Although, Sport for Development (SfD) has received much attention in the 21st century, the UN has not provided clear guidelines on SfD since 2017, when the sports-specific office closed. However, the number of corporations joining SfD has increased.
This paper examines the situation of a SfD NGO funded by corporate donors and analyzes how the donor companies influence the design of local SfD programs. The study applies the case study approach, focusing on the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which started programs in Japan in 2019.
Since 2015, when the UN announced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the management and CSR strategies of companies in Global North have aimed to contribute to the realization of the SDGs. This trend also influences SfD, so that more corporations are joining SfD as donors. For the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, approximately 70% of its total income has been funded by corporate donors. As a result of the MUFG Bank becoming a global partner of the foundation, two Japanese programs were started in 2019.
New global corporations and SfD organizations have become interested in joining the SfD programs in Japan because of the foundation’s initiatives. However, why the foundation targeted Japan and how it designed the two local programs were influenced by the corporate donors’ management and CSR strategies. Before the global SfD NGO’s presence gets bigger, the appropriate social issues and ways to tackle them through sports should be identified based on Japanese context.
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