About - Pickleball for Good Fund

THE FUTURE WE ENVISION THROUGH PICKLEBALL

mission

Pickleball for Good Fund™ is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the power of pickleball to underchampioned communities through philanthropy, partnerships, and voluntarism, while promoting environmental sustainability.

Vision

Pickleball is leading the way to changing lives and the health of our planet.

Enthusiasts who are part of our passionate pickleball community are joining our movement to leverage this sport’s roots in inclusivity, accessibility, diversity…and fun!

Why pickleball

In 1965, the founders of pickleball, Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum, created the game to offer a fun activity for their families during their summer vacation. From its inception, pickleball was created to include all ages and abilities.

Decades later, pickleball has become the fastest growing sport in the United States and has caught on internationally as well. Notwithstanding this beloved sport’s phenomenal popularity, the pickleball ecosystem has yet to fully recognize or maximize its potential as a positive force for meaningful social, health, economic, and environmental change like other sports.

Pickleball for Good Fund™ is harnessing the popularity and power of this sport by creating a network of donors, volunteers, and partners to level the playing field in communities who have the least access to and most to gain from participating—on and off the court.

Mending the Gaps in Pickleball

Despite evidence that the popularity of pickleball is in part because it’s an easier sport to start playing and the growing availability of free public courts and school-based programs, participation gaps exist. Recent research points to five primary factors why certain populations lack access to the sport:

Economic
Racial
Geographic
Gender
Mental and Physical
Disability

Pickleball for Good Fund™ aims to help close these and other gaps by awarding grants, supporting pickleball charity events, donating gear, and building a diverse volunteer network of pickleball ambassadors and EcoChampions.

Meet The Team

Ready to Join Our Movement?

By becoming a Pickleball for Good Fund GameChanger™, you are joining a movement to mobilize resources to help diverse communities off the sidelines and into the game of life and pickleball. We believe it will take all of us in the pickleball world to do our part. To us, “pickleball for all” isn’t simply a slogan. It’s our mission—one player, one grant, one donor, one sponsor, one volunteer at a time.

And that’s a big dill.

How we S.E.R.V.E.

A serve in pickleball begins every point. Likewise, our starting point as an organization is reflected in these core values and ground every facet of our mission, grantmaking, partnerships, and operations:

Sustainability Excellence Respect Voluntarism Equity

Sustainability

Social, human, economic, and environmental sustainability creates thriving players, programs, communities, countries, and our planet.

Excellence

The true measure of excellence is doing and being your best. All of us are winners and gamechangers every time we seek to play, learn, grow, connect, have fun, and make a difference.

Respect

Everyone is valued and valuable simply for showing up. Pickleball unifies and equalizes while bringing forth each person’s inherent uniqueness and abilities.

Voluntarism

Volunteers are the backbone of our mission—by launching new programs, lining courts, teaching new players, or staffing check-in at a local charity tournament. The gift of time can be the greatest gift to both the receiver and you!

Equity

We seek to level the playing field through locally-led initiatives that challenge the root causes of lack of access to pickleball and to offer solutions that endure.

Our Game Plan

Pickleball for Good Fund GameChangers™ are committed to serving our mission, vision, and values. They are advocates for underchampioned communities and for how the power of pickleball can best unite, develop, and connect diverse peoples to themselves and each other, while protecting our shared planet.

Through philanthropic partnerships—with individuals, businesses, private and public foundations, nonprofits, and local/state/federal government—we award grants to Pickleball for Good Fund GameChangers™ around the country who seek to build accessible places to play, volunteer networks, and culturally inclusive and adaptive programs. We also provide local and national charity pickleball event organizers with:

challenge and matching funds
donated gear
potential sponsors
product and service vendors, and
ball and gear recycling resources.

A Pickleball for Good Fund GameChanger™
is a creator of possibility. You don’t just play the game,
you change it.