSF’s impressive track record includes helping create three million new high school and nearly 200,000 collegiate sport opportunities for girls and women, spearheading over 100 research reports to educate the public on the positive impact of sports participation and influence public policy, and building and funding programs that make it possible for girls and women to play and coach. This includes supporting 1,500 athletes and teams with over $3 million in grants, enabling more than 400 women to qualify for Olympic and Paralympic competition, providing childcare grants for competing women athletes, and co-founding National Girls & Women in Sports Day, which has in turn inspired over 20,000 community events across all 50 states.
Upcoming plans include strategies on many levels:
At the grassroots level—
- Empower students, parents, coaches, and others to use the power of Title IX to achieve equity in their communities
- Build the critical pipeline of women coaches at all levels—from youth to professional—through their Tara VanDerveer Fund for the Advancement of Women in Coaching and a new micro-grant program aimed at coaches at the youth level as well as K-12.
Groundbreaking research to shape policies and procedures across all sectors—
- Released in 2024, Thriving through Sport: The Transformative Impact on Girls’ Mental Health provides new evidence that underscores the critical role that sport can play in boosting positive mental health. It examines how sports participation can protect against anxiety and depression, promoting protective factors such as social connectedness and building a sense of meaning and purpose. Above all, the data in this new report is a call to action for coaches, educators, pediatricians, mental health practitioners, parents, and others. When girls participate in sports programs that elevate girls’ voices, emphasize personal growth, and foster healthy relationships, girls thrive.
- Also published in 2024, Play to Lead: The Generational Impact of Sport on Women’s Leadership highlights the skills, traits, and experiences developed through youth sports and their connection to leadership outcomes in adulthood. With survey respondents ranging in age from 20 to 80 years old, the research also provides insight into the shifting barriers to sports participation for girls and women across the generations, and the impacts of Title IX.
- Expected in 2025, WSF will release another major study examining two key focus areas: the engagement and retention of underserved girls in sport, and how to address the significant gender gap in youth coaching.
Tools to help underserved adolescent girls remain in sport—
- Provide grants through the WSF Sports 4 Life program to at least 40 organizations that promote girls playing sports throughout the country.
- Expand the use of “We Play Interactive,” a free WSF digital platform to help program leaders and coaches create an environment where their young athletes can thrive.
- Provide sports bras to keep young women playing sports through the “Athlete Ambassador Program.”
When Women Connect4Good considers supporting an organization to empower women and girls, it first looks at the potential impact and the best outcome for its investment. Creating opportunities for girls and women to play sports at any level is a win-win for everyone. As Danette Leighton, CEO of WSF, said in her recent podcast interview, she looks at the benefits of playing sports as a triangle through the lens of health, economy, and community. She said that it has massive preventive health benefits, as well as economic benefits, both by bringing games into communities where audiences and participants spend money, and by creating a more fit and healthy population. It also brings people together. Sports teams in small-town schools are often the only place where everyone comes together to have fun. Let’s not forget fun.
There is no other activity that provides so many benefits. Listen to or watch Dr. Nancy’s podcast interview with Danette Leighton and Jean Tatge of the WSF to find out more and check out the analysis of the ways playing sports educates and prepares women to be future leaders. As Dr. Nancy says, “We need to bring everyone together. Sports do that in small communities and around the globe. It’s not a luxury; it’s a launchpad for leadership, especially for women. Look at women leaders, they’ve had sports to teach them discipline, resilience, to give them confidence, and build self-esteem. These are what women need to move forward in the leadership roles to sit at the table and use their voices as big decision makers.”
Supporting girls and women in sports prepares them to be our leaders of tomorrow. There’s no greater impact than that.