Gotham FC’s Keep Her in the Game, presented by Dove, in partnership with the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

Keep Her in the Game (KHITG), presented by Dove, is a first-of-its-kind social impact initiative created by Gotham FC and incubated by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund to combat the alarming rate that adolescent girls abandon sport. By age 14, girls drop out of sports at almost twice the rate of boys, and have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high-school sports. KHITG takes a systems-level approach: equipping trusted adults in girls' lives – coaches and parents – with research-backed tools to foster confidence, belonging, and resilience. It also provides girls access to Gotham players via practice visits and in-game celebrations, creating moments of joy and connection. In its inaugural year, KHITG reached 1,783 NJ/NY girls, trained 97 coaches, and engaged 226 parents/caregivers, surpassing targets and establishing a new model for how sports organizations can drive impact. KHITG is tracking to reach 10,000 girls by 2028.

How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?

Keep Her in the Game redefines what engagement means for a professional sports organization. Rather than engaging fans as passive consumers of content, Gotham FC built a program that transforms community members – coaches, parents, and girls – into active participants in a shared mission.

The program's most powerful design choice was to include the girls not just as beneficiaries but as co-creators. The Youth Leadership Council brought 15 high school girls who had already defied the dropout statistics into the room to shape the program for younger players. Their lived experience directly informed the parent workshop curriculum, creating a feedback loop between the girls who stayed in the game and the adults trying to keep others there.

The results set concrete benchmarks the industry can learn from: a 78% overperformance on reach, a 45% surge in coach confidence, a parent NPS of 85, and 100% of Council members reporting a confidence increase. Paired with a clear Year 2 growth plan – 127 coaches, 2,441 girls, expanded Dove Body Confident Sport resources – KHITG demonstrates that social impact in sports need not be episodic or performative. It can be rigorous, measurable, and built to grow. That is the new standard this program sets.

Objective

Research is clear: by age 14, girls drop out of sports at nearly twice the rate of boys, and have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than male peers. Girls who play sports are more likely to have higher self-confidence, earn better grades, graduate, and go on to lead Fortune 500 companies. Despite a historic moment in women's sports, the U.S. is failing to keep girls in the game.

Gotham FC engaged Charter Oak Impact to identify this gap and develop the founding framework for Keep Her in the Game: girls don't drop out of sports in isolation – they drop out of environments. Changing those environments meant working upstream, equipping coaches and parents with practical, evidence-based tools rather than targeting girls alone. The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund provided the critical bridge – funding to incubate KHITG through a nine-month pilot – enabling Dove to join as presenting corporate partner to sustain and scale it, Dove’s first major investment in a women’s sports team. 

Gotham set an ambitious first-year goal of reaching 1,000 girls across U12–U14 soccer teams in NJ/NY, while building a monitoring and evaluation framework to track reach, confidence, connection, and coach effectiveness.

Strategy & Execution

Keep Her in the Game launched in August 2024 with a multi-layered, cross-sector model built around three audiences: coaches, parents, and girls.

For coaches, the program delivered five training sessions, reaching 97 coaches across NJ and NY, led by nonprofit partner Girls Leadership, whose research-backed curriculum provided tools to support girls' emotional and social development alongside athletic growth. 

For parents, two "Raising Resilient Athletes" workshops, co-hosted by Girls Leadership and Gotham FC players and coaches, provided 226 caregivers with practical strategies for keeping girls engaged and confident in sport.

For girls, the program created moments of joy and connection: more than 160 received practice visits from Gotham FC athletes, who participated in KHITG curriculum activities and shared stories of perseverance. In 2024, over 700 girls were celebrated in pre-game ceremonies at a Gotham home game to launch KHITG, and at a KHITG Day at Sports Illustrated Stadium in 2025. 15 ninth- and tenth-grade girls who had already stayed in the game past the typical dropout age were nominated by coaches for a five-month Youth Leadership Council, meeting twice monthly with Girls Leadership staff to receive intensive leadership coaching and use their voices to help change the game for younger girls.

Organizations

• Gotham FC

• Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
• Dove (presenting partner)
• Girls Leadership
• Charter Oak Impact
• South Bronx United
• NJ Youth Soccer

   

Links

•   Website

Credits

Corinne Counsell
Senior Manager, Community & Social Impact
Gotham FC

Emma Walley
Community Programs Lead
Gotham FC

Carolyn Tisch Blodgett
Governor & Lead Owner
Gotham FC

Ryan Dillon
Chief Business Officer
Gotham FC

Yael Averbuch West
General Manager and Head of Soccer Operations
Gotham FC

Laurie Tisch
President
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

Rick Luftglass
Executive Director
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

Kira Pritchard
Senior Program Officer
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

Sofia Garcia
Brand Manager, Engagement & Social Impact
Dove

Tory Faries
Principal
Charter Oak Impact

Will Smith
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Charter Oak Impact

Juan Carlos Amorós
Head Coach
Gotham FC

Michelle Betos
Assistant Goalkeeper Coach and Team Culture Lead
Gotham FC

Coaching Staff
Coaching Staff
Gotham FC

Dr. Jia Nettles
National Sports Program Director
Girls Leadership

Courtney Torres
Chief Program Officer
Girls Leadership

Takai Tyler
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Girls Leadership

Simone Marean
Co-Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer
Girls Leadership

Evan Dabby
Sr. Director, Supporter Relations & Safety
Major League Soccer

Breeana Cassidy
Program Manager
New Jersey Youth Soccer

Andy Jenkins
Director of Youth Development
South Bronx United

Yaliz Campos
Community Soccers Program Manager
South Bronx United