General Information

The Blackhawks Youth Organization is dedicated to teaching advanced skills and promoting teamwork through its athletic program. Founded in 2000 they have served over 1000+ families in the Denver metro area.

Blackhawks has 13 adult Mentor Coaches to run 8 practices, 6 days/week with youth ages 8 - 17 years. Their programming uses sports as a mechanism for youth development - focused on growing personal responsibility and accountability. Over the next 3 years, they plan to double their current enrollment from 95 to 190 girls. 

Founder and Executive Director, Rodney has been leading Blackhawks Youth Organization for 21 years - and while there are innumerable orgs that have been around for that long, few organizations have been successful in creating a sustainable model that doesn’t rely on institutional funders.

HNC’s Assessment

Rodney has built the organization - from board members to volunteer coaches - into a highly functional, well-respected pillar in the community without major institutional funding. They bring in an impressive amount of revenue each year that reflects decades of deep community-building. They have begun raising dollars from institutional supporters like the Denver Foundation, Colorado Health Foundation, and Daniels Fund, and are currently entering a stage of fundraising larger dollars to drive growth.

Rodney has developed a solid organizational structure that he’s been able to sustain with an entirely volunteer team - a cadre of volunteer coaches who have served under this leadership for decades and a board of directors comprised of influential community leaders who can push their vision forward.

It’s a common thing for nonprofit leaders to try to “be all things for all people” because of the myriad needs that confront the communities they serve. Rodney operates within a nonprofit ecosystem in which that’s true for many executive directors - but he’s not doing that. 

Blackhawks Youth Organization, under Rodney’s leadership, is specific about what their organization does - empowerment through athletics - and who the population they serve is - youth. Recognizing the importance of collective efforts, Rodney works strategically with other nonprofit partners on addressing gaps outside of their area of focus.

In conversations with Rodney about the future of Blackhawks Youth Organization, he speaks about serving the whole family and building a community resource that centers youth empowerment while building stronger families and communities. 

Why we believe in Rodney + The Blackhawks Youth Organization

Though we cannot fully detail our reasoning above, we believe that Rodney has built a very strong foundation for Blackhawks and that through some specific targeted support, he has a high likelihood of successfully implementing many of the processes and tools that we help leaders adopt through Boot Camp.

In short, Blackhawks Youth Organization would benefit from more structured planning around intentional strategy and the adoption of tools to be able to track progress against that strategy over time. Blackhawks Youth Organization is uniquely positioned in the community to make an investment of HNC's time and attention to be highly likely to pay off multiple times over for them. We also believe that Blackhawks Youth Organization represents a very low risk, given that the foundation of community support and the long-term volunteer structure provides them a backstop against financial hardship.