The Power of Sports is a nonprofit founded in 2013 that runs its own sports projects for kids in eight countries. Read our mission, history and how we work.
Our organization
Founded in 2013 by two sports students. Today over 7,000 kids a week play sports with us in eight countries, coached by local teams and the volunteers and interns who join them.
Volunteer with us How we workMission
Kids and teens can join whatever their family can afford or wherever they grow up, through sports programs open to everyone, where life skills are part of every practice.
Vision
We run eight international projects for kids who get no structured sports at all. They play the sport they love most, because that is what keeps them coming back and keeps them away from trouble in the neighborhood.
What we stand for
Our projects are for kids who do not yet have access to structured sports. We make sure there is something to do every week, with someone who shows up.
Weekly programs that keep running when a volunteer goes home, led by local teams.
Every project has a coordinator we know personally. Volunteers and interns support them, never replace them.
We make sure girls take part just as much as boys, with dedicated programs where needed.
No child ever pays. Your contribution covers your own stay, and donations fund the programs.
Our history
Thirteen years in short. Every year something was added: a country, a partner, a program. And one year everything stood still.
Two Sports Studies students found the United Through Sport Holland foundation, fund the first sports projects abroad and send the first interns to South Africa.
Interns and volunteers start traveling to Argentina and, later that year, Saint Lucia.
Sports projects for refugees start in the Netherlands (soccer and field hockey). More colleges offer our internships. Ghana joins as a destination.
Swimming lessons for refugees. Companies and charities start sponsoring our partners abroad.
De Kracht van Sport (Dutch for The Power of Sports) is founded next to the foundation so we can offer more sports activities. First training camps.
We partner with the Erasmus program. Training camps become fully tailor-made.
All kids from our own hockey club find a place at other clubs; the hockey project closes. Costa Rica joins as a destination.
The pandemic year. In March every volunteer and intern comes home and every program stops.
The pandemic continues; many projects are paused.
Early 2022 we start again.
Curaçao joins. French and German sister sites launch. We are a founding member of the Volunteer Aware label.
Indonesia joins. The foundation continues as Stichting The Power of Sports.
English and Italian sister sites launch. More than 200 volunteers and interns travel to our projects. Over 7,000 kids play sports with us every week.
We found Khelkhud Ko Urja, The Power of Sports in Nepali. Nepal joins as our eighth destination.
Volunteer Aware
Volunteer Aware reviews organizations that offer volunteering and internships abroad on sustainability, transparency, ethics and intercultural responsibility, to separate honest volunteering from voluntourism.
We think that matters, because good intentions alone are not enough. The label shows how we work and encourages other organizations to do the same.
Two organizations, one goal
Volunteering, internships and sports trips are arranged by De Kracht van Sport, our organization in the Netherlands. Next to it is a separate foundation, Stichting The Power of Sports, with its own board and its own bank account. That is also the name our colleagues abroad carry: in Indonesia you work with Daya Krida, in Nepal with Khelkhud Ko Urja, The Power of Sports in the local language. One team, different languages.
The foundation funds the programs for the kids abroad. Donate to the foundation and 100 percent goes to the projects, minus bank fees.
Support the foundation
Next step
Start with a free intro call. We tell you honestly which project fits you and what to expect.
Apply to volunteer Apply for an internship