The NBA Foundation has announced 40 grants totaling $13.5 million to boost initiatives focused on education, income, and employment disparities in underserved communities.

The 23 renewal and 17 first-time grants mark the third year of grantmaking for the foundation, which was established in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd, as part of a 10-year, $300 million commitment by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to drive economic opportunity for Black youth.

Grantees receiving renewed funding include MobilizeGreen, which focuses on workforce development for young, diverse people pursuing careers in green STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education; StreetCode Academy, which connects communities of color to opportunities in tech using virtual reality, generative AI, and augmented reality tools; and the National Education Equity Lab, which partners with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to deliver no-cost college credit-bearing courses to marginalized high school students at scale. New grantees include the Center for Employment Opportunities, MIT Solve, and the Young Black Leadership Alliance.

“During the pandemic, we were seeing that companies and agencies were dropping their internship programs, and it was disproportionately impacting Black kids,” said MobilizeGreen founder Leah Allen. “There’s such an experience gap. It almost takes experience to get experience, so we wanted to close that gap and connect Black kids to opportunities.”

“We…want to move toward formalizing partnerships with companies that can actually hire the young people who’ve spent time in school or in these nonprofits developing their skills,” said NBA Foundation executive director Greg Taylor. “I think that’s what the years going forward will be about, and we want to put that in place this year.”

For a complete list of recipients, see the National Basketball Association website.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/ Michele Pevide)