LOS ANGELES – ESPN announced tonight, during The 2020 ESPYS Presented by Capital One, that the Los Angeles Dodgers were named the Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year in recognition of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF). LADF was recognized for tackling the most pressing problems facing Los Angeles with a mission to improve education, health care, homelessness, and social justice for all Angelenos. LADF will use the $100,000 award to continue to run and fund proven programs that help level the playing field and invest in on the ground solutions.

“Our goal is to achieve the same level of excellence off the field that our fans demand from us on the field,” said Dodger Owner & Chairman Mark Walter, who also is chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. “This is much bigger than baseball. We want to tackle the city's most significant challenges, such as unequal access to education, and we are striving to become the best philanthropic organization in the city working on these issues.”

The sixth annual Sports Humanitarian Awards sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company is a celebration of the impact made by athletes, teams and sports industry professionals who are using sports to make a difference in their communities and throughout the world. The Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year honors a sports club/team that demonstrates how teamwork can create a significant impact on a community or cause.

LADF has invested more than $30 million in programs and grants to nonprofits, including $21 million in the last five years alone. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles Dodgers and LADF are providing 279,280 meals and $659,227 in in-kind donations to support vulnerable populations who are experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, lack of basic needs and significant anxiety.

“LADF was built for this moment in time. The trauma of a pandemic and social justice events has exacerbated the significant disparities in our communities. We know that inequality can only be dismantled through proactive and strategic interventions, and we are starting with the root causes,” said Nichol Whiteman, Chief Executive Officer, Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. “This award is a celebration of our organization’s accomplishments, but we are far from done. LADF will not waver. We will be part of the solution.”

LADF supports more than 100 nonprofits annually; has grown to serve over 10,000 youth annually through its sports-based youth development program, Dodgers RBI; provides 368,000 kids access to safe, playable spaces through its 51 Dodgers Dreamfields, including two universally-accessible adaptive fields; engages 16,000 youth in the LA Reads literacy initiative with more than 3.5 million minutes read to-date; and supports STEM curiosity in over 9,000 students through LADF’s Science of Baseball curriculum.

About the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation is bigger than baseball with ambitions to be the city’s premier charity. We want to impact Los Angeles’ most pressing problems: improving access to education, health care, affordable housing, youth programs and social justice. Since 1995, we have invested more than $30 million in programs and grants to nonprofits, and fundraising has increased by 1,000% since 2012. That growth has enabled us to do more.

Visit LADF online at www.dodgers.com/ladf, follow them on Twitter, @DodgersFdn, Instagram, @dodgersfoundation, and like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LosAngelesDodgersFoundation.