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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
Inside Sportable: How Adaptive Sports Build Community, Confidence, and Competition in Richmond
The conversation starts with a simple premise: when access is designed into sports, athletes don’t just participate—they excel. We sit down with Sportable’s Director of Strategic Partnerships to unpack how a small Richmond nonprofit grew from four staff to sixteen, expanded to 18+ adaptive sports, and hosted back‑to‑back National Wheelchair Basketball Association championships, all while keeping independence at the center of every program. The result is a ground‑level view of what it takes to build pathways from first‑time participants to elite competitors without losing the social heartbeat that keeps people coming back.
We explore how new programs come to life—like adaptive golf—by aligning athlete interest with community partners such as First Tee Greater Richmond, VSGA, and indoor golf facilities that make year‑round training possible. You’ll hear the nuts and bolts of adaptations that unlock performance: racing chairs vs handcycles, vertical carts that enable a full swing, and the coaching frameworks that emphasize independence over dependency. We also talk logistics and scale: traveling seasons for wheelchair basketball and rugby, Richmond Region Tourism’s role in landing national events, and the Henrico Sports & Event Center’s accessibility features that set a new bar for hosting. Along the way, we hit on why demand is rising—more Paralympic coverage, stronger DEI commitments, and social media that finally shows adaptive sport at full speed.
Volunteers and sponsors are the force multipliers. From one‑to‑one cycling support on the Capital Trail to tournament clock crews and hospitality, consistent hands make programs safer and more sustainable. Fundraising blends program sponsorships with a citywide tailgate drive that turns stories into support and unrestricted dollars into gear, staffing, and transport. Through it all, we keep returning to a core idea: equitable experiences. If pro events have hydration partners, branding, and seamless operations, then adaptive events should, too—and Sportable is building that standard in RVA.
Want to get involved, play, or partner? Visit sportable.org and follow @SportableRVA. If this story moved you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more unfiltered entrepreneur and nonprofit spotlights, and leave a review so others can find the show.
www.themrpreneur.com
Welcome to the You Can't Afford Me podcast, where we skip the fluff and dive straight into the ground. Real entrepreneurs, real struggle, and the unfiltered journey behind the death. Let's get into it. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me Podcast. This is another nonprofit spotlight episode for us. This brand, I've since I've lived in Richmond, I've seen this brand everywhere. I've actually been wanting to sit down and speak with someone from the organization for quite some time. It just seems like they always have something cooking. They have a lot of big events that go on here in the Richmond, uh, Virginia area. So today we have for us from Sportable today. How are you doing, buddy? Doing well.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for having me, Sam.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, man. So give us a quick rundown of you and your role and what Sportable does.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so uh I've been with Sportable for over nine and a half years now. Started back in 2016 when we just had four people deep in the office. And uh we're up to like 16 full-time staff, some part-time staff now. My role has changed many times over the nine and a half years and you know, working for a small nonprofit at you, wear many hats and do a lot of different things. But right now I'm currently the director of strategic partnerships. Um so I kind of glean on my experience with the organization, running a lot of our programs and kind of living out the mission through my role and supporting, you know, who we serve to kind of use that experience and in conversations with our partners, whether it be community partners that support our work, you know, physically with you know programming things and expertise in different areas that we may not have on our team, and then also more specifically now and like our corporate partners and people in the community that support our work through financial resources, grants, sponsorships, stuff like that. So that's kind of what I'm doing. Uh but for those who aren't familiar, Sportable is an adaptive sports nonprofit. Uh so we serve uh individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments. If you're familiar with like the Paralympics, we do those types of sports uh for athletes with physical disabilities and visual impairments. Think like amputees, people with spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, blindness, you know, low vision, um, and kind of everywhere in between. You know, anyone that you know struggles with something physical, um, we provide adaptations and in different ways to stay active and recreate. And we have, I believe it's around 18 different sports. And depending on how you look at it, you could go up to 30 based on the iterations we might have within an individual sport. So we have like youth and adults, we serve all ages, you know, starting as as early as three, uh, depending on the sport. Um, you know, just like we all, you know, yeah. Grew up playing sports, you start them start them young and get them in. Absolutely. Build those motor skills and you know, hand eye coordination, all that good stuff. And then is golf one of those 18 sports? We recently added adaptive golf.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I gotta I gotta get involved on that. Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_00:I've I've started uh I watched the episode with George and in Beyond Boundaries and heard you talking about golf. I recently started playing last year, joined Lakeside Park Club, um and have been just grinding, yeah, like twice over the weekend. So get out there sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:For sure, for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Um but yeah, adaptive golf is really cool. It's it's kind of um trending in the states right now, and uh the USGA has started to do an adaptive open, and um and so we we you know, as um we have some golfers on the staff and we have partners in the first T Greater Richmond as well as the VSGA, and so we're like, you know, everyone was inclined based on seeing, you know, on social media you see something trending and it's in your it's in your industry, you kind of don't want to be falling behind in that. So we were all kind of like, how do we work together to do this? And so we started uh, and actually another podcast guest of yours, uh Pat Uhazy, and and uh indoor golf RVA were a part of our first couple clinics because you know their facilities are accessible, climate controlled, top-of-the-line technology, and uh you have options on those simulators to do fun games for someone who may only be able to putt or chip or do something basic if they're starting to do it. And some of our athletes can that they play golf on a regular basis and want to play a nine-hole round, you know, and so those, you know, for uh indoor golf spaces have been um really you know advantageous for us and and our program and and then we since uh started to develop some adaptive golf at the first T uh school street location over at the Elson Redmond Memorial Range because the facility's accessible, it's uh it's a great range, they've got the mats uh and whatnot. And depending on the weather, the the grass and and whatnot. So that's a new and and growing program, and and it's kind of you know how we've approached a lot of our work is like we see something that's you know popular or trending, or athletes are expressing interests, and if we find that there's a nice you know formula with a community partner that you know, because it's golf's not cheap, as we know. Um, and you know, there's a lot of great adaptive equipment. There's you know, um paragolfers and vertical carts that help individuals with uh mobility impairments play the sport and try to stand you up if you're not able to and play it in the traditional way, and then there's a lot of different club, you know, um ways that you can manipulate the club depending on how you swing um to make the sport accessible. And so um having VSGA and First T to support what we're doing and be a part of it kind of made us feel good about kind of taking that next step. And then through the clinics, we knew the interest was there. And so Love it. Um so over the over the years, yeah. When I started, we had about 12 programs, and it's anywhere from like uh outdoor sports, you know, your cycling, your kayaking, your rowing, uh, archery, that sort of stuff, to your indoor like team sports. So we have like wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, um wheelchair rugby. Yeah, yeah. If you've ever you know want to learn more about that, there's a documentary called Murder Ball that follows the uh United States Paralympic uh national team um along their journey to the Paralympics. I've never heard of that. It's pretty gnarly. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, rugby guys are already insane on their own rights.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, and it's sort of like a sport, so you know, most of the athlete population that makes up the rosters on those teams are quadriplegic, and so they have um uh a higher level spinal cord injury in the C section of the spinal cord, yeah. And it impairs their um extremities um more than say someone with a lower level spinal cord injury, so they may not be able to utilize their fingers depending on if it's a complete or incomplete, and there's a lot so much nuance that I've learned over the years. My background was not in, you know, um studying the human body or or disability. I've kind of learned all of this through. So yeah, let's go back to that.
SPEAKER_01:What were you doing before Sportable?
SPEAKER_00:So sportable has been was my first like full-time career position uh coming out of grad school, but I went to JMU uh for sport management and did some internships at the Flying Squirrels over a summer. I did an internship in junior golf with the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour. It was based in Jacksonville, Florida, and it was that was probably the most attractive part. I was turning 21 that summer, and I was like, let me get out of my you know normal stuff and go experience something different. So I did that for a summer um and then went to the Center for Sport Leadership program at VCU, which is um uh a nationally ranked and internationally ranked graduate school program. It was also only one year, so it was attractive in that space. It brought me back home. Uh, got to live in the city and work in the athletics department at VCU and facilities and event operations and growing up as a VCU basketball fan uh my whole life, had a key to the Siegel Center, which was pretty cool, and got to see the back end of everything. And uh, you know, for facilities and events, they don't just do their athletic programs, they also do like all the Virginia high school state basketball tournaments and graduations and uh Chance the Rapper was the homecoming concert that year. So it's kind of cool to like meet his sort of operation and see the back end of that. Um that's awesome. That was 20 like 15, so it was like in his like meteoric rise at that point. So it was really cool. And you know, that program, our CEO Hunter Lehman, is um an alum of that program and was teaching a sports business class at the time. And so I was the facilities and event operations uh graduate assistant, and our classroom was in a athletics facilities building. So every morning I would get in before everyone got there, open up, set up, and then help the professor get their profess their um presentation or whatever set up, and we would always just, you know, uh converse about current events and sports and developed a rapport. And then when Sportable had a opening come up, one of my classmates had already done an internship and got hired on, and we were close, and so they um had me in mind when that position came open, and I was doing uh an internship at the raceway with their operations team that summer of 2015.
SPEAKER_01:So your your whole life has been sports, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Sports, and that that's my you know hobby too. Obviously, we talked about golf, and I still play like um uh wood bat softball and floorball, like floor hockey through River City, you know, sports, and um a lot of what I consume is is uh college and pro sports, the you know, soccer, basketball, baseball. Nice the whole nine.
SPEAKER_01:So, you know, so who's your c who's your favorite college team besides VC?
SPEAKER_00:So uh college football, I have to go JMU um just as my alma mater, and they've had a lot of growth over the years since I've been there. Um grew up kind of liking Virginia Tech just because of um friends and family that you know may have had an affinity there. But see, I grew up hating Virginia Tech.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Go wajo's.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, hey, respect. You got Virginia's got to support each other. I know that's a little that's a little different. Yeah. And um, yeah, and then VCU basketball, because my dad's worked at the university for a while. Nice. Um, and we always used to go to games growing up, like way before the 2011 Final Four run, and so got deep ties. Eric Maynard's my favorite player uh to come through there, and it's cool that to see he was on the OKC staff that just won the title. So that's really cool.
SPEAKER_01:Which by the way, I I saw this on another podcast. Uh this was probably the first NBA finals I didn't watch, like the final game. Like, I just wasn't interested in these two teams.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then in a podcast uh I saw earlier that they were talking about how it needs to be studied, how I don't even know the proper term. Like OKC just wasn't excited after they got the championship. It was like a very melancholy response.
SPEAKER_00:They didn't like know what to do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they couldn't pop open the champagne volume and everything.
SPEAKER_00:It's yeah, it's interesting in terms of like where we come from and watching people.
SPEAKER_01:They said it was one player on OKC, like as soon as the clock hit, he jumped up and starts going crazy, and then he turns around and realized none of his teammates are acting like that. He's just like, okay.
SPEAKER_00:I wonder if it's like part of its like a foregone conclusion because it was so good, you know. But it was interesting. I'm a Knicks fan, so it was a little hard to watch. Oh, Nick. And then you see.
SPEAKER_01:Nick's had a run this year, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But it's been cool. You know, you gotta be thankful for where we're at.
SPEAKER_01:Knicks are talking about getting the head coach from uh from women's basketball. Bon Staley. Yeah, that would be a wild makes so much sense. Like you look at her, I'm like, that's New York right there.
SPEAKER_00:She's established. She's got I I mean, I love her personality and obviously her resume. It'll be interesting if someone without any coaching experience at that level and with a contender now with Tatum and uh Halliburton both out for the year with their Achilles injuries. But we could talk sports for days, man. This is what it's cool. That's you know, that makes that's why I've you know stuck with our org so long is because the work that we do and who we serve, you know, when you think about all the opportunities that I, you know, I had growing up to access and play sports and pick up a ball and go to the the you know the park and shoot hoops or play soccer or whatever is so easy and it's just not the same for for the community.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we take those things for granted.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What uh what's the relationship? Because you got do you guys put on the monument 10k each year?
SPEAKER_00:No, so that's sports backers. Okay. Um and so we collaborate with them to um make sure our athletes have a place in in that as well. And so whether that be the establishment of a wheelchair wave uh for athletes who utilize a racing wheelchair to propel themselves, you know, along, and a lot of people get it confused because the the bigger marathons like the Boston Marathon or the New York City marathon, they'll have the racing wheelchair wave, but then also allow hand cycles. So that's like a a geared bike almost for like you know, what our athletes use to cycle and are allowed in that race, and then the racing wheelchairs are all manual, like pushing and uh it's kind of like it's basically running, you know, for our athletes to have lower limb impairments uh that may not be able to ambulate, like walk, jog, or run. But we also have that, you know, with our visually impaired um runners, walkers or joggers, it's all you know, whatever you want to do and however you want to move, you know, we're we're wide open to that and our programming and um try to um you know uh you know work with you along the way to meet your goals. Yeah. Whether that just be doing it and completing it in general or making a PR, um, you know, if you have aspirations to compete and try to make it to the Paralympic level, you know, we try to work with you as much as we can locally through our resources, and then um if we're not able to facilitate you past a certain level, we try to put you in contact with those that that can continue on that pathway. So it's been cool, but it's one of those things where you're like, man, you know, we want to do whatever we can, yeah, along the way. And and you know, uh, if we can't do it, we try to put you in contact with someone that can. And and that's where a lot of our community partners come into play, is because there's only so much we can do. We we our offices are in the sports center of Richmond Building Score over by Hardywood and the Diamond, and that's what kind of where we operate, where we store our equipment. We do some programming there with like peak experiences and do some adaptive climbing with Beyond Boundaries and Peak there. Um, George has been a huge part of that. You've had on the pod, and he's awesome uh dude. I mean, we I was running the rock climbing program along many others at that time. Um, and we worked with George heavily, and he's just uh a great person and very knowledgeable in that space. So he's a big reason why you know adaptive climbing is a thing, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Um how many people are you guys typically serving on a yearly basis?
SPEAKER_00:Around 400 uh through our ongoing programming. And the way our programming works is it's like uh once a week uh for an extended number of weeks. The average is around eight weeks for a program, and then depending on the sport and the season, time of year and whatnot, um that affects the frequency of how often those eight-week programs happen. And then if it's like a team where we participate in like a domestic league, like wheelchair basketball or rugby or tennis, for instance, it might happen more frequently because the season might be from like September to April. So you're having practices weekly through that, and then tournaments happen on like a monthly basis, and depending on the proximity of those tournaments and when they happen, you might have two a month, and you might do doubleheaders where a team that's relatively close to you might come for the weekend and play a couple games. It's because we can't we don't have enough uh infrastructure participants in Richmond area to have like a local league. Yeah. Um so we you know create teams here through the sportable umbrella, host weekly training sessions and practices, and then um organizations will host a tournament and you'll either host your own or or travel to those. And um, you know, we actually just hosted the national championships for the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, which is basically the NBA for wheelchair basketball. Wow, and the last two Aprils, and uh it wasn't really possible until the Henrico Sports and Event Center uh was built over at the old um Virginia Center Commons Mall in the Glen Allen area, and where so they had the infrastructure to host uh and it was back-to-back weekends, so the NWBA has a a bunch of divisions uh starting in juniors all the way through adults, and then they have women's and military divisions as well. And we hosted the juniors and adults, and each weekend has three divisions. So it's like the kids from 13 and under, called the prep division, and then two high school age divisions. One is like the the lower tier, uh almost like the NIT, if you think of it in college basketball analogy, and then uh the the championship division, which is the top 16 team. So and then adult has three tiers, three through one, three being you know, more the beginner, um like introductory level, two being sort of the intermediate, uh, and then one being the top level where you might have paralympic level athletes that play for their hometown, uh city, wherever they live in. Um and then just other talented players that maybe have played in college and whatnot. And um, and then it they use sort of like a promotion relegation system, sort of like European soccer does, which is cool. So yeah, we hosted that uh this year in April was 104 teams over both weekends, and so it was a heck of a lift.
SPEAKER_01:You guys are doing that with you said 15, 16 people on staff.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that was a major effort in collaboration with Richmond Region Tourism. So obviously with all the teams coming in from all over the country, yeah. Working with our tourism uh bureau here locally uh was a huge effort, and they were a huge part of that bid process. They do that like you know, when you think Richmond Region Tourism, they're always bringing in different events, whether it be sports or you know, um cultural events, like anything to to shine a light on RVA and like you know, and especially not just the city of Richmond, but all of like the municipalities around too. And then with the Henreico Sports and Entertainment Authority and Dennis Bickmeyer and his team were a huge influence because that's the building that we that we operated in, and and the team at the Henrico Center, you know, um, you know, were one of the few events in there, as well as the Special Olympics that do their state games for basketball in there, um, you know, trying to make sure that the facility was fully accessible and sort of accommodating to the athletes that were coming in for that. And um, it was really cool because we've had our wheelchair basketball program for a while, and I've gone to this tournament in Louisville and Chicago and and in other, you know, areas and got to see like how well or you know, areas for improvement, and so we got to kind of put our own spin on it and really elevate it to um a really big level, which is cool. And they actually just announced it's gonna go to West Monroe, Louisiana, which is super random. But yeah, that was like an opportunity for us, you know. Uh it's our 20th anniversary this year. We're we've grown, you know, as you can tell, going from four staff to now 16. And it's really like rapidly been growing, I think, you know, really since the pandemic, interestingly enough. I think we really pivoted a lot in terms of uh understanding our value to who we serve through the pandemic and not being able to be in person and trying to, you know, stay in touch. And we really learned a lot about what we mean to our our athletes and the not only the health and wellness, health and wellness benefits that we have through just staying active, but the community that it builds and the um you know this the social benefit to our athletes, you know, finding representation and um shared experiences with you know other people with disabilities uh through the programming and just kind of building um you know confidence and a rapport and just the big the big word is community through our programming.
SPEAKER_01:So why do you think things are growing? Is it more of a a trend that we're seeing with people with disabilities wanting to get into active sports, or is it just the time? Like what do you think it is that's causing us?
SPEAKER_00:I think it's a myriad of things. I think the the interest is always there, but I certainly think the representation that you see in just general media and on social, um obviously DEI had a really big influence on what um you know people were seeing and and wanting to support us financially, like transparently. Like a lot of those initiatives were super beneficial to us because we could lean into our existing and prospective partners to be like, hey, you know, you want to do a better job of diversifying and and and you know, making sure your your team and your employee base feels represented. And so um, you know, we can do like lunch and learns with those companies and talk about disability etiquette and talk about the work that we do, offer volunteer opportunities for those organizations, and and then just in in um you know, coverage of the Paralympics, you know, we just had Paris last year, and so the lead up and then all the coverage that Peacock and NBC had of all those sports, and then all of your major outlets like ESPN and Bleacher Report and everything on social was somewhat covering those those events too, and so just the mainstream kind of seeing you know what's out there from an adaptive sports aspect, but also like the level. Like that level's that's the top, the best of the best.
SPEAKER_01:Um Yeah, I got to referee one time when when I was in I went to Longwind University and we uh they hosted I guess was a round of the Special Olympics for basketball, and you hear that off top because we're used to watching NBA, WNBA, college sports, and stuff like that. But refing and seeing those guys play, I was like, holy crap! Like I think that'd go out there and get cooked by those guys right now, man. Like it's insane to see the athleticism.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly, and I think that's a big thing, and that's a big reason why we wanted to bring not only the national tournament, but like any event that we host. Not only is it an opportunity for your athletes to compete locally, um, because otherwise you have to travel. Yeah. Um, you know, the the closest teams to us in basketball and rugby or like Fairfax, like DC or down in Raleigh or Charlotte, um, and then from there it's beyond. Sometimes you have to fly to tournaments. Um that's costly first of all, and then it's then you're not really um exposing your your local supporter base to like you know, really what it is. And um local practices only do but so much to expose people to like you know what what that competition looks like. And so to be able to bring, you know, some like the the MJ, uh you know the goat of wheelchair basketball was in Richmond the last two years in like the history of the sport. And so we were able to expose like people that support us, that volunteer with us, or even the up-and-coming aspiring generation of of wheelchair basketball players got to meet them and and like play one-on-one and do a clinic and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01:And so that's I'm glad you said the MJ of wheelchair basketball, not the LeBron of wheelchair basketball.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, it's up for interpretation, right? And we don't have to get into that, right? Um and so um, yeah, it's just really, really cool to like you said, you you know, you you've gained an appreciation and understanding of like the level and the dedication and the work that goes into being that good. It's not it doesn't come easy. And so, and then yeah, the the way that you know our athletes are are able to play the sport, you know, to to see it up and up close and personal, you kind of you get a further appreciation and understanding of it. Oh, absolutely. That's so important for for people to really under understand and appreciate um our organization and and the work and and then you know um you know where our athletes are are coming from. But ultimately it's all the same motivation. It's like staying active, staying healthy, or being competitive. It's it's all encompassing depending on who you talk to. And we like to think that a lot of our different programs can accommodate, you know, either aspect. We've got our weekend warriors that just want to get out and socialize and stay active and have fun and do a little bit of everything, and some are are hyper focused on being very competitive in their sport, and and our programs can accommodate that.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. Yeah. Talk to us about the uh the opportunities you guys have for volunteering. So are you guys looking for people that were former college athletes and things like that? Are you looking for the everyday Joe who just has a appreciation and love of the sport? And what are the different opportunities you guys have for people that want to volunteer?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think it's it's all encompassing uh across our program landscape. We have so many different sports, and each of them kind of operate differently depending on based on the volunteer needs. So our cycling program, for instance, we uh go out onto the Capitol Trail uh via Dory Park for our recreational program. And because we have so many um people with different disabilities and uh ability levels based on their um where they're at and participating in the sport, someone might be going out and doing like 15 miles in the hour and a half program. Someone might do like one. And so we often pair volunteers on a one-to-one ratio. Um, you know, typically you might you know need to have your own bike. We usually have a handful of upright bikes in case a volunteer may not be able to transport their own to the program or doesn't have their own, but like knows how to ride and uh can do it. And so like that's one where you go out and you just ride, you know. You might uh there might be an instance where you know a tire is popped or something happens and the expectation level to support that, you know, is not necessarily 100% like, oh, you need to learn how to you know how to change a tire to it's not that way. It's you kind of just get some guidance on like, hey, you know, this program ends at 7 30, so only go out as far as you know that you have time to come back in and get them here before it's too dark, and you're good to go. But you know, that program you really get to ride a bike and like exercise and develop a rapport. And for those multi-week programs, we prefer someone to be able to commit, you know, at least like 70% of the time because you start to develop a rapport with that individual athlete that you're paired with, and um there's some familiarity and comfortability there. Um, and that's one example. But like for a wheelchair basketball program, a lot, you know, a lot of basically anything that we do, our athletes are the the ultimate goal is for them to do that independently, yeah. To participate independently, um, but there may be areas of support like you know, pairing up and riding alongside an athlete where you are supporting them in that way, but you're not like pushing people or like guiding them like hand in hand to support. Um it's really independent. And so for like wheelchair basketball, it's a team sport. Yeah. People that are volunteering in that, you know, maybe you're participating, you're an extra number in the game, so you get to play wheelchair basketball, but like or you're like, you know, very knowledgeable in basketball, so you're interested in coaching or being an assistant coach. And but if you're gonna coach, like you need to commit. Yeah. It's a long season, so like you kind of need to evaluate where you're at and your interest level and um capacity to to do that. Or like you know, we don't uh own our own gym, so we're at like a middle school or wherever, and it's we are taking a sprinter van with 20 basketball chairs, and they all need to have the right tire pressure to have our athletes to be able to um to have their chairs operate as efficiently and to the level that they're supposed to as possible. So we have to go and pump all the tires up at the beginning of practice and bless you. It's a lot, you know, and so unloading and and assembling all the chairs, pumping them up, and getting everything ready takes time and effort. And so if we have a couple hands that are able to get trained up on that, you know, um, once practice starts, there might be you know minimal things for you to do other than play or rebound or help help run drills. Um, but you know, it's it's all kind of depends on the sport. Swimming, we may need, you know, an athlete might need physical uh support based on their progression level of how comfortable they are swimming. And um, or if it's like more of an aqua aqua aquatic therapy space, you know, all those athletes may need physical support. So you're kind of just guiding them and working with the coach uh in that program uh like along what the curriculum is that day. So it depends. And then we have our one-off events like competitions where um you might just come and volunteer for the day. And that might be more appropriate for like your corporate volunteer group or your high school team group, or you as an individual that may not have the capacity to commit to eight weeks at a time or or whatever the length of the program is, you know, you can come out for a day or multiple days depending on your interest and availability, and um, you know, run the score clock at a basketball tournament or ball run at a wheelchair tennis tournament or or uh run the check-in table or run the hospitality area or whatever, whatever it may be. So we have a little bit of everything for anyone, and you know, those that are in corporate settings that have you know volunteer matches or or paid volunteer leave, we love you know working with those organizations because it may result in a in a donation, you know, based on the hours that you work. And we're we're a nonprofit that thrives on in on sustainable you know funding uh across the board. So any ways that that people can support us through through that.
SPEAKER_01:Um you guys have one big event each year, like that's your main flagship for fundraising, or is it just consistently throughout?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so for fundraising, uh we have both. So we have like program-centric competitions or events that are primarily just opportunities for our athletes to compete, but we'll have like sponsorship opportunities alongside those to make sure that we're not purely just spending money on it. We want to break even or even see it as an opportunity to raise money over the over what the expenses are. And and any sponsorship of an event is typically like a recognition opportunity for our supporters, but the dollars basically go to our overall operating, like unrestricted funding, um, towards our overall budget. And then um fundraiser events, we do a tailgate uh event every year. Um, and it's kind of changed since the pandemic based on how we were able to do that. Uh so now it's more of like a peer-to-peer fundraiser where people can kind of throw their own tailgate parties you know, either at their office or in their backyard or you know, wherever they want to do it essentially, and uh or people can just kind of do like an on run online fundraiser uh through uh a fundraising online platform. So if uh we encourage any supporter of Sportable that you know is really passionate about our mission and wants to help us raise funding for you know continuing on our trajectory of doing what we do to participate in that and post on their socials and try to encourage people to donate here and there. And then usually it culminates in like an athlete tailgate. Uh this past year we was at River City Roll where we invite all of our partners and sponsors and athletes and people that have given to that ongoing um fundraiser to come out and just sell. Celebrate, you know, our mission and get together and just have a good time.
SPEAKER_01:Let me ever say role. Rob Long was actually, I think he was the first guest of this season on the podcast.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't watch that, but I was looking at the playlist of all the different episodes.
SPEAKER_01:That was one of my favorite episodes we've done. Robert, I need to go back and listen to that. Yeah. Let me ask you this because you've been, as we wrap up, like um it's rare someone at your age stays with an organization as long as you have nine years, and especially with your variety of backgrounds and different sports arenas and different states and Florida and all these different places. What is it about Sportable that keeps you there? Because we can see and hear the passion in your voice about this program. Why are you so passionate about this organization?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's hard to answer uh all in uh whatever much time we have, but um it it's really the people and the mission. Um we just had a retreat for our advancement team recently, and I think you know, we talk about the stresses of your career and job, but it what's easy for us when we get stressed out about our work is just to go out to a program and like interact with the athletes and and it's so you glean what it means, you know, to them to have access to this. And um over the years, you know, as we've grown our programming um portfolio and and the frequency of the way that we do things, there's always more. And then now that you're you know in with social media and interacting with people, other people in our industry, you see what else is out there that we could possibly be doing, and we're like, why man, it's just easy to stay motivated around like what we can be doing more here in Richmond through the sportable umbrella, and there's so much more to do. Obviously, it it takes resources and people and capacity to do that. Um, but we have a really clear vision around what our future looks like, and um that allows me to stay you know motivated. The organization's always created opportunities for me to grow in my career and and have new positions, new responsibilities, take on new challenges. So, like moving out of programming and getting into the development side of thing and fundraising and working in the corporate space and using my sports interest and what professional and college and other sport organizations do to work with corporate America and businesses to to do sponsorship and engage people. I'm like leaning on that to tailor similar experiences that those people may already be doing with the squirrels or the the kickers or whoever they support in town to then come into the adapt the sports space and almost um create equitable experiences for our athletes. So when I think about our tournaments, I'm like, how do I run this in a way that's equitable to what our athletes see in the able-bodied sports space and provide a similar experience? It shouldn't be different. No, it should be as similar as possible. So how do we have like a hydration sponsor and like we got these like cool like core hydration bottles at all like at at the tennis tournament? So every court has a a cooler and it's these like really nice water bottles, and so it's it's been it's been really cool to have that autonomy and that freedom to kind of grow and and try and lean on my experience and um my you know interests and and and also glean on what our athletes you know want to see in their programming and and events and and try to make it possible. And I think um Sportable has really been able been really good at creating an environment to do that. And uh like I said, I think there's always more that we can be doing. Right now we're really leaning into doing what we do really well and and building that out so that we're in a place as we grow further and and push towards uh what we envision for ourselves in the next five to ten years, we're prepared uh structurally to take on that growth. Love it. Um and our leadership team is doing a great job, and our team is just awesome. So I'm happy to be where I am and excited for what the future holds for us.
SPEAKER_01:Love it, love it. That's awesome, man. Well, if people want to connect with you guys, they want to volunteer, they want to come out and support, they want to come check out the events, how can they get in contact with you guys?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so our website is sportable.org. Um, and the sportable is spelled sportable all one word.org. All the information is there. Uh, we've got a great uh social team as well on the marketing side. So if you follow us, we're at sportable RVA on all platforms. Uh that's that's our handle for there. We're primarily on Facebook, Instagram, um, and a little bit of YouTube here and there, but Facebook and Instagram are our primary ways that we kind of communicate on social media platforms and you guys would kill on TikTok.
SPEAKER_01:Y'all gotta get on TikTok.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I know. I personally just have never downloaded it because I know it sucked a lot of time. Not that the other ones don't already. Um, but now that we know that TikTok's here to stay, I guess, for a little bit, that might not be a bad play. And we've actually just grown our our our marketing and events team so that we have some people that are dedicated to that and and our other marketing efforts, whereas I, you know, had the accounts on my phone and I'd be at a program, I'd try to snap and do stories as much as possible. Full-time job. Right. Yeah. I was looking at y'all's website and you know how you guys benefit small small businesses and others that you know don't have that capacity to do or take advantage of really what uh is available at your hands. And we even struggle with just kind of what our content is, you know, how do we really shine a light on all that we do uh when we have events and sponsor deliverables and all that? How do we make sure our our mission is clear and what we do is is clear to our our follower and our supporter base?
SPEAKER_01:So well, I think like just uh a shouting for you guys, like hearing the fact that you guys have a developed marketing team, like most nonprofit, and I I serve on the board for two nonprofits right now. Um, most nonprofits don't put that much time and effort into it, but I think you guys are seeing the benefits of that because the more active you are on these channels, the more seriously you take the marketing efforts. It's just how it works. More people know about you and they're willing to support you.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And like people oftentimes may pigeonhole us into an adult only or youth only or wheelchair sport only because of what they see if they're not interacting with us consistently and we're just seeing what's on social. So we've gotten that feedback and and have expanded the team to make sure that we're doing a better job of telling our story, and it's um it benefits us in so many ways from just awareness and funding resources and then people knowing that they might belong, you know, as one of uh our participant athletes uh in finding us. So yeah. Love it. Well, man, appreciate you being on the show today. Likewise, man. Thanks for the opportunity. Absolutely. We'll see you guys on the next episode.