Powerful Partnerships

In 2025, sports organizations are more than just teams on the field, court, or rink—they are powerful platforms for change. They can uplift communities, inspire individuals, and drive social impact.

How the NFL is Teaming Up with Big Brands to Uplift Communities

There's no bigger platform in major league sports than the Super Bowl. When the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles took the field for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on February 9, the NFL's biggest partnerships, centered around community impact, were on full display for over 100 million fans tuning in from around the world. Many of those partnerships are collaborative efforts with big-name brands that have a shared interest in supporting communities.

The Athena team has seen firsthand how these powerhouse partnerships come to life. Since 2019, we've had the privilege of being an extension of the NFL's Social Responsibility team, helping further its mission to give back by executing community events around their tentpole moments. The team has supported events attached to key initiatives such as Inspire Change and Salute to Service as well as other community programs throughout the season like the league's Inspire Change Changemaker Award.

"We've been so fortunate to be so close to the ground with so many of these community outreach and engagement efforts," says Maggy Wilkinson, CEO of Athena Global Advisors,

Industry-wide, these types of initiatives in major league sports have been invaluable to neighborhoods and cities in need. But in the past five years, we've observed a noticeable shift in the way community impact has been brought into the fold from a business perspective. Community impact teams aren't just out there doing good—they've become critical partners to their business counterparts in the sponsorship space. Community impact efforts are no longer a "nice to have," they're a "need to have."

How Major Brands Are Moving the Needle

Athena's ongoing work with the NFL's Social Responsibility team has increasingly become a cornerstone of the league's business strategy for fan and community engagement and has ultimately become a part of their DNA. This past season we were lucky to support NFL partners like Amazon, Intuit, and Truist around tentpole programming. In all our planning discussions it was immediately clear that community was also part of their DNA.

Amazon is one standout example. For the past two years, Amazon and the NFL have teamed up around TNF For Good, a charitable initiative around Thursday Night Football that aims to give back to communities across the country. In 2023, Amazon donated $100,000 in tech to Per Scholas in partnership with NFL Inspire Change. This past season, they donated $1 million in books and literacy materials to Boys & Girls Clubs across the country through a literacy program developed in partnership with the Smithsonian.

Elsewhere in major league sports, the NBA has fully integrated community impact initiatives into the organization's decision making through its foundation, NBA Cares. Founded in 2005, NBA Cares has partnered with brands like Nike, Gatorade, and State Farm to further their corporate social responsibility efforts. Nonprofits like UNICEF and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, to name a few, have benefitted from these collaborative sponsorships.

Why It Matters

While in-game and commercial visibility during the season has always been important to NFL partners, community impact has become a key business driver for many sponsors and is steadily becoming a revenue driver for the league as a result.

It's about using their shared visibility, platform, and resources to address pressing issues, provide opportunities, support those in underserved communities, and unite people across diverse backgrounds. Additionally, what we have observed in more recent years is that these efforts enhance brand loyalty, attract sponsors aligned with social responsibility, and deepen fan engagement, particularly with younger audiences.

The new means of community prioritization has created a virtuous cycle where social goodwill translates into sustained commercial success through increased viewership, merchandising, and partnerships with like-minded organizations. And that's good for everyone.