Every year during the NCAA\u2019s College Basketball Tournament \u2014 more fondly known as March Madness \u2014 a \u201cCinderella\u201d story emerges, and an underdog team wins our hearts and gets a chance to play in the big dance.<\/p>\n
One of the most exciting Cinderella stories in the Final Four happened in 2011, when Butler University fought its way back for a second appearance in two years, only to lose again. Devastated by the loss\u00a0but inspired by the way the state had come together to rally behind the Bulldogs, Butler alum Matt McIntyre and his friend Matt Duncan created what would become Indianapolis-based nonprofit Brackets for Good.<\/p>\n
The organization has been building on that enthusiasm to create support and awareness for social causes across the country since its first online tournament in 2012.\u00a0It has helped raise nearly $6.3 million for hundreds of nonprofits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t always know about the good work that\u2019s happening in our community,\u201d says Reid McDowell, partnerships and marketing director for Brackets for Good. \u201cAnd we thought it was really powerful the way that sport can bring people together and get people excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every March, nonprofits register for bracket-style tournaments on the Brackets for Good website based on their location. Modeled after the real March Madness, the organizations are paired up in friendly 64-team matchups based on size and fundraising capacity. Individual donors can learn about and donate to score points to help their favorite charity advance in the tournament. A $1 donation equals one point. The organization with the most points when the round ends advances, and the organization that advances through the entire bracket tournament wins an additional grant.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, McDowell, notes, individuals learn about and support world-changing organizations. And nonprofits play for free and keep all funds raised no matter how far they advance.<\/p>\n
One such charity participating for the first time in this year\u2019s tournament is PeacePlayers International, which is devoted to using the power of sport to unite, educate, and inspire young people to create peace. Through basketball programming and leadership development, the organization works to heal communities in conflict, having addressed areas such as South Africa, Cyprus,\u00a0and the Middle East. So far, PeacePlayers has trained 2,000 coaches and involved 75,000 youth.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., PeacePlayers has been working in partnership with Nike, focusing on promoting safe communities by creating positive interactions between law enforcement and the people they serve in cities like Baltimore and Detroit. In many cases, police officers are serving as basketball coaches to rebuild or repair trust and change perceptions on both sides.<\/p>\n
But a big piece of their work involves building trust with other local partner organizations and potential new donors, too. That\u2019s where Brackets for Good comes in, especially in March, when the focus is already on basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we historically have done really well is build trust and relationships by getting the right local people involved,\u201d says Mandy Murphy, head of growth and strategy at PeacePlayers. \u201cWe don’t want to just come in and take a big photo op and leave. We want to help create systemic change over time \u2014 and sometimes that can feel like a painfully long fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say fun can\u2019t be had along the way. PeacePlayers has already advanced to the \u201cSupported 16\u201d round, engaging in what Murphy calls \u201cfriendly competition\u201d with other local nonprofits to help raise awareness by engaging in light-hearted social media banter on one another\u2019s campaigns.<\/p>\n
McDowell says the engagement is working, particularly with the coveted millennial audience: 36% of Brackets for Good donors are millennials, and nearly 31% are first-time donors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a win-win for everyone,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is an opportunity for nonprofits to come together in a really fun way. Brackets for Good works because 60% of the nonprofits in the community are all joining in on the same fundraising campaign. They\u2019re literally fundraising for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Share image courtesy of Brackets for Good.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every year during the NCAA\u2019s College Basketball Tournament \u2014 more fondly known as March Madness \u2014 a \u201cCinderella\u201d story emerges, and an underdog team wins our hearts and gets a chance to play in the big dance. One of the most exciting Cinderella stories in the Final Four happened in 2011, when Butler University fought…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}