Grow the Game Project: The Philippines

Supporting the Most Passionate Hoops Community on Earth

The Philippines is a basketball country.

Whether it's young players playing in any conditions, hoopers intensely going at each other barefoot or in flip-flops (or "tsinelas"), or the insane turnouts for anything basketball, the nation is enamored with the game.

Over 40 million Filipinos play basketball, and around 50% of the population are passionate basketball fans (and about 81% in cities - which explains why the Philippines ranks second behind the USA in NBA following).

In this project, it was our mission to give back to a community that has given so much to the game.

Will this change the entire landscape of the community in such a large country? No. We're realistic about that.

But what we hope it's able to do is add fuel to an already massive fire, and begin a domino effect that will build more role models, expose the culture to the world, and show young athletes what can be done achieved the game and how many opportunities exist.

How to support:

Our Initiative:

Court Upgrades & Tournament

This included:

• Laying concrete and painting the Bridge Court with a design that honors the deep Filipino hoops history, in order to provide a more reliable, intriguing center for young players in inner-city Manila to participate in basketball.
• Painting a second court (covered from sun and rain) in the Barangay Pineda area.
• Hosting a 3x3 tournament - a free event that brought out athletes and fans from all over the city to enjoy basketball and spark the hoops community.
• A kickoff "party" at the Bridge Court to raise awareness and momentum behind the brand new court.
• Fully immersing in the community for a week to learn from the youth and adults of the neighborhood, inspire young athletes, and share perspectives.
• Producing a variety of content across social media platforms to spotlight the basketball culture in Pineda, and in the Philippines as a whole.
• All paid vendors (painters, concrete, merchandise, event staff, and more) were to Manila-based, as we looked to keep it in the community and support local professionals.

What's Next?!

1) Sustainability

The completion of the court is not an ending point, but rather the beginning of a hoops haven that needs nurturing and continued support to breed young basketball players and humans as intended!

Amount required for sustainability: $USD 4,500/year

2) Athlete Scholarships

Investing in one athlete can oftentimes double as an investment in an entire hoops community. The third part of our initiative includes sponsoring 1-2 young, dedicated Filipino hoopers to travel to Miami for two weeks in summer 2024 for our annual Grow the Game Week. Here, they'll train with other sponsored hoopers around the world, build a family, experience new perspectives and cultures, and head back to their community a well-equipped leader and role model for their hoops culture. Check out the Grow the Game Week experience here!

Target funding for two scholarships: $USD 5,000 (including all flights and expenses)

What we raised:

We looked to raise $15,000 to ensure all of our aspirations (court builds, tournament, full-length documentary, and the athlete scholarships) were done correctly and truly work to Grow the Game of basketball in the Philippines! At the time of completion, we raised roughly $8,000 across donation channels.

The team:

All in For Sport

A funding platform for community-led sports projects.We're starting a new public goods funding initiative to support projects that advance inclusion and empowerment through sport. Our Mission: Empowering sports communities with innovative fundraising tools. We're on a mission to build citizen-owned fundraising tools for communities worldwide.

Krause House

Krause House is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governed by a community of fans, basketball lovers and purists. Together, we will write the consensus rules that will bring the first fan-governed team to the NBA. The collective of ambitious contributors whose goal is to own an NBA team describes the underlying mission of DAOs in its purest form: Difficult by one, achievable by many.

By Any Means Basketball

BAM is a Miami-based training and basketball development organization led by Coleman Ayers, with the intent to bring top-tier basketball coaching and other resources to hoopers all around the world. With a following over 500k worldwide (with the second highest following from the Philippines, right after the USA), By Any Means will be producing and sharing the project's documentary.