SEPTEMBER 2017 24 | FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM VALLEY TEAMS LOVE TO GIVE BACK Jamie Killin | CONTRIBUTING WRITER ARIZONA COYOTES FOUNDATION For the Arizona Coyotes, using their platform to bring awareness to important causes in the community is as important as their service. “Our goal when we we’re doing different things or activations in the community or going out and volunteering, we want people to know about that cause more so than ‘Hey this is what we’re doing,’” said Olivia Matos, executive director of the Arizona Coyotes Foundation. “We want to do it so that people know it’s a need that’s out there in the community.” That’s not to say the organization doesn’t dedicate a lot of time to philanthropic efforts — the Coyotes host a staff volunteer outing at least once every month. “It’s genuinely an organization-wide thing,” Matos said. “Hockey players in general, the hockey community is just naturally very giving so I think for us it’s just part of the culture of what you do and for us it’s really about wanting to share the message of what the needs are in the community.” The Coyotes primarily focus on helping special section {sports giving back}

SEPTEMBER 2017 FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM | 25 ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS FOUNDATION This year, the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation passed a major milestone — it reached a total of $50 million contributed to the community. To make this kind of impact, giving back to the community is a focus of the organization’s culture that reaches everyone on its staff. “It’s always been a top priority of the organization and it’s consistent with our players, our coaching staff, our front office and our ownership to really be positive contributing members of the community,” said Derrick Hall, president and CEO of the Diamondbacks. This commitment comes from the team’s dedication to serving the fans, and the community that they play for. “It goes back to us understanding our social responsibility,” Hall said. “We feel like we’re a community asset and knowing that we can’t control what’s going on on the field result-wise we always are making an impact on the community so our state and our fans can always be proud of our engagement.” That engagement touches all parts of the community — from military and education initiatives, to fundraising for cancer awareness to their field building program and youth jersey program, which provides 50,000 jerseys and caps to youth baseball and softball leagues each year. “There’s such a wide variety of causes and there aren’t many that we turn away,” Hall said. "Through our grant process, the Grand Slam process, we want to help as many as we can.” “I think it’s that enthusiasm that as a whole unit, a whole organization, that we want to do more so we challenge ourselves to give more each and every year.” children and service men and women, but don’t limit their involvement as to encourage the participation of as many people as they can. “We’ve learned over the years that people will jump in to help out a myriad of different organizations,” Matos said. “It’s more beneficial for us to stay broad in what we support and activities we do because one week we may go to a homeless kitchen serving food and we’ll get a completely different group of people that are interested than if we go the next week to a Habitat Humanity Build.” special section {sports giving back}