>> In the Spring of 2014, Devon Still, former Penn State football player,
a friend of mine who was playing for the Cincinnati Bengals called
to tell me his daughter had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma.
Devon had participated in a charity I run called Uplifting Athletes and we raised money
for neuroblastoma previously, and he wanted to find a way
to raise money while playing in the NFL.
So we had an idea to create a performance-based fundraising campaign that became known
as Pledge It, but then it really encouraged and engaged the fans of Cincinnati to pledge
for every sack to donate to pediatric cancer.
So I met with Penn State alum who made the initial investment into the company,
we built the prototype, and Devon ran the campaign two months later that launched
on July 23rd with wild success raising millions of dollars for pediatric cancer.
Two days after Devon's campaign launched, Philip Rivers called, the starting quarterback
of the San Diego Chargers, asked if he could use it to raise money for the Ronald McDonald house.
Alex Gordon used it later that fall during the World Series.
Raised money for pediatric brain cancer.
So, you know, it's a lot of fun.
We work with athletes and teams of all ages to support really any, kind of, cause.
And it's been really fulfilling to me to see what people are able to do
when you give them a tool and empower them to make a difference.
It really has a 360 impact on the power of these partnerships between athletes and charities.
And then on the other hand we work with partners, like, Max Preps, a CBS owned company
to make this tool available for high school teams around the country to raise money
for their booster clubs and really increase participation in sport and opportunity in sport
because of the life skills that you can learn through sports
and how that can shape people's future.