Stephen and Ayesha Curry

SOURCE OF WEALTH: NBA; TV Host

FUNDING AREAS: Education & Youth, TBD

OVERVIEW: Stephen and Ayesha Curry launched Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation in 2019, which focuses on three vital pillars for a healthy childhood — helping end childhood hunger, ensuring universal access to quality education and enabling healthy, active lifestyles.

BACKGROUND: A son of NBA player Dell Curry, Stephen Curry was born in Akron, Ohio in 1988 and attended Davidson College. In 2009, he was drafted by the Golden State Warriors and became quickly known as an NBA sharpshooter. He won his first NBA championship in 2015, and led the team to a league-record 73 wins the following season. He helped the Warriors win the NBA title again in 2017 and 2018.

Born in Canada and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ayesha Curry pursued an acting career out of high school. She later channeled her love for cooking into a blog and YouTube channel. Tapped to host her own program on the Food Network in 2016, she has also branched out by authoring a cookbook, opening multiple restaurants and launching a cookware line. She currently hosts Family Food Fight on ABC.

ISSUES:

EDUCATION & YOUTH: Stephen and Ayesha Curry recently launched Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, which focuses on three vital pillars for a healthy childhood — “helping end childhood hunger, ensuring universal access to quality education and enabling healthy, active lifestyles.”  Its Eat focus area will include programs that directly feed kids and families “struggling with food insecurity, educate families on the importance and ease of consuming nutritious foods and advocate at the local, state and federal level on critical policy issues affecting kids struggling with childhood hunger, namely making school breakfast a mandatory part of the school day in a public K-12 education.” Its Learn area focuses on programs that keep students on paths to achieve a college degree, especially at-risk youth. And its Play focus area will work with partners leading projects for new playgrounds, sport courts and other recreational facilities for kids and families to congregate for physical activity.

The foundation’s inaugural initiative is centered around the City of Oakland Town Camps, serving over 5,000 Oakland kids in 20 locations in the summer of 2019 by providing nutritious breakfasts daily for all campers; and weekly family-style dinners and culinary classes for campers and their families across various camp locations. In addition, Eat. Learn. Play. will provide scholarship support to underwrite costs for kids who cannot afford the full price of summer camp. In 2023, the foundation renewed its commitment to Oakland Unified School District students with a $50 million pledge to provide additional support and resources for district students by the 2026 school year.

Through their foundation, NBA superstar couple Steph and Ayesha Curry teamed up with the Alameda County Food Bank to provide 1 million meals to students affected by school closures due to COVID-19.

Additionally, Ayesha is an ambassador for No Kid Hungry, an organization that is working to end childhood hunger. The couple have also given donations to local Bay Area organizations including Girls Inc. of Alameda County.

HBCUS: Curry recently made a 7-figure donation to Howard University to establish the first Division I men’s and women’s golf teams at the HBCU. While Curry did not attend the institution, he played golf on his high school team and has appeared as an amateur and celebrity golfer in tournaments. Curry was partly inspired by a Howard senior who turned down an offer to play collegiate golf in order to attend the school. Of the some 100 HBCUs, only 30 have golf programs.

LOOKING FORWARD: Both in their 30s, this active couple should be watched for much greater giving down the line. Expect Oakland to remain a central to the Curry’s philanthropy, something they emphasized in their interview with IP. Away from education and youth, racial and gender equity are other areas of potential giving down the line.

LINK: Steph Curry Twitter Page