History

We began as the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Fund in December 2001, when the Grizzlies made a very bold decision: Grant $1 million to a fledgling youth sports ministry with merely 800 participants, to build a state-of-the-art neighborhood center for the youth in the Alcy-Ball neighborhood of Memphis. Today, that ministry has since received over $8 million to expand their program to eleven sites (and growing) serving over 15,000 youth in Shelby County.

To further focus on serving at-risk Memphis youth and organizations who serve them, the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation was officially established in 2004.

In 2007, the TEAM UP Youth Mentoring Initiative was launched to expand mentoring throughout the Greater Memphis area. Emphasis is placed on the recruitment and retention of volunteer mentors. In 2008, the Memphis Mentoring Partnership, an affiliate of MENTOR/ The National Mentoring Partnership, became part of the Grizzlies Foundation and is now known as the Grizzlies Mentoring Alliance (GMA). The GMA includes agencies to which the Grizzlies Foundation refers prospective mentors and operate mentoring programs with the youth they serve.

The Grizzlies Foundation is led by the ownership group of the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team.

www.teamupmemphis.org