Dear Changemakers Community,

It is our nature to innovate. At Nike, we believe the best solutions spring from the creativity within, which is why we have joined with Ashoka, a leading innovator for social change, to launch the Nike – Changemakers Competition: Sport for a Better World.

Since its early years, Nike has led the way as an advocate for change in the world of sport – whether it was pushing the IOC to include long-distance running events or challenging racism in European football arenas with the Stand Up Speak Up campaign. We are now proud to partner with Ashoka’s Changemakers initiative to channel this energy toward using sport itself as a means to create social change in the broader world.

Ashoka is a citizen-sector support system for social entrepreneurs – people around the world who develop innovative solutions to the social problems that most urgently demand them. To further this goal, Ashoka’s Changemakers.net website provides an online, interactive forum that encourages collaboration and discussion, along with competition, to draw out the most effective ideas.

Ashoka’s Changemakers and Nike have partnered to open a worldwide search for projects that use the transformative power of sport to achieve real social change. We hope you will join us. Between September 17th and January 8th, 2008, we invite you to propose a way to leverage sport for positive social impact.

Even if you do not offer a proposal of your own, we invite you to join the dialogue. Your experience and insights are invaluable to the emerging field of sport for social change.

Join the online Changemakers community to make suggestions and recommend resources that will help refine and strengthen the strategies presented by competition entrants. Tell us what you’re thinking, how you see the field, where its challenges and opportunities lie.

We’ll need your help again in February 2008 to vote for three winners from the 12 finalists who will be selected by our panel of judges – a group of influential leaders in the field of sport for social change.

With your help, we have the potential to shape the field of sport for change and bring real solutions to our most troubling social problems. You may already be engaged in activities that use sport to change your corner of the world. Now bring this knowledge to a global community. We encourage you to invite others to the competition as well, so together we may uncover the creativity – and natural drive to innovate – within each of us.

Sincerely,

Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Nike, Inc.