SlamDunk Significance

School and youth athletics have long provided children an opportunity to play the sports they love in an organized, competitive environment while representing their schools and communities. Athletes and coaches understand the importance and impact that playing sports has had on their lives, and they often credit sports with teaching them the life lessons that helped them become successful.

However, too often we hear horror stories about youth and school sports. Most of those situations involve adults behaving badly with respects to kids' athletics. When the adults do not handle themselves properly, it ruins the experience for kids, leading to many of them deciding to stop playing the games they love.

We must be intentional about setting up the sports experience so that ALL KIDS have an opportunity to have a positive, impactful experience. The best way to provide this type of experience is to be intentional and purposeful about training the leaders of those sports in how to create the best experience possible.

One powerful way to do this is to bring in professional speakers and leaders to teach philosophies, methodologies, skills, strategies, and tactics to help coaches, administrators, parents, and the athletes themselves create a positive sport experience.

Unfortunately, too many schools, teams, and leagues don't have the funds to bring in these types of professional trainers and speakers. Therefore, nothing changes at those places, and the impact and the outcome of the experience for kids is left to chance. Whatever happens with those teams happens by accident.

On the other end of the athletic spectrum are the athletes and coaches who have climbed to the top levels of their profession, signing lucrative contracts to play or coach their sports and getting paid to advertise products, many of which had nothing to do with them achieving what they have achieved in their sports.

We have heard many of these athletes and coaches talk about the positive impact a coach or teacher had on them when they were younger or how the sport they played helped teach them some of the most valuable lessons they have learned throughout their lives.

It is time we offer these successful athletes and coaches an opportunity to give back to their sport experience in a powerful, meaningful way that can directly impact the lives of kids who are trying to follow in their footsteps. We need to give these athletes and coaches a place where they can contribute financially to a program that will, in turn, provide schools, teams, and leagues the training to create positive, impactful experiences for kids.

SlamDunk Significance has been created to do just that—offer professional athletes and coaches a place to donate money that will then be used to teach adults how to create a positive impactful team culture that offers kids an outstanding experience.

The money donated will be used to pay for professional development opportunities at schools and leagues across the United States (and eventually the world) to help create the best cultures and sport experiences possible for kids.

SlamDunk Significance was created by me, Scott Rosberg. It is a division of his company, SlamDunk Success, LLC, which is devoted to teaching positive, character-based coaching and athletic concepts through books, videos, courses, and in-person & viral presentations. Scott is also a member of the Proactive Coaching speaking team that speaks all across the country on character-based athletics, coaching, leadership, and team-building.

I am a 40-year veteran coach (basketball, soccer, & football). I have also been an athletic administrator at the high school and middle school levels. I have had my share of professional development trainings, and I have experienced firsthand the value and impact of these types of trainings. I have also heard from countless schools and teams that say they would love to have trainings for their coaches, athletes, and parents, but they just can’t afford to do so.

Schools and communities all over are craving these kinds of training programs that can help them create the best experiences possible for kids. Unfortunately, with budgets stretched thin to squeeze out every dollar to cover the basic necessities, they often lack the financial resources to bring these programs in to help them.

If we can bridge the gap between the schools and leagues that lack funding and the professional speakers and trainers who can help them, the ultimate winners will be the kids in those programs. Professional athletes and coaches with the financial resources to donate and a desire to give back to the sports that helped them achieve their success can be that bridge.

The main challenges for the SlamDunk Significance program are funding for the initial startup of the company, connecting with professional athletes and coaches who would like to donate to the cause, and marketing the mission and the processes to recruit donors and connect schools, leagues, and communities with trainers and speakers who can provide the training.

In its initial phase, I will be handling the majority of the roles. Once we have secured enough funding, I will bring on a Marketing Director, Financial Officer, Salesperson(s), and Office Assistant. I will also need to hire an attorney and an accountant to handle the paperwork and tax preparation necessary to run the venture.

While the majority of the money donated will go towards paying the trainers and speakers their fees and their expenses, a portion of the money will go to pay the costs to run SlamDunk Significance: salaries/wages, temporary help needed to be hired at times, and the expenses necessary for the day-to-day running of the company.

SlamDunk Significance is seeking $100,000 from donors in this initial startup phase in order to handle all of the necessary business and legal obligations that a startup venture must cover.

The goal is to start funding trainings as soon as we have enough money donated to cover the cost of a speaker's fees, minus the costs associated with getting the venture up and running. Depending on the various trainers/speakers, an average cost to bring speakers to schools would be around $2,500-$5,000. If we achieve our initial goal of $100,000, approximately twenty to thirty schools/teams will be able to afford to bring in trainers.

Eventually, I plan on changing the business model for SlamDunk Significance to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. However, the costs and legal hurldes associated with that model present obstacles to getting things up and running quickly, thereby limiting the opportunities for schools, teams, and leagues to receive this much-needed training ASAP.

Therefore, we are starting with this GoFundMe campaign to create positive cash flow and to start seeing immediate postive results for kids & coaches that we can show to potential donors. We are excited that you are considering helping us out and thankful to you for any donation that you can make to help us help kids have the best athletic experience possible.

Also, if you know of anyone else who would be interested in contributing to this worthy cause, or if you know of any professional athletes or coaches who would like to give back to their sport experience in a meaningful way, please alert them to this campaign.

Thank You!