“I wanted to do the same thing for kids in Vallejo.” That desire to create something bigger than himself – and help Vallejo youth as he himself had been helped – led to the creation of Anderson’s Dreams Never Die Foundation. Like Lynch’s organization, the DND Founda- tion is about empowering inner-city and low-income youth to reach their potential – in sports, in academics, in life. Anderson launched the foundation in October 2016, held his first football camp in summer 2017 and began field trips and workshops in early 2018. He has taken about 40 high school students to tour Google. He’ll soon be tak- ing another group to YouTube headquarters and to Docu- Sign. He has held a robotics workshop, an art program, cooking classes. And he is just getting started. “When I went to Berkeley, it opened my eyes and gave me opportunities I’d never had before. I was exposed to technology and robotics and art and cooking – things I didn’t know about as a kid,” says Anderson. “Growing up, it was all sports or entertainment or the streets. Kids like me, they see the next rapper as the definition of success. I want to show them that being an editor, having a podcast, being an entrepreneur, a painter, a cook – those are all forms of success, and they keep you off the streets.” Through DND, Vallejo kids are discovering talents and passions they didn’t know they had. Kids who weren’t “cool” because they weren’t sports stars are finding a voice and getting attention for their skills at computer program- ming or cooking. With the exception of the summer football camp, Anderson’s decision to focus initially on non-sporting skills is significant – especially coming from a big-name athlete. “Our sports program won’t start for another one or two years because we are trying to get the educational programs established first,” he explains. It’s sending a mes- sage. Young Vallejo athletes are learning that touchdowns and slam dunks are only one definition of greatness.
Currently, 380 youth participate in DND Foundation ac- tivities. The organization has established partnerships with Google, LinkedIn, DocuSign, Warner Brothers, Harvard, and others. This summer, Harvard will send students to Vallejo to teach some of DND’s summer programs. And that’s just the start. Anderson sees the foundation continu- ing to grow, add partnerships, and play a critical role in getting kids off the streets and into meaningful careers. He wants to see a 98-99 percent high school graduation rate among DND kids.
The foundation is not only a ladder for inner-city kids to climb out of poverty; it’s a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who fought so hard to keep Anderson off the streets. He is paying back their efforts in the most powerful way he can – by giving them a vehicle to help hundreds, eventually thousands, more kids like him. By impacting Anderson’s life so deeply, these same caring people are now able to impact the lives of countless others. People like Anderson’s mother, grandmother, and brothers, who all serve on DND’s board of directors. People like Miss Doster, who directs kids to his program. People like Graham who, though he passed away before seeing Anderson win the Super Bowl, continues to in- spire Anderson even to this day. “When Philmore Graham died [in 2014], he took the Boys & Girls Club with him,” says Anderson. But he left a legacy of excellence, of getting kids to believe in them- selves, to go on to college and to careers. “I want to keep that going – to continue what Graham started. We want DND to be the Boys & Girls Club on steroids.” For a kid who has risen from the streets of Vallejo to the pinnacle of the NFL, the grinder who has already over- come overwhelming odds, it’s a sure bet Anderson will achieve that goal and leave a legacy of helping Vallejo youth start winning big in their own lives.
If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . A
nderson is nothing if not persistent. If some- thing doesn’t go his way the first time, he learns from it, tweaks
things, tries again. This never-give- up mentality is partly what’s driven the early success of his Dreams Never Die Foundation. As head of that foundation, Anderson must sell corporations on partnerships – and he doesn’t always get it right. He tells the story of the first time
he reached out to Ibotta, a technol- ogy company that enables consum- ers to earn cash back on purchases through a smartphone app. The company partners with brands and
retailers, and Anderson thought it would be a great idea for Ibotta to partner with DND and with the store where Anderson’s old neighbors buy most of their meat. “I was way too aggressive in my pitch,” admits Anderson of his first conversation with Ibotta CEO Bryan Leach. “I really came on hard about our foundation and pushed what we were doing and what I wanted his role to be. I turned him off.” Despite that encounter, Anderson maintained the relationship and later invited Leach to visit a DND football camp. Having learned a thing or two from his unsuccessful initial pitch, Anderson didn’t bring up any sort of
proposal. Instead, he took Leach on a tour of his Vallejo neighborhood, showing the CEO where he’d grown up, introducing him to the meat mar- ket/liquor store and to some of the people who were shopping there. “He saw first-hand what kind of an impact he could have without my having to ‘sell’ him on it,” says An- derson. “He got on the phone with his wife and told her that he knew these kinds of conditions existed in Africa or the Philippines but he had no idea people in America were living in such conditions. He now works with us and has the Ibotta app in our store. Down the road, I’m hoping to get our DND kids working with him in marketing, PR, coding, and other areas.”
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