“From my first few

conversations

with Khadija, I was

convinced she was

the missing piece to

our team. She quickly

got to the heart of

what we really wanted

to do. She challenged

and improved

our ideas, then

immediately began

working on making

them a reality.”

MIKE LEE

President, DRIVE Milwaukee

National Lead Trainer & Owner,

Mike Lee Basketball

W h y a c h a n g e Wa s n ec e s sa ry

Most sports programs try to reach as many kids as possible without regard to individual

development or personal instruction. The goals of these programs are to give kids a safe

place to play, provide someone to look after them – and, hopefully, to look up to – and get

them doing something physical and healthy. These are worthwhile aims, but just as a gifted

learner needs to be challenged beyond the traditional classroom setting to reach their

highest potential, gifted athletes with the drive and determination to succeed need to be

challenged beyond traditional one-size-fits-all sports instruction.

Time for a new approach

After-school sports programs simply don’t have the structure to reach and motivate the

city’s at-risk youth population. Biased rules and labels are unfairly applied to this group but

our fledgling organization was uniquely suited to change the game for at-risk kids.

The seeds of change

Professional basketball coach Mike Lee and NBA strength and conditioning expert

Steve Becker began working with high school graduates after hearing from coaches,

teachers and parents about the amazing potential some inner-city kids had. They quickly

discovered their own passion for helping these kids grow and succeed and started The

Athlete Project, which gave them the opportunity to uncover the programs that would

produce the best results.

Mike and Steve invited me to join The Athlete Project in September 2012. I brought

expertise in branding, business development and valuable personal insight into what

at-risk kids really needed.

a new vision emerges

I took an in-depth look at the changing landscape of private sports training to uncover

anything I might learn. It turns out that the growth in specialized athletic training is no

longer only accessible to professional athletes. It has trickled down to kids as young as

the fifth grade whose families can afford it. This gives kids from families with the means to

provide individualized instruction a huge advantage to develop as an athlete and to attain

the work ethic, self-confidence and discipline that are the healthy by-products of this.

But for inner-city kids who don’t have the resources, they may have access to organized

sports programs and maybe they’ll form a bond with a volunteer who encourages them to

keep practicing, but not much more.

There was nothing on a professional level that provided the personalized training that is

necessary to compete in today’s world available to these kids. No one had even thought to

try and provide them with the same access to professional quality training. We did.

“Through her personal life experiences, Khadija is uniquely suited to

reach all our audiences — especially, at-risk youth participants and

donors — and instill hope, togetherness, direction, and excitement to

create something bigger than we had imagined.”

MIKE LEE

President, DRIVE Milwaukee

National Lead Trainer & Owner,

Mike Lee Basketball

DRIVE: Changing the Game for At-Risk Youth

I cofounded drIVe MIlWaukee: a first-of-its-kind program to convert at-risk youth into

disciplined athletes who make the right decisions – on and off the court.

• entrepreneurial drive – I had the vision to transform an existing basketball skill

development program into a powerful force in the lives of Milwaukee’s at-risk youth.

• organizational leadership – I took the lead in building the new organization from the

ground up – defined roles and responsibilities for governance and leadership, recruited staff

and the board of directors and built up organizational capacity.

• Program development – I defined, launched and helped run a unique and comprehensive

suite of youth programs that generated positive feedback and led to partnership

opportunities with the Boys and Girls Club and Nike.

• Brand strategy development – I led all brand development efforts, including a new name,

brand position, logo and identity, website, pitch material – including our Case for Support –

and a soon-to-be-launched social media strategy with usage guidelines.

• Business development – I designed and implemented outreach and engagement activities

that raised awareness of DRIVE and developed and structured an intensive financing plan

built around sustainable and diverse funding streams.

• heart leadership – I forged a pathway to make the dreams of at-risk youth a reality.

DRIVE Milwaukee is making a significant and lasting impact on the lives of the youth we

serve as well as the lives of its professional trainers. It’s had a pretty big impact on me, too.

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My r o l e

The shape of things to come

I persuaded the team to move the organization in a direction that was entirely different

from that of other nonprofit sports programs – away from reach and toward individual

impact. This meant:

• Defining kids by their efforts and passions, not their circumstances (our brand).

• Offering unparalleled access to basketball opportunities (our people and programs).

• Requiring hard work and dedication in return (our relationships).

The mission was clear

Through rigorous professional basketball instruction, training and mentoring programs, we

take kids who’ve shown exceptional athletic ability, drive and determination and work to

transform them into disciplined athletes who make the healthiest decisions, both on the

court and in life. Our ultimate goal? To help the kids we work with get into college – not just

to play NCAA ball, but to earn degrees that will foster future success.

Building an elite brand

I knew that if we wanted to create significant and lasting change, we would have to take an

innovative approach to our branding efforts that would clearly differentiate us from other

youth sports programs.

I assembled and led a creative team in renaming the organization. The Athlete Project

became DRIVE Milwaukee. Why DRIVE Milwaukee? DRIVE struck our team as the perfect

word to describe our mission. It’s active and implies forward momentum. It’s a strong,

aggressive, and symmetrical word that gives participants an indication of our expectations

from the get-go. It also provides a loud, clear voice and works as a powerful call to action,

challenging you to persist through adversity. Plus, DRIVE has the perfect double

meaning for a basketball program – you DRIVE to the rim to score and need an inner

drive to succeed.

Bringing the brand to life

I led all brand development efforts, including a new name, brand position, logo and identity,

website and pitch materials. I also developed the soon-to-be-implemented social media

strategy and its usage guidelines.

Perhaps most importantly, I designed, wrote and pitched the Case for Support which

serves as our appeal to supporters, explaining why they should donate to/partner with

DRIVE. This 35-page living document forced us to map out our vision for the future

and how we intended to get there. Most importantly, it formed the basis for all of the

organization’s communication efforts.

The result? It helped generate greater interest from and secure new donors, increase

commitments from existing ones, secure invitations to apply for competitive grants and

set the stage for developing high-profile partnerships with organizations.

Bringing the programs to life

I worked with Mike Lee in designing all of our programs to address common

challenges and barriers facing at-risk youth and to provide opportunities beyond

what school and community can. DRIVE programs provide:

• Access to training, instruction and mentoring like professional athletes receive.

• Mindfulness training and practices.

• Interaction with positive role models (including professional athletes).

• Community service.

• A safe, respectful environment.

We then organized them into three tiers of development, designed to move kids along a

continuum – each requiring higher levels of participation and commitment, and eventually

leading to higher rewards. The more kids participate, the more likely they are to overcome

the typical challenges that face Milwaukee’s youth. We use these challenges as a way to

measure our progress – observable, measurable evidence of change.

Building organizational capacity

Armed with a new brand and suite of programs, I went on to strengthen all other aspects

of this new organization.

• I helped facilitate and run some of the youth programs.

• I created our Case for Support, presented it to donors, and raised funds to

launch programs.

• I worked to expand awareness and develop key relationships to widen our pool of

potential donors, supporters and participants.

• I prepared policies, defined board roles and responsibilities and identified, evaluated,

and recruited board members and secured financial commitments from each.

• I developed a structured, intensive financing effort to raise the money to take this

organization to the next level.

“I love that Khadija and

Mike are incorporating

mindfulness, self-

awareness, and other

highly beneficial

cognitive behavioral

therapies in their lives

and bringing these

tools to at-risk youth.

DRIVE’s work will be

transformational for

inner-city Milwaukee.”

JOShuA MEDCALF

Director of Mental Training,

uCLA Women’s Basketball

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T h e P o s I T I V e c h a n g e

I translated a big, big vision into reality. Mike Lee and I built a brand using an authentic,

premium experience to help move youth beyond the at-risk label. We built the

organization, developed and managed a unique and comprehensive suite of programs

and laid the groundwork for a capital campaign.

We secured key athlete and board partnerships that were authentic and real (as opposed

to standard endorsements). Players actively participated in programs – running the drills,

speaking to the kids and keeping an open line of communication. They went above and

beyond, sometimes stopping by the gym just to check on them.

We recruited board members that were key influencers in basketball and the

Milwaukee community. We made sure our basic needs were covered – from legal to

financial. We convinced board members to pledge to a minimum of $10,000 through

our Get-Give policy.

We’ve raised more than $150,000 in donations and in-kind support and are currently

exploring partnership opportunities with top sports organizations. We’ve been in talks

with the president of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee and have recently been

invited by The Bradley Foundation to apply for a highly competitive grant.

and we’re just getting started

We generated a lot of positive feedback from the community, coaches, youth participants

and family members.

But, like any nonprofit, resources are at a premium. We continue to search for the

funds necessary to sustain DRIVE and fundraising is currently the primary focus of the

organization.

We are taking care of current Milwaukee participants and intend to continue on with as

much of the programming as we can. But, for the most part, new programs are on hold

until we can get out of the starvation cycle and on a more solid financial footing.

These kids and the changes we create are too important to continue in this cycle. I am

not going to let our organization break a promise we made to any of our kids. In their short

lives, they’ve already had enough of that.

Despite the work left to be done, I am extremely proud of DRIVE. I did this. I had help, and

the kids are the ones who have to do the work, but I’m extremely proud of what we’ve

been able to achieve. I, too, was once the forgotten and underserved at-risk kid. But for

the kids that DRIVE Milwaukee reaches, they might sweat more than they ever have. They

might even swear (in fact, they probably will). But they might just walk out taller and more

confident than when they walked in our doors. And this is what we mean by changing the

game for at-risk youth.

Now, just imagine what I will do for your company.

W h y I g oT I n Vo lV e d

The obstacles that confront at-risk kids and their families can seem overwhelming.

This is particularly true in Milwaukee’s inner city. When I learned some at-risk youth have

the skills to play basketball at major division one colleges and in professional leagues but

have little chance of making it out of high school, I wanted to do more than help – I wanted

to reinvent the way sports programs interacted with and impacted youth.“Growing up in

Milwaukee, I was

around so many

talented players who

never made it out

of the city, mainly

because of a lack of

support off the court.

I love how DRIVE

takes a holistic

approach to their

mission. Their

leadership is well-

educated and

insightful, and I am

glad to have an

opportunity to be part

of their organization.”

MARCuS LANDRY

Professional Basketball Player,

Cai Zarazoga, Spain ACB League

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