Key Takeaways
- Trust & Will is putting an initial $30,000 behind the new Soccer Shots Community Grants Program as its presenting sponsor.
- Soccer Shots says it reaches more than 600,000 children a year through over 300 locations across North America.
- Eligible uses include school and childcare provider partnerships, underserved community programming, and other work that removes access barriers.
- Both families and Soccer Shots partners can apply, with the application window opening August 20, according to the company.
Soccer Shots has launched a youth sports grant program funded by an initial $30,000 investment from Trust & Will, the digital estate planning platform serving as presenting sponsor. Announced September 1, 2026, the Soccer Shots Community Grants Program will fund local efforts that make the company’s soccer enrichment classes reachable for children and families who currently cannot access them, according to the announcement.
What the Youth Sports Grant Program Will Fund
The company lists three eligible uses for grant dollars: serving underserved communities, establishing partnerships with schools and childcare providers, and supporting other community-based efforts that remove barriers to participation.
Applications are open to Soccer Shots families and to the company’s partners, meaning individual franchise operators can seek funding for programming in their own markets rather than waiting on a national allocation. The application window opened August 20, and the company says applications are live now through the program page.
Several operational details are absent from the announcement. Soccer Shots has not disclosed how many grants will be awarded, the size of an individual grant, who reviews applications, or when recipients will be notified.
Jason Webb, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Soccer Shots, said in the announcement that the program is intended to help more children form friendships, build confidence, and learn lifelong lessons that start with having a place to play.
Why Is a Digital Estate Planning Company Sponsoring Youth Soccer?
Trust & Will, founded in 2017, is a certified B Corporation selling online wills, trusts, healthcare directives, and related estate planning documents. The company says it has served more than one million families and supports over 26,000 financial advisors and more than 145 enterprise partners, a list that includes AARP, Fifth Third Bank, UBS, USAA, LPL Financial, and Northwestern Mutual. It reports more than $300 billion in self-reported estate assets on the platform.
Cody Barbo, co-founder and CEO of Trust & Will, framed the sponsorship as an extension of the company’s stated mission of helping families build lasting legacies.
The demographic overlap is direct. Soccer Shots enrolls children ages 18 months to 8 years, per the company, which places its customer base in the parent life stage that estate planning products are built to reach. Youth sports sponsorship has drawn a widening set of non-endemic categories, and financial services is among the most active.
The 300-Location Network Behind the Grants
Soccer Shots has operated for more than 20 years and positions itself as a children’s soccer program focused on character development, with curriculum and coaching built around teamwork, respect, and confidence. The company reports positively impacting more than 600,000 children annually across more than 300 locations in North America.
That distribution is what gives a $30,000 commitment its reach. Spread evenly, the initial investment works out to roughly $100 per location, a figure that says less about the money than about how the money is likely to travel. The release does not describe how funds will be allocated across markets, and the eligible uses point toward defined local projects rather than across-the-board subsidies.
For operators, the more useful number may be the application window itself. A grant program open to franchise partners creates a repeatable funding path for the school and childcare partnerships that drive enrollment at the location level.
Thirty Thousand Dollars, 300 Locations, and No Second Number
The program gives Soccer Shots a funded access initiative and gives Trust & Will a direct line to families with preschool-age children, at a cost that is modest against the scale of both companies. Applications are live now at the program page.
Trust & Will’s contribution is described in the announcement as an initial investment, language that leaves room for more without committing to it. Neither company has announced a renewal figure, a total number of grants, or a date for naming the first recipients.
For now, the only confirmed number attached to the program is the first one.
Source: EINPresswire, September 1, 2026, [https://www.einpresswire.com/article/938280878/soccer-shots-and-trust-will-launch-community-grants-program-to-expand-access-to-youth-sports
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How big is the youth sports market?
American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
How many kids play youth sports in the United States?
Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
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Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
Ready to build a youth sports strategy? Vertical Sports is an Advisory+ delivering integrated expertise across all levels of sport. Youth, College, Pro. Every Fan, Every Level. Brands and youth sports organizations can reach the team at info@verticalsports.us.
