Steve Nash Foundation Honored for Philanthropy

The Sports Philanthropy Project (SPP) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (AWJF) announced The Steve Nash Foundation received the 2008 Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy.

Steve Nash will be honored in-game during the 2008-09 Phoenix Suns season. The MLB’s San Francisco Giants Community Fund was also a recipient. The awards were presented at the Associated Press Sports Editors’ national convention in Minneapolis.

Steve Nash founded The Steve Nash Foundation in 2001, and focuses its resources on the needs of underserved children in Arizona, British Columbia and Paraguay. Projects have included equipping a neonatal intensive care ward in Paraguay that provides basic necessities to infants and their families as well as developing an early childhood education center of excellence that will improve the quality of education for young kids in Arizona.

For more information on The Steve Nash Foundation, please visit www.stevenash.org.

The Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy is given annually to a professional sports organization and/or individual athlete philanthropy that demonstrate excellence and leadership in philanthropy. The award was established in 2005 by the Sports Philanthropy Project and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in memory of Steve Patterson, former UCLA basketball star, NBA player and college coach.

The award includes a $5,000 honorarium to advance the work of each winning organization. Past award recipients have included the Philadelphia Eagles Youth Partnership (2005), Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation (2006), Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation (2007) and The Moyer Foundation (2007). More information is available online at www.sportsphilanthropy.com/patterson.