EVERYDAY PEOPLE PROLANTHROPY World Class Athletes, World Class People By: Rachel Schaeffer • Photos courtesy of Prolanthropy
What happens when you combine the top athletes in professional sports with the largest and most successful provider of philanthropy management services? You get Prolanthropy, a standalone organization that merges professional athletes (hence, pro-) and managed philanthropy (hence, -lanthropy) into the go-to organization for the “good guys” in professional sports. This group knows that pro athletes don’t often have the time or knowledge to run their own charitable organizations - but they want to give back. That’s when a new team is formed – composed of the athletes and the staff at Prolanthropy. Together, they play hard to ensure that the athlete’s community comes up with a win. The athlete brings his vision to Prolanthropy, and Prolanthropy develops the idea and turns it into an executable plan. Both the athletes and the staff at Prolanthropy have big hearts. They are passionate about helping those in need in the very city where the athletes play. Prolanthropy’s all-star roster is impressive and growing. From Chicago Bears’ Charles Tillman to Houston Texans’ Owen Daniels, the folks at Prolanthropy continue to succeed in making the philanthropic dreams of many pro athletes come true. They do so with integrity, passion and a genuine respect for all involved in this win-win organization. Prolanthropy’s President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Ginn recently spoke to Positive Impact Magazine. RS: How did you get such a wonderful attitude? JG: I would love to tell you that I was born with a positive attitude, but I wasn’t. I was born to teenage parents and was immediately placed for adoption.
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We were pretty low income – my dad was an autoworker and we didn’t have a lot of things. My dad worked in a job he hated for 29 years. I was 23 when my dad died just one year away from being able to retire. He never got to enjoy those things he wanted most. It hit me that life is too short to do something you hate. RS: I’m sure your dad would be very happy to know that you love what you do. JG: Growing up, looking back, if it weren’t for those two people who loved some child more than they loved themselves, my life would’ve been drastically different. I needed someone to give me a hand up – well, frankly, a hand out. That’s one of the reasons that I spend most of my time – as do all of us who work here – working on fulfilling other peoples’ philanthropic goals and dreams, but we encourage everyone here to have their own. My role model was my dad. Family was everything to him. I didn’t need to idolize anyone on TV. I had everything I needed two doors down. RS: That’s really nice! It’s almost like your whole organization is a tribute to him. JG: In some ways, it is. It really comes back to what my dad role modeled – integrity, authenticity and a genuine love of people. That’s just who he was and how I was raised. RS: What’s your background? How did you get into this? JG: I had been on the board of directors of a very successful athletes’ charity for a number of years, and that was where the genesis of the idea came from. I thought, if we are able to do this with
one, imagine what we could do with multiple! We saw the need – there are a lot of athletes that want to give back. They didn’t, though, for a number of reasons – they were smart enough not to have a foundation that they didn’t know how to manage. Sometimes they were just scared to death of what could happen, worried about how it could be sustainable or just didn’t know what they were doing. I knew we could help. RS: What was it like to start Prolanthropy? JG: It was a journey. There wasn’t really a company doing what we did. The core of our company is the people that work here. It’s not me – if it was just me, the doors would’ve closed a long time ago. I had an idea and I’ve been blessed to have people that are talented, and are driven by both purpose and passion. They continue to amaze me with how smart and capable they are. We have great people!