April 19, 2023 • 47 mins
In this episode of “Inside the Oval” presented by Dignity Health, Justin Prettyman shared his favorite 49ers Foundation events, the importance of seeing diversity in leadership, advice for people getting started in the sports industry and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the forty nine Ers Inside the Oval podcast
presented by Dignity Health. I'm Hayley Jones.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I'm Patti Kwan, and today we.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Are joined by forty nine Ers Foundation Executive Director Justin Prittiman. Justin,
thank you for being on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's really
an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You're also now our favorite guest ever because you brought
us candy.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well, you know, like I said, you gotta reach the
wheel sometimes.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Justin, can you take us through your job responsibilities as
executive director of the forty nine Ers Foundation and just
tell us what the foundation does.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So I might be a little biased, but I think
I have the best job in the building because I
get to combine two of my passions and I get
to work on the philanthropic side, so raising money for
our work in the community. I came on in twenty
seven teen, and essentially what we do is we run
direct service programs. So we have two programs in the
(01:07):
building in Levi Stadium. That's forty nine Ers Edu presented
by Chevron. We're a unicorn. We're super lucky to have
four classrooms in the North End zone of the stadium.
We have amazing educators who work on the program and
bringing students into the building literally and teaching them science, technology, engineering,
(01:28):
arts and math using football. And then our other program
is more boots on the ground in the community, and
that is forty nine Ers Prep presented by US Bank,
that is going out into schools across the nine counties
of the Bay Area, working directly with young people. And
I get the awesome job of working with a team
who raises money to fund that work.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Since you joined in twenty seventeen, how have you seen
the foundation evolve or grow in that time significantly?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
It's been I'm glad that I packed some running shoes
when I came from Boston because it's been pretty fast.
So in twenty seventeen, it was one of the cool stories.
I'll kind of make it as short as possible, But
when I was interviewing for the job, I flew out
from Boston a couple of times, and on my final interview,
(02:21):
I flew back and I had to go right back
to work like that afternoon, and I was sitting in
my office and I had just met with John York
and I was not really watching TV, but ESPN was
on and I heard this familiar voice in the background
and I look up and it's John York on stage
(02:42):
at the SPS accepting the award for Humanitarian Team of
the Year. And I was like, oh my god, I
just met with him and about this opportunity and he's
now winning, like what in our world and sports philanthropy
is like the highest award that you can receive. So
when I got here in twenty seventeen, big year Kyle started.
John started a lot of change. And one of the
(03:04):
changes on the philanthropic side is that we went from
an organization that did not have direct service programs, so
did not have charitable programs that we run ourselves, to
one that we took in. Those two programs that I
mentioned before, EDU and PREP, we took those in and
made them direct programs of the forty nine Ers Foundation.
So boom, that's a big one. Back then, I think
(03:26):
our board was around seven to eight people. It's now
we just brought on three more. We are like knocking
on the door of twenty board members. And then we've
grown fundraising wise. Back in twenty seventeen, we were rate
around a three million dollar organization. We're now a ten
(03:47):
million dollar organization. So life comes at you fast and
so does work. So we've been able to accomplish a
lot over a short period of time. Pandemic wedged in
between there, but it's been an incredible ride so far.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
A lot of our guests when they come on, always
knew they kind of wanted to work in sports. I'm
curious what came first for you. Was it wanting to
work in sports or was it wanting to work kind
of in the nonprofit space.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
That's a great one. So I remember being so I
went to two schools. I went to Penn State for
the first couple of years. My mom is a breast
cancer survivor, and when she was diagnosed, I just panicked
and I transferred to a school in Boston called Suffolk University.
And at Suffolk, I took a course that was taught
(04:38):
by the head of the Shamrock Foundation, so the Boston
Celtics kind of philanthropic arm And it was literally at
that moment like Bob's went off. I didn't until then.
I never knew that there were like this conversion of
these two passions of mine, which was sports and philanthropy.
My parents always, you know, every every time time I
(05:00):
outgrew something, We're putting it out for big brothers, big sisters. Anytime,
like toys, we're done, we're like donating it, you know,
We're constantly giving, given, giving back. So that's always been
a big part. So took this course, realized that these
worlds could coexist, and I just lucked into it. I
(05:21):
started volunteering for the Boston Red Sox Foundation when I
was at Suffolk, and one thing led to the next,
and was able to land entry level position with them
and right place at the right time. They went on
and won the World Series soon after I was there,
and won a couple more while I was there, and
(05:41):
through that we were able to raise a lot of
money and do a lot of great things. And then
this opportunity came. So being able to work in an
industry where you take the passion of a region and
the passion of a fan base and be able to
apply it to a great cause and some great social
(06:03):
capital in the community was like a dream for mine.
So I don't know, that's a long winded way of saying,
I don't know, Patty, but I love both.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Is there a difference between a foundation in the MLB,
like Red Sox Foundation and NFL like forty nine Ers Foundation.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You know, it's really interesting. So just the Red Sox Foundation.
They have an education program similar to our edu program,
and then they have an inner city baseball program similar
to our prep program. So they're very similar. I did
(06:42):
I might have sold my wife on hey, eighty one
home games versus ten. I didn't realize that it was
going to be like equal the amount of work somehow,
But yeah, they're pretty similar, and they're both the largest
in their so the Red Sox Foundation is the largest
in MLB and forty nine Ers Foundation is the largest
(07:04):
filanthropic foundation in the NFL. So it was great experience
being able to start there and really see how it's
done at a major market level.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
We all started, actually three of us, in twenty seventeen.
And one thing watching you that I really admire is
in that time I've watched you be a boss who
your employees love, but also be a father and a husband.
How do you balance all of that?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
That is the toughest gig around. It's not for the
fan of heart for sure. Yeah. The family. I'm so
blessed to have an amazing, amazing support system at home
and amazing support system here. Some people know we are
one of the crazy families who through the pandemic, decided
(07:54):
to have another baby. So I have a thirteen year
old son Jackson, a nine year old son Kingston, and
then a one year old daughter. So I'm committed to
the game. I'm going to be parenting for like like.
But my daughter was born with a heart condition, and
she was born prematurely and she had to have open
(08:15):
heart surgery at two weeks old, uh, and then a
GIS procedure at about six weeks and we were in
the hospital for three months. And that was the definition
of community to me. Not only my community that I
where my home is and my family coming in and
(08:39):
I you know, my mother was flying in, my sister
in law was flying in, but also my work family
and everybody rallied around me from literally from ownership who
I have a pleasure to work very very closely with,
down to like my team members and people who are
on my team and making sure that I had everything
(09:00):
in my family had everything that we need. So I
try to return that love and that you know, grace
that they gave me as often and as much as
I can with them. So the balance is definitely tough
because this is I always tell people when you work
in professional sports, you ladies know this, that it's the
entertainment industry. So you're working when people can consume entertainment,
(09:24):
So nights, weekends, and holidays and addition to the regular
you know, work day and work week. So it's a lot.
And I'm just really fortunate that my family loves the
forty nine Ers, they love sports, and they allow me
to follow my passion.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I have one more family question coming from Boston. Was
it hard getting the boys to become forty nine Ers fans?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
So they're lucky because I was never a Patriots fan. Yeah.
I I also know a lot of the guys on
the Patriots. They're very nice and everything, but it just
I couldn't. I couldn't with the Patriots personally. So we
were kind of free agents looking for a football team
(10:16):
to really attach to. So and they were young then,
so when we moved out here, Kingston was four and
Jackson was like nine, and so they were primed to
find a football team. And now now they're all in.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And congratulations, I know your daughter. I think just celebrated
a first.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Birthday, which he really does a research.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I thank you. You know social media, Yeah, you're on it.
What do you hope to see from the foundation moving forward?
Like what's in store over the next five years.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
So we are at like this such a cool point
in history here where we just announced an Oakland Legacy Partner,
So we have our direct service partners. And then when
I came on board in twenty seventeen, we made the
decision as an organization instead of giving a little bit
(11:14):
to a lot of different organizations, a lot of different nonprofits,
we're really trying to identify what we call our legacy beneficiaries.
So we have four legacy beneficiaries that we give kind
of significant, more impactful grants to. We still do give
out these little gifts here and there, and working with
the Community Relations Department, give out donated items and help
(11:36):
a ton of nonprofits. But we have these legacy partners
and we just went through an extensive process that really
started pre pandemic and selected an Oakland based nonprofit. And
I will share that right now. This is like breaking news.
I don't know if you have any music to add
in posts, but yeah, it's called the African American Female
(12:00):
Excellence Program. They're based in Oakland. It's an in school
program and we couldn't be more excited about it. And
the process was just so so forty nine ers. It
was so inclusive. We had staff select a committee of
selectors from staff members who reviewed applications, and then it
(12:22):
went to our board of directors in executive leadership, and
then it ultimately went to ownership to decide. So it
was really an inclusive process. We had over ninety two
applications come in and so I'm really excited to have
now an Oakland Legacy beneficiary. So that is really exciting
to me. On February excuse me, February third, we helped
(12:45):
get approved girls' flight football as a varsity sport in
the state of California, which is huge. I mean to
be a part of that movement, and to think my
daughter who's won now, in a couple years when she's
in high school, we'll have the opportunity to play flag football.
That's so cool and to be a part of that movement.
(13:06):
So the sky is seriously the limit, and we're just
so fortunate that we work for an organization who is
saying go for it. You know, if you see something,
go for it and they're going to get in your
corner and give you the resources to go out and
make it happen.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You're also a member of our forty nine ers Black
Employee Resource Group BUILD. Can you tell us a little
bit about your involvement. I think you were kind of
part of the early stages of getting that all set up.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
BUILD holds a special place in my heart. So it
was during the pandemic, you know, May twenty fifth, twenty
when George Floyd was murdered and a fellow colleague at
the time, Nana Yah, called me up and it was like, hey,
let's we got to bring together our community, our community
(13:53):
of black employees and just have a space where we
can talk about what's going on, because at the time,
it just seemed like one thing after the next was
just flaring up. And so that's where it started. And again,
like I don't mean to like deliberately praise leadership here,
but I can't help but say like al Guido led
(14:15):
the charge. Like al Guido was our chair and he
was a part. It was like Nana, myself and a
couple other employees in al It was like five of
us on calls for a couple of weeks just talking,
you know, no agenda, just talking, and that's how it started.
And I was really fortunate to be a part of
(14:37):
our ERG and being built, and several have popped up
since and helped create the name BUILD, which stands for
Black Unity in Leadership Development. Nailed it and that is
another one of those things that now I see it
and again balance, I can't be as involved as I
(15:01):
was when I had two kids during a pandemic and
wasn't coming in as much. But now I see so
many other ergs I know that you're both involved with.
And we just announced our Pride Initiative bringing together our employees.
It's so it goes beyond BUILD. For me, it's I
love Build, but seeing all the other ergs that have
(15:23):
come about since Build, it's just so so cool because
it's really what we're all about as an organization.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Well, I think like even when we talked about legacy
beneficiaries and then flag football and ergs and being an
ally and as someone in a leadership position, how has
or why has championing diversity in the company and the
community been so important to you?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah, So we just had an awesome in turn Tony Grandberry,
he was one of our two interns, and we just
said goodbye to him last week, and in his little
goodbye thing, he really made really nice remarks and he said,
you know how important it was for him to work
(16:11):
for somebody who looked like him and know that it
was possible for somebody who looks like him and comes
from a similar background to make it to a leadership position.
And that like hit me because I don't really think
of myself in that way necessarily, as you know, as
(16:34):
like a black leader. I think of myself as a
leader of a team, you know. And him saying that
was like a light bulb going off in my head
and saying, like, oh my god, if he's seeing me
like this, then you know people outside in the community
are definitely seeing me like this, and it makes it
so important to show to show that just because your
(16:58):
skin tone is one does not preclude you from an
opportunity to rise within within the organization. And uh, I
certainly did not see when I was, you know, an intern,
way back when I didn't see people who look like me.
And now I think a sign of the times is
(17:19):
that that's the expectation. The expectation is to have diversity
in leadership and it's really cool to be a part
of that and to really work for an organization that
cares about that and puts that at the forefront.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think in talking about representation and just visibility. You
also sit on a number of boards, because I did
my research, it's the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, mentor, forty
nine Ers Academy, Cambrian Park Little League. Sure, can you
(17:53):
tell us a little bit about your involvement there and
how maybe some of that what you might do there
kind of translates to what do you hear?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, board service is something I actually have a board
meeting later today. Board service is something that I really
never thought was as important. You know, I just wasn't
I didn't have exposure earlier in my career. It was
the type of thing when I was coming up my
career there were board members, but junior staff wasn't invited,
(18:23):
so I really didn't know what was what happened behind
those closed doors and what it was all about. Boards
are so important to the health of organizations in the
strategic direction, and it brings together so many people from
you know, different walks of life and gives that fifty
thousand foot view. So I love it. I don't know
(18:44):
how much my wife loves that I'm in all these
on all these boards talk about balance, but I love
it because it allows me to share some of the
expertise that I've gained over my career and provide that
to whatever the initiative or whatever the board or the
organization is. I truly, truly, truly think that everybody should
(19:05):
try to find a board that they can join, both
of you included, in any capacity, because it's great exposure.
And for my team, I try to Now the team
has grown quite a bit, but we I open that
door for our board meetings. My team sits in our
on our board meetings, and that was really important to
(19:25):
me when I had the opportunity to become a leader,
to not close that door, because they need to understand
what is happening on the other side of that door
and why some of these decisions are being made, and
understand the thinking of the board, why we're going in
certain directions. So I think it's incredibly important. I think
that if you have the opportunity to get involved, whether
(19:45):
it be on an advisory board or you know, working
for a nonprofit, people nonprofits are gonna say yes, they
want They want as much help as they can get.
Trust me. So if you can get involved in a board,
hundred percent jump at that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
How did you pick the boards you wanted to or
organizations you wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
A part of, So they align with me, they align
with my belief system. The Mentor program. I think mentorship
is incredibly important to kids, and there's a lot of
kids out there who don't have mentorships and don't don't
have mentors. So that organization focuses on providing mentors to
(20:32):
young people in need. I try to find things that
really are important to me and that that I'm excited about,
and so I'm excited about education, I'm excited about social justice,
I'm excited about sports. So that's kind of the boards
that I'm on. I am trying to say no or
(20:53):
trying to maybe direct some boards to other people on
my team now, but I think like that is one
way to start. Uh. If you're if you have a
passion for the outdoors, you know, go find a board
that works with kids or communities to get them involved
in the outdoors. If you have a passion for technology,
there are nonprofit boards out there and they meet like
(21:17):
a handful of times throughout the year, and your expertise
in your career can change the course of their their
their organization, and I've seen it happen, so I again,
I'm doubling down on encouraging folks to get involved with boards.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Is there a criteria to join a board? I didn't realize, Like,
you're telling us to join boards, like, I didn't know
we could.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You read like all of these organizations websites and it's
like the CEO of Google and the like. The board
is al like it's it's a great question.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Is there a criteria for joining a board? Sometimes yes,
a lot of times those are corporate boards. If you
can get in a corporate board, definitely do that because
those actually pay. But for a nonprofit board not so much.
You know, they are really looking for people who have
(22:13):
capacity and who have a skill set, so not always fundraising.
I think one of the things that nonprofits get a
bad rap for is people just automatically assume like, oh,
it's a nonprofit, they're going to be asking me for money,
and sometimes like that is a deterrent. But really boards
want people who are going to be committed and who
(22:35):
can bring some sort of perspective. So both of you
have incredible marketing expertise and knowledge, and I think that
could be hugely impactful. And same thing with anybody who's listening.
I'm sure that there's people out there who know finance,
or who know technology, or who know have a skill
(22:56):
that maybe applies to their job or applies to a
hobby and just sending an email. When I was in Boston,
I was on the board for health Care for the Homeless,
and I had no I had no knowledge in healthcare,
and I just want, like I hope anybody would want
to help homeless and help their situation improve, especially when
(23:20):
it comes to healthcare. So I just reached out, it
was like a cold outreach and asked if I could
get involved, and I started volunteering a little bit, and
then I found out a little bit more about the organization,
and then there was a board opportunity and they said
they welcomed me on, and that's how it happened. So
there's not always requirements. Oftentimes it's like can you participate
(23:42):
in these meetings and can you do you have something contribute,
which everybody does.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Probably not joining the board, but if someone I don't
even know the answer to this. If someone wanted to
be involved with the foundation for a ERRS Foundation, is
there ways that they could be involved?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Yes, there are. There's several different ways. So we take
involvement in a couple of different ways. So you can
be involved from by coming to an event. And you know,
one of the things that was super important to me
coming into this role was making our events more open,
(24:24):
you know, and less exclusive, and having events like picnic
that can you know, a whole family can come to
and you know, working having the opportunity to work with
the team, to have training camp, and having that a
five dollars ticket to bring your family. That's being involved
in the foundation. So if you've come out to training
camp here, you are a part of the forty nine
Ers Foundation family. If you're a game day and you
(24:48):
buy a fifty to fifty raffle ticket, well welcome to
the forty nine ers Foundation family. As far as getting
involved in some of our work and working with young people,
we do that through our forty nine Ers Prep is
always looking for volunteer coaches and volunteer referees and people
(25:09):
who can help with our leagues around the Bay Area.
We're working with this season, we will be providing free
flag football to boys and girls to over six thousand
boys and girls, So we need volunteers. Same thing with
forty nine ers EDU. If you have a son or
(25:29):
daughter who you want their school to come and be
a part of our classroom program here at the school,
you can contact us and that's a free option and
a free opportunity to get involved. So yes, shameless plug here,
email us at a foundation at forty nine ers dot com.
You can definitely somebody from my team will get back
(25:52):
to you and find an opportunity to get you involved
with the forty nine ers Foundation.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You have a really close relationship with who many know,
Jerry Rice, co chairman of the forty nine ers Foundation.
Can you tell us how involved he's been and just
what you know working with him is like, Jerry's my guy.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
He is He's he is everything that you see on
TV when like you see people on TV and you're like,
I wonder if he's like that in real life. Yes,
Like his personality is that big, he's that outgoing, he's
that big hearted, he is all those things. So when
I got here, I realized and I knew very quickly
(26:36):
that nobody's going to pay attention to me, Like if
I come up on you know, the jumbo tron, or
if I'm on stage, you know, they're like, now it's
time to go get a drink or go get a
hot Dogger's or something. But if somebody who has some
notoriety gets up there, they might stay in their seat
and they might listen to what they're saying. So in
(26:56):
twenty seventeen, I approach Jerry and his Amaze Rep Sasha,
and I just pitched them on this. And before I
did that, I asked around some people in the organization
and they were like, I don't know. He's super busy.
I don't know if he's going to be able to
have the capacity to do this type of thing. And
luckily he said yes, like immediately. It wasn't even it
(27:20):
was the softest cell of all time. He said absolutely.
And his thing was he was a champion on the
field and he wanted to be a champion in the community.
And he has been. He is so so generous. I
can't even tell you every time every event he's there,
he signs autographs, he's taking pictures, he's on stage, he
(27:43):
records all of our PSAs. He's just so so giving
what I don't think he's ever said no to anything
that we've asked, and it's it's super unique. I don't
know of many other organizations who have you know, a
Hall of Fame or you know, maybe one of the
greatest ever do it representing their team charity.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
He's putting the never meet your heroes phrase to the test.
Shout out Jerry, Shout out Jerry. During your time since
twy seventeen, have you had a favorite Foundation event that
you've hosted.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
You've hosted a lot of events. I guess my favorite
Foundation event would have to be I'm gonna have to
go with Picnic. It's just a really cool event. I
guess I was wrestling between We just put on a
(28:42):
Foundation for a Success event, which is like a high
school resource fair, and we were able to bring in
about two hundred high school students. That is a different
type of event. The picnic was just so cool because
it really opened up Levi Stadium. There's so many fans
who may never get a chance to come to the
stadium and see a game, let alone be on the
(29:03):
field and have the run of the stadium and have
twenty six players come, you know, during the off season
and play catch and make backpacks with them to give
out to the community. I think that was my favorite event.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You have another event, annual event that's coming up, Golden Getaway.
Can you tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
The countdown is on. It is about a month from
today when Golden Getaway will take place, and there's nothing
like it. It is very hard to describe what Golden
Getaway is. This event is now in its twenty first year,
so it's now legally of drinking age. I suppose it
(29:48):
started off in Lake Tahoe. It started off in Tahoe
as a winter Fest, and that was one of the
things that really drew me to the organization. I working
in sportspilanthropy, it's kind of like a small network. So
I knew about Winterfest because I'm a huge skier. I
love the outdoors, and I knew about Winterfest, and so
(30:10):
I was really attracted to the opportunity to work this
event in Tahoe. When I got here the first year,
we had like five feet of snow that Winterfest, and
it happened to be our last, our last Winterfest, and
we relocated and changed the event and moved it down
to Carmel and it's been phenomenal. It's been absolutely phenomenal.
So we do a complete buyout of a resort and
(30:33):
then we will have a celebrity golf tournament on Friday,
and then Saturday is just an all day. If you
are a football fan, a forty nine ers fan, this
is like your you know, pinch me moment because we
have Hall of Fame alumni there. We have our current players,
we have our general manager, we have our coaching staff,
(30:55):
and throughout the day they're putting on chalk talk. There's
player pathway conversations where we have player panels and they're
talking to kids. Really they're you know, so many times
the parents get in front of the kids. We make
this kid focus and they get the first opportunity to
ask our players questions. There are all sorts of activities.
It's on a ranch, so there's animals and all sorts
(31:16):
of fun things. And then the final night is we
have a big party. There's a concert that takes place.
It's just a phenomenal event. I've never seen anything like it,
and it is about a month away. So if I
have bags under my eyes and a couple more gray
hairs on top.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
That's why you also host a lot of auctions throughout
the year. If you could win any package that was
allowed legally, what would it be, Because you guys have
some really cool things, and.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
You don't need to say Patty's social first.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You don't need to stay social for a day just
because I'm sitting here.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
The social for the day is pretty fire. Shout out Patty.
Also photographer the photographer for the day with is also
a great one. I would say one of the cool
ones that we have done, and we've done a lot,
I might give. Can I give you like more than one?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Okay? One? We got Kyle Shanahan's parking spot for all
of last season, which I don't think he realized it
was the full season when he made that donation. And
that was just really cool to have a a forty
nine ers foundation, like a true fan, like a real
diehard fan, be able to come in every day and
(32:33):
put park in the coaches parking spot and he parked
next to him. The other auction package, I think my
next auction package that I would go with would be
we do like this game day experience where you get
(32:54):
to follow around like on a game day. You get
to start off seeing all all the behind the scenes stuff,
so you get to see gold Rush rehearse, you get
to go to the production meeting before. I'm like a
nerd who like loves the behind the scenes and like
seeing how the sausage is made. So like, that's a
really cool one. We've done stuff with like Jerry with
(33:16):
Wine Tastings and Steve Young. Yeah, there's a ton of
auction packages. Shout out to my team for their creativity
because I couldn't think of half of the things that
they come up with.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I was trying to pitch Annie on a styled by
Trent Williams. Still working on.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
It, Trent. Shout out Trent. Actually he flew in on
his own. Trent has a private chet, as some some know.
He flew into Golden Getaway on his own, like flew
in the same day, flew out like the next morning.
Just like that was so cool to me to see
(33:55):
like that sort of commitment from literally one of the
best players in the NFL to say, like I'm going
to make a priority to like fly my own self
there on my own plane and then you know, spend
time with the forty nine ers during the off season.
That was really cool. But yes to the style with Trent.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Yes, yeah, could you make that happen? Clear, We've kind
of gone around it with a couple of different programs, auctions,
fifty to fifty raffle. What is your game day routine? Like,
I feel like I just see running around.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
So we mentioned you mentioned Annie. So Annie is our
calls marketing and events manager and she is amazing And
one of the things that she's most known for is
her game day run of shows. Our game day run
a show is like a four page document that is
timed out by the minute, and so for for like
(34:51):
a one o'clock game, I think at least I'm getting
here around eight am. Some members of my team are
getting here like Annie, and others are getting here a
little bit earlier. But my game days start with a
stop at Stands Donuts. Pick up four dozen donuts, two
dozen for my team, two dozen for the production staff
(35:12):
up in the up in the booth because I gotta
again grease the wheel. I'm looking at the candy there.
I gotta give them donuts so they promote the raffle.
And then we have a team meeting to start the
day and we go over everything that's going on in
the day. So every game day we'll have auction winners,
so people who have won meet and greet packages to
(35:34):
field passes to sitting it. When the owners suite, we
go over all of that. Then we run a fifty
to fifty raffle. We have a huge fifty to fifty
raffle program, one of the biggest in the NFL. I
meet with the team, we go over the goal. Morgan
Cutter runs a tight ship down there and she gets
(35:55):
them all excited. Then we have a Dig for Gold program,
So if you're not familiar with Dig for it's a
super cool initiative where we get memorabilia straight from the
locker room and we are able to sell it and
raise money. And we have a team, so we meet
with them, get them set up, and then from there
I will normally go and meet with ownership. So I'm
(36:20):
just again being the unicorns that we are in sports.
Our owners are so involved in the in our work
in the community. So we meet a pre game normally
rape before kickoff, and then it is visits. It is
(36:40):
a series of laps around the stadium visiting anything from beneficiaries.
So we put on a Teacher of the Game program
presented by Chevron, so meeting teachers that were welcoming to
the stadium and honoring them on the field before the
game to students that we have our Student of the
Game presented by pg E, and we are I always
(37:03):
wear sneakers on game days because, like, you're on your
feet all day long, just lapping, and it is a
fast paced environment. I normally go home and watch the
game because I don't really get to watch much of
it during a game day. But it's just a blast.
I so look forward to game days that it just
(37:26):
makes There's so much energy in the building. It makes
me so excited to be here on a game day.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
We're gonna need you to make that three dozen stands donuts.
We don't sit very far from you, so it's an
easy drop off. I love stand I love it. I
got you which shout out you did once? Leave dunker
Rouse on my desk. I'll never forget that.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
I didn't even know dunker Ruse come back until Patty
put it on my radar.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Patty still talks about that. I have Like a couple
of weeks ago, she was like, do you remember when
Justin got me dunker Ruse.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
That was so nice.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Well that's the dad. When I starting grocery shopping and
I see the dunker Ruse, I was like, I got
Patty was the first thing, and then my kids.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You were I appreciate you. Do you have a favorite
memory since being with the Niners? You told usbout your
favorite foundation event? But what about just like a memory
being here?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
No hesitation? NFC Championship twenty nineteen was just bananas. That
was such a cool moment to have that as a
home game here and be able to There was so
much energy and everybody was celebrating. And I still have
(38:36):
a cup of confetti on my desk that I grabbed
from the field. And I remember the next season or
the next time I put on like the suit that
I wore, I like went in the pocket and there
was like confetti in the pocket, which was really cool.
So that was definitely That's one of the memories that
I'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
That's mine too, Haley. Is that yours?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I don't know if I have one. I haven't like
thought of it. I think for me, it's honestly not
NFC championship or yeah, NFC championship, because I didn't get
to do any of that really, Like I went from
the press box to do like publishing pressers to I
didn't stop and smell the roses. And that's my biggest
(39:18):
regret from that night where she's trying. Yeah, the rest
of you were having fun and I just took a
detour to the field on my way to my desk to.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Get back to it.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Yeah. I remember like going down to the field through
the tunnel and I was like, oh, there's little John
or little John Dad moment and it was just so
super so sorry, next time, I'll grab you all the way.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
I actually when we were going through the playoffs this year,
it was what I told my whole team was like,
you have to enjoy it because those are the moments
that you'll remember. Like I don't remember what I published
that night, but I do remember like when I did
get to go down to the field.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
So for sure. I just got back a couple of
weeks ago from league meetings in Nashville, and you take
it for granted, Like seriously, we've been to the NFC
Championship last three out of four years, and you know,
not throwing shade to anybody, but like there's some teams
who haven't made the playoffs in that in that amount
(40:22):
of time, so to be able to make it to
the NFC Championship, you really do like have to soak
it all in because it could be you know, gone,
you we didn't win.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
The Super Bowl, but you went to a super Bowl
with the forty nine ers. You've won a World Series,
which was more stressful. It's like there's more games in
a World Series.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Two World series, want to make sure do so, which
was more stressful. Definitely the Super Bowl, I think because
the World Series is like seven games and you're always like, well,
(41:04):
luckily knock them Wooden again, not trying to boast brag,
but the at the time they swept both the World Series.
That when I was a part of the Red Sox,
but in theory like there's always tomorrow with a seven
green game series, or you know, there is a tomorrow.
With the Super Bowl, it was like literally did not
(41:24):
sit down edge of your seat, like couldn't like leave
to go to the restroom. You're just like locked in
on every single play because it's just one shot. Every
single play matters. So definitely the Super Bowl that was
also an incredible memory. I can't believe I left that
off as one of the best. That was just again
first class organization. They flew out the entire org from
(41:47):
top down, and we were there in Miami having like
an incredible, incredible time. So it didn't come out the
way we want it, but that was like something I'll
never forget.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yeah, my parents still talk about it. I don't know
if I'll ever be able to give them such a
grand experience.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
My mom kind of reminds me that she wasn't invited
to the It's super well from time to time. But
next time, Mom, you're.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
It's it's on tape now, Yes, yes, it's Yeah, she
is a listener.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
She told me she would listen. That's why.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Hi, mom, justin. Do you have any advice for anyone
who wants to get into the industry.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Yeah. So I work with a lot of students and
college students and interns and whatnot. I think one really
important thing is to be okay coming in at an
entry level. I started as a volunteer, not even getting paid.
I don't even know if that's allowed now. I think
you have to be like a paid intern or whatnot.
(42:45):
But you know, I remember getting out of college and
like I have my degree, and I'm going to apply
to be the manager of this program for the forty
nine ers, you know, and it's like, no, there's there's
people who started off lower and work their way up
to manager. Just be okay coming in and taking that
(43:06):
entry level position. Learning you learn so much when you're
kind of just getting started in your career. You have
to be okay being a sponge. So I think my
biggest piece of advice would be be comfortable with taking
the entry level opportunity. Be comfort comfortable saying like I
(43:28):
don't know, And I think that's really a source of
pride for a lot of people, myself included. You never
want to say I don't know, but I much rather
appreciate or I much appreciate when people say I don't
know that work on my team. Then like try to
do something and we have to start all over. So
I would say, be comfortable saying I don't know, take
(43:49):
the entry level opportunity, and just remember, especially in sports,
if you're able to get in, enjoy it. Enjoy it.
There's so much work, but we do work in the
toy department of life, Like we work in the toy
department of life, and especially a year ago, like I said,
I was in the hospital with my daughter, and like
(44:09):
that is serious work, Like that is literally life or
death work. And we get to come to Levice Stadium
and make people happy, and people love going on forty
nine ers dot Com and going on at forty nine
ers and coming to events like we get to make
people happy. So we should love what we do. So
that would be my advice is try to love it
(44:31):
and enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
My favorite question I've asked it. I think on every
episode of this podcast, or almost every every job description
has other duties as a sign because a bullet point
at the very bottom. Have you done something with the
forty nine ers that probably wasn't on that initial job
description that would have been classified under other duties as assigned?
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yes, other duties as as assigned would be storage cleaning.
We have a lot because of the Dig for Gold program,
we have a lot of storage, and that sometimes requires
renting trucks to move stuff. So I've had the pleasure
of doing that. And yeah, the the the days that
(45:20):
you are sweating in like an off site storage facility,
those are not the days that you envisioned when you
were sitting in your interview, but it you know, you
don't raise the money without those days. And there's always
normally like a really good lunch or meal after that,
So that's something.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
It like definitely encompasses. Though when anyone asks me, like,
what's your advice for like it's my first job in sports,
mine is always like, no job is too small, like
you're gonna get a learning like experience out of anything.
Executive director doing storage clean out like embodies that, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Gotta do it, you gotta do it. You can't just
be the you know, person up there telling people to
go clean out the storage and then then inevitably they're
in the storage like like where's Justin? He's probably be
a eating shrimp cocktail somewhere. No, you gotta you gotta
do it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Well, Justin, thank you so much for joining the podcast.
I think you're a first Foundation guess yes, it's long
and long overdue.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
Well, I seriously, seriously appreciate both of you from the
bottom of my heart. The Foundation would not have half
of the success that we have without the eyeballs that
we get from both of what you guys do. And
I don't think you'all get enough credit for all the
hard work that you put in because you literally touch
(46:44):
almost every part of the organization and especially the community.
So shout out to you Patty, shout out to you Hayley,
and shout out to the Oval Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
You are our favorite.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Yeah, you really are. The bar has been set.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Enjoy the candy to
Speaker 2 (47:06):
The ca
Welcome to the forty nine Ers Inside the Oval podcast
presented by Dignity Health. I'm Hayley Jones.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I'm Patti Kwan, and today we.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Are joined by forty nine Ers Foundation Executive Director Justin Prittiman. Justin,
thank you for being on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's really
an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You're also now our favorite guest ever because you brought
us candy.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well, you know, like I said, you gotta reach the
wheel sometimes.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Justin, can you take us through your job responsibilities as
executive director of the forty nine Ers Foundation and just
tell us what the foundation does.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So I might be a little biased, but I think
I have the best job in the building because I
get to combine two of my passions and I get
to work on the philanthropic side, so raising money for
our work in the community. I came on in twenty
seven teen, and essentially what we do is we run
direct service programs. So we have two programs in the
(01:07):
building in Levi Stadium. That's forty nine Ers Edu presented
by Chevron. We're a unicorn. We're super lucky to have
four classrooms in the North End zone of the stadium.
We have amazing educators who work on the program and
bringing students into the building literally and teaching them science, technology, engineering,
(01:28):
arts and math using football. And then our other program
is more boots on the ground in the community, and
that is forty nine Ers Prep presented by US Bank,
that is going out into schools across the nine counties
of the Bay Area, working directly with young people. And
I get the awesome job of working with a team
who raises money to fund that work.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Since you joined in twenty seventeen, how have you seen
the foundation evolve or grow in that time significantly?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
It's been I'm glad that I packed some running shoes
when I came from Boston because it's been pretty fast.
So in twenty seventeen, it was one of the cool stories.
I'll kind of make it as short as possible, But
when I was interviewing for the job, I flew out
from Boston a couple of times, and on my final interview,
(02:21):
I flew back and I had to go right back
to work like that afternoon, and I was sitting in
my office and I had just met with John York
and I was not really watching TV, but ESPN was
on and I heard this familiar voice in the background
and I look up and it's John York on stage
(02:42):
at the SPS accepting the award for Humanitarian Team of
the Year. And I was like, oh my god, I
just met with him and about this opportunity and he's
now winning, like what in our world and sports philanthropy
is like the highest award that you can receive. So
when I got here in twenty seventeen, big year Kyle started.
John started a lot of change. And one of the
(03:04):
changes on the philanthropic side is that we went from
an organization that did not have direct service programs, so
did not have charitable programs that we run ourselves, to
one that we took in. Those two programs that I
mentioned before, EDU and PREP, we took those in and
made them direct programs of the forty nine Ers Foundation.
So boom, that's a big one. Back then, I think
(03:26):
our board was around seven to eight people. It's now
we just brought on three more. We are like knocking
on the door of twenty board members. And then we've
grown fundraising wise. Back in twenty seventeen, we were rate
around a three million dollar organization. We're now a ten
(03:47):
million dollar organization. So life comes at you fast and
so does work. So we've been able to accomplish a
lot over a short period of time. Pandemic wedged in
between there, but it's been an incredible ride so far.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
A lot of our guests when they come on, always
knew they kind of wanted to work in sports. I'm
curious what came first for you. Was it wanting to
work in sports or was it wanting to work kind
of in the nonprofit space.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
That's a great one. So I remember being so I
went to two schools. I went to Penn State for
the first couple of years. My mom is a breast
cancer survivor, and when she was diagnosed, I just panicked
and I transferred to a school in Boston called Suffolk University.
And at Suffolk, I took a course that was taught
(04:38):
by the head of the Shamrock Foundation, so the Boston
Celtics kind of philanthropic arm And it was literally at
that moment like Bob's went off. I didn't until then.
I never knew that there were like this conversion of
these two passions of mine, which was sports and philanthropy.
My parents always, you know, every every time time I
(05:00):
outgrew something, We're putting it out for big brothers, big sisters. Anytime,
like toys, we're done, we're like donating it, you know,
We're constantly giving, given, giving back. So that's always been
a big part. So took this course, realized that these
worlds could coexist, and I just lucked into it. I
(05:21):
started volunteering for the Boston Red Sox Foundation when I
was at Suffolk, and one thing led to the next,
and was able to land entry level position with them
and right place at the right time. They went on
and won the World Series soon after I was there,
and won a couple more while I was there, and
(05:41):
through that we were able to raise a lot of
money and do a lot of great things. And then
this opportunity came. So being able to work in an
industry where you take the passion of a region and
the passion of a fan base and be able to
apply it to a great cause and some great social
(06:03):
capital in the community was like a dream for mine.
So I don't know, that's a long winded way of saying,
I don't know, Patty, but I love both.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Is there a difference between a foundation in the MLB,
like Red Sox Foundation and NFL like forty nine Ers Foundation.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You know, it's really interesting. So just the Red Sox Foundation.
They have an education program similar to our edu program,
and then they have an inner city baseball program similar
to our prep program. So they're very similar. I did
(06:42):
I might have sold my wife on hey, eighty one
home games versus ten. I didn't realize that it was
going to be like equal the amount of work somehow,
But yeah, they're pretty similar, and they're both the largest
in their so the Red Sox Foundation is the largest
in MLB and forty nine Ers Foundation is the largest
(07:04):
filanthropic foundation in the NFL. So it was great experience
being able to start there and really see how it's
done at a major market level.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
We all started, actually three of us, in twenty seventeen.
And one thing watching you that I really admire is
in that time I've watched you be a boss who
your employees love, but also be a father and a husband.
How do you balance all of that?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
That is the toughest gig around. It's not for the
fan of heart for sure. Yeah. The family. I'm so
blessed to have an amazing, amazing support system at home
and amazing support system here. Some people know we are
one of the crazy families who through the pandemic, decided
(07:54):
to have another baby. So I have a thirteen year
old son Jackson, a nine year old son Kingston, and
then a one year old daughter. So I'm committed to
the game. I'm going to be parenting for like like.
But my daughter was born with a heart condition, and
she was born prematurely and she had to have open
(08:15):
heart surgery at two weeks old, uh, and then a
GIS procedure at about six weeks and we were in
the hospital for three months. And that was the definition
of community to me. Not only my community that I
where my home is and my family coming in and
(08:39):
I you know, my mother was flying in, my sister
in law was flying in, but also my work family
and everybody rallied around me from literally from ownership who
I have a pleasure to work very very closely with,
down to like my team members and people who are
on my team and making sure that I had everything
(09:00):
in my family had everything that we need. So I
try to return that love and that you know, grace
that they gave me as often and as much as
I can with them. So the balance is definitely tough
because this is I always tell people when you work
in professional sports, you ladies know this, that it's the
entertainment industry. So you're working when people can consume entertainment,
(09:24):
So nights, weekends, and holidays and addition to the regular
you know, work day and work week. So it's a lot.
And I'm just really fortunate that my family loves the
forty nine Ers, they love sports, and they allow me
to follow my passion.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I have one more family question coming from Boston. Was
it hard getting the boys to become forty nine Ers fans?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
So they're lucky because I was never a Patriots fan. Yeah.
I I also know a lot of the guys on
the Patriots. They're very nice and everything, but it just
I couldn't. I couldn't with the Patriots personally. So we
were kind of free agents looking for a football team
(10:16):
to really attach to. So and they were young then,
so when we moved out here, Kingston was four and
Jackson was like nine, and so they were primed to
find a football team. And now now they're all in.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And congratulations, I know your daughter. I think just celebrated
a first.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Birthday, which he really does a research.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I thank you. You know social media, Yeah, you're on it.
What do you hope to see from the foundation moving forward?
Like what's in store over the next five years.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
So we are at like this such a cool point
in history here where we just announced an Oakland Legacy Partner,
So we have our direct service partners. And then when
I came on board in twenty seventeen, we made the
decision as an organization instead of giving a little bit
(11:14):
to a lot of different organizations, a lot of different nonprofits,
we're really trying to identify what we call our legacy beneficiaries.
So we have four legacy beneficiaries that we give kind
of significant, more impactful grants to. We still do give
out these little gifts here and there, and working with
the Community Relations Department, give out donated items and help
(11:36):
a ton of nonprofits. But we have these legacy partners
and we just went through an extensive process that really
started pre pandemic and selected an Oakland based nonprofit. And
I will share that right now. This is like breaking news.
I don't know if you have any music to add
in posts, but yeah, it's called the African American Female
(12:00):
Excellence Program. They're based in Oakland. It's an in school
program and we couldn't be more excited about it. And
the process was just so so forty nine ers. It
was so inclusive. We had staff select a committee of
selectors from staff members who reviewed applications, and then it
(12:22):
went to our board of directors in executive leadership, and
then it ultimately went to ownership to decide. So it
was really an inclusive process. We had over ninety two
applications come in and so I'm really excited to have
now an Oakland Legacy beneficiary. So that is really exciting
to me. On February excuse me, February third, we helped
(12:45):
get approved girls' flight football as a varsity sport in
the state of California, which is huge. I mean to
be a part of that movement, and to think my
daughter who's won now, in a couple years when she's
in high school, we'll have the opportunity to play flag football.
That's so cool and to be a part of that movement.
(13:06):
So the sky is seriously the limit, and we're just
so fortunate that we work for an organization who is
saying go for it. You know, if you see something,
go for it and they're going to get in your
corner and give you the resources to go out and
make it happen.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You're also a member of our forty nine ers Black
Employee Resource Group BUILD. Can you tell us a little
bit about your involvement. I think you were kind of
part of the early stages of getting that all set up.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
BUILD holds a special place in my heart. So it
was during the pandemic, you know, May twenty fifth, twenty
when George Floyd was murdered and a fellow colleague at
the time, Nana Yah, called me up and it was like, hey,
let's we got to bring together our community, our community
(13:53):
of black employees and just have a space where we
can talk about what's going on, because at the time,
it just seemed like one thing after the next was
just flaring up. And so that's where it started. And again,
like I don't mean to like deliberately praise leadership here,
but I can't help but say like al Guido led
(14:15):
the charge. Like al Guido was our chair and he
was a part. It was like Nana, myself and a
couple other employees in al It was like five of
us on calls for a couple of weeks just talking,
you know, no agenda, just talking, and that's how it started.
And I was really fortunate to be a part of
(14:37):
our ERG and being built, and several have popped up
since and helped create the name BUILD, which stands for
Black Unity in Leadership Development. Nailed it and that is
another one of those things that now I see it
and again balance, I can't be as involved as I
(15:01):
was when I had two kids during a pandemic and
wasn't coming in as much. But now I see so
many other ergs I know that you're both involved with.
And we just announced our Pride Initiative bringing together our employees.
It's so it goes beyond BUILD. For me, it's I
love Build, but seeing all the other ergs that have
(15:23):
come about since Build, it's just so so cool because
it's really what we're all about as an organization.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Well, I think like even when we talked about legacy
beneficiaries and then flag football and ergs and being an
ally and as someone in a leadership position, how has
or why has championing diversity in the company and the
community been so important to you?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah, So we just had an awesome in turn Tony Grandberry,
he was one of our two interns, and we just
said goodbye to him last week, and in his little
goodbye thing, he really made really nice remarks and he said,
you know how important it was for him to work
(16:11):
for somebody who looked like him and know that it
was possible for somebody who looks like him and comes
from a similar background to make it to a leadership position.
And that like hit me because I don't really think
of myself in that way necessarily, as you know, as
(16:34):
like a black leader. I think of myself as a
leader of a team, you know. And him saying that
was like a light bulb going off in my head
and saying, like, oh my god, if he's seeing me
like this, then you know people outside in the community
are definitely seeing me like this, and it makes it
so important to show to show that just because your
(16:58):
skin tone is one does not preclude you from an
opportunity to rise within within the organization. And uh, I
certainly did not see when I was, you know, an intern,
way back when I didn't see people who look like me.
And now I think a sign of the times is
(17:19):
that that's the expectation. The expectation is to have diversity
in leadership and it's really cool to be a part
of that and to really work for an organization that
cares about that and puts that at the forefront.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think in talking about representation and just visibility. You
also sit on a number of boards, because I did
my research, it's the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, mentor, forty
nine Ers Academy, Cambrian Park Little League. Sure, can you
(17:53):
tell us a little bit about your involvement there and
how maybe some of that what you might do there
kind of translates to what do you hear?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, board service is something I actually have a board
meeting later today. Board service is something that I really
never thought was as important. You know, I just wasn't
I didn't have exposure earlier in my career. It was
the type of thing when I was coming up my
career there were board members, but junior staff wasn't invited,
(18:23):
so I really didn't know what was what happened behind
those closed doors and what it was all about. Boards
are so important to the health of organizations in the
strategic direction, and it brings together so many people from
you know, different walks of life and gives that fifty
thousand foot view. So I love it. I don't know
(18:44):
how much my wife loves that I'm in all these
on all these boards talk about balance, but I love
it because it allows me to share some of the
expertise that I've gained over my career and provide that
to whatever the initiative or whatever the board or the
organization is. I truly, truly, truly think that everybody should
(19:05):
try to find a board that they can join, both
of you included, in any capacity, because it's great exposure.
And for my team, I try to Now the team
has grown quite a bit, but we I open that
door for our board meetings. My team sits in our
on our board meetings, and that was really important to
(19:25):
me when I had the opportunity to become a leader,
to not close that door, because they need to understand
what is happening on the other side of that door
and why some of these decisions are being made, and
understand the thinking of the board, why we're going in
certain directions. So I think it's incredibly important. I think
that if you have the opportunity to get involved, whether
(19:45):
it be on an advisory board or you know, working
for a nonprofit, people nonprofits are gonna say yes, they
want They want as much help as they can get.
Trust me. So if you can get involved in a board,
hundred percent jump at that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
How did you pick the boards you wanted to or
organizations you wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
A part of, So they align with me, they align
with my belief system. The Mentor program. I think mentorship
is incredibly important to kids, and there's a lot of
kids out there who don't have mentorships and don't don't
have mentors. So that organization focuses on providing mentors to
(20:32):
young people in need. I try to find things that
really are important to me and that that I'm excited about,
and so I'm excited about education, I'm excited about social justice,
I'm excited about sports. So that's kind of the boards
that I'm on. I am trying to say no or
(20:53):
trying to maybe direct some boards to other people on
my team now, but I think like that is one
way to start. Uh. If you're if you have a
passion for the outdoors, you know, go find a board
that works with kids or communities to get them involved
in the outdoors. If you have a passion for technology,
there are nonprofit boards out there and they meet like
(21:17):
a handful of times throughout the year, and your expertise
in your career can change the course of their their
their organization, and I've seen it happen, so I again,
I'm doubling down on encouraging folks to get involved with boards.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Is there a criteria to join a board? I didn't realize, Like,
you're telling us to join boards, like, I didn't know
we could.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You read like all of these organizations websites and it's
like the CEO of Google and the like. The board
is al like it's it's a great question.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Is there a criteria for joining a board? Sometimes yes,
a lot of times those are corporate boards. If you
can get in a corporate board, definitely do that because
those actually pay. But for a nonprofit board not so much.
You know, they are really looking for people who have
(22:13):
capacity and who have a skill set, so not always fundraising.
I think one of the things that nonprofits get a
bad rap for is people just automatically assume like, oh,
it's a nonprofit, they're going to be asking me for money,
and sometimes like that is a deterrent. But really boards
want people who are going to be committed and who
(22:35):
can bring some sort of perspective. So both of you
have incredible marketing expertise and knowledge, and I think that
could be hugely impactful. And same thing with anybody who's listening.
I'm sure that there's people out there who know finance,
or who know technology, or who know have a skill
(22:56):
that maybe applies to their job or applies to a
hobby and just sending an email. When I was in Boston,
I was on the board for health Care for the Homeless,
and I had no I had no knowledge in healthcare,
and I just want, like I hope anybody would want
to help homeless and help their situation improve, especially when
(23:20):
it comes to healthcare. So I just reached out, it
was like a cold outreach and asked if I could
get involved, and I started volunteering a little bit, and
then I found out a little bit more about the organization,
and then there was a board opportunity and they said
they welcomed me on, and that's how it happened. So
there's not always requirements. Oftentimes it's like can you participate
(23:42):
in these meetings and can you do you have something contribute,
which everybody does.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Probably not joining the board, but if someone I don't
even know the answer to this. If someone wanted to
be involved with the foundation for a ERRS Foundation, is
there ways that they could be involved?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Yes, there are. There's several different ways. So we take
involvement in a couple of different ways. So you can
be involved from by coming to an event. And you know,
one of the things that was super important to me
coming into this role was making our events more open,
(24:24):
you know, and less exclusive, and having events like picnic
that can you know, a whole family can come to
and you know, working having the opportunity to work with
the team, to have training camp, and having that a
five dollars ticket to bring your family. That's being involved
in the foundation. So if you've come out to training
camp here, you are a part of the forty nine
Ers Foundation family. If you're a game day and you
(24:48):
buy a fifty to fifty raffle ticket, well welcome to
the forty nine ers Foundation family. As far as getting
involved in some of our work and working with young people,
we do that through our forty nine Ers Prep is
always looking for volunteer coaches and volunteer referees and people
(25:09):
who can help with our leagues around the Bay Area.
We're working with this season, we will be providing free
flag football to boys and girls to over six thousand
boys and girls, So we need volunteers. Same thing with
forty nine ers EDU. If you have a son or
(25:29):
daughter who you want their school to come and be
a part of our classroom program here at the school,
you can contact us and that's a free option and
a free opportunity to get involved. So yes, shameless plug here,
email us at a foundation at forty nine ers dot com.
You can definitely somebody from my team will get back
(25:52):
to you and find an opportunity to get you involved
with the forty nine ers Foundation.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You have a really close relationship with who many know,
Jerry Rice, co chairman of the forty nine ers Foundation.
Can you tell us how involved he's been and just
what you know working with him is like, Jerry's my guy.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
He is He's he is everything that you see on
TV when like you see people on TV and you're like,
I wonder if he's like that in real life. Yes,
Like his personality is that big, he's that outgoing, he's
that big hearted, he is all those things. So when
I got here, I realized and I knew very quickly
(26:36):
that nobody's going to pay attention to me, Like if
I come up on you know, the jumbo tron, or
if I'm on stage, you know, they're like, now it's
time to go get a drink or go get a
hot Dogger's or something. But if somebody who has some
notoriety gets up there, they might stay in their seat
and they might listen to what they're saying. So in
(26:56):
twenty seventeen, I approach Jerry and his Amaze Rep Sasha,
and I just pitched them on this. And before I
did that, I asked around some people in the organization
and they were like, I don't know. He's super busy.
I don't know if he's going to be able to
have the capacity to do this type of thing. And
luckily he said yes, like immediately. It wasn't even it
(27:20):
was the softest cell of all time. He said absolutely.
And his thing was he was a champion on the
field and he wanted to be a champion in the community.
And he has been. He is so so generous. I
can't even tell you every time every event he's there,
he signs autographs, he's taking pictures, he's on stage, he
(27:43):
records all of our PSAs. He's just so so giving
what I don't think he's ever said no to anything
that we've asked, and it's it's super unique. I don't
know of many other organizations who have you know, a
Hall of Fame or you know, maybe one of the
greatest ever do it representing their team charity.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
He's putting the never meet your heroes phrase to the test.
Shout out Jerry, Shout out Jerry. During your time since
twy seventeen, have you had a favorite Foundation event that
you've hosted.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
You've hosted a lot of events. I guess my favorite
Foundation event would have to be I'm gonna have to
go with Picnic. It's just a really cool event. I
guess I was wrestling between We just put on a
(28:42):
Foundation for a Success event, which is like a high
school resource fair, and we were able to bring in
about two hundred high school students. That is a different
type of event. The picnic was just so cool because
it really opened up Levi Stadium. There's so many fans
who may never get a chance to come to the
stadium and see a game, let alone be on the
(29:03):
field and have the run of the stadium and have
twenty six players come, you know, during the off season
and play catch and make backpacks with them to give
out to the community. I think that was my favorite event.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You have another event, annual event that's coming up, Golden Getaway.
Can you tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
The countdown is on. It is about a month from
today when Golden Getaway will take place, and there's nothing
like it. It is very hard to describe what Golden
Getaway is. This event is now in its twenty first year,
so it's now legally of drinking age. I suppose it
(29:48):
started off in Lake Tahoe. It started off in Tahoe
as a winter Fest, and that was one of the
things that really drew me to the organization. I working
in sportspilanthropy, it's kind of like a small network. So
I knew about Winterfest because I'm a huge skier. I
love the outdoors, and I knew about Winterfest, and so
(30:10):
I was really attracted to the opportunity to work this
event in Tahoe. When I got here the first year,
we had like five feet of snow that Winterfest, and
it happened to be our last, our last Winterfest, and
we relocated and changed the event and moved it down
to Carmel and it's been phenomenal. It's been absolutely phenomenal.
So we do a complete buyout of a resort and
(30:33):
then we will have a celebrity golf tournament on Friday,
and then Saturday is just an all day. If you
are a football fan, a forty nine ers fan, this
is like your you know, pinch me moment because we
have Hall of Fame alumni there. We have our current players,
we have our general manager, we have our coaching staff,
(30:55):
and throughout the day they're putting on chalk talk. There's
player pathway conversations where we have player panels and they're
talking to kids. Really they're you know, so many times
the parents get in front of the kids. We make
this kid focus and they get the first opportunity to
ask our players questions. There are all sorts of activities.
It's on a ranch, so there's animals and all sorts
(31:16):
of fun things. And then the final night is we
have a big party. There's a concert that takes place.
It's just a phenomenal event. I've never seen anything like it,
and it is about a month away. So if I
have bags under my eyes and a couple more gray
hairs on top.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
That's why you also host a lot of auctions throughout
the year. If you could win any package that was
allowed legally, what would it be, Because you guys have
some really cool things, and.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
You don't need to say Patty's social first.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You don't need to stay social for a day just
because I'm sitting here.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
The social for the day is pretty fire. Shout out Patty.
Also photographer the photographer for the day with is also
a great one. I would say one of the cool
ones that we have done, and we've done a lot,
I might give. Can I give you like more than one?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Okay? One? We got Kyle Shanahan's parking spot for all
of last season, which I don't think he realized it
was the full season when he made that donation. And
that was just really cool to have a a forty
nine ers foundation, like a true fan, like a real
diehard fan, be able to come in every day and
(32:33):
put park in the coaches parking spot and he parked
next to him. The other auction package, I think my
next auction package that I would go with would be
we do like this game day experience where you get
(32:54):
to follow around like on a game day. You get
to start off seeing all all the behind the scenes stuff,
so you get to see gold Rush rehearse, you get
to go to the production meeting before. I'm like a
nerd who like loves the behind the scenes and like
seeing how the sausage is made. So like, that's a
really cool one. We've done stuff with like Jerry with
(33:16):
Wine Tastings and Steve Young. Yeah, there's a ton of
auction packages. Shout out to my team for their creativity
because I couldn't think of half of the things that
they come up with.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I was trying to pitch Annie on a styled by
Trent Williams. Still working on.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
It, Trent. Shout out Trent. Actually he flew in on
his own. Trent has a private chet, as some some know.
He flew into Golden Getaway on his own, like flew
in the same day, flew out like the next morning.
Just like that was so cool to me to see
(33:55):
like that sort of commitment from literally one of the
best players in the NFL to say, like I'm going
to make a priority to like fly my own self
there on my own plane and then you know, spend
time with the forty nine ers during the off season.
That was really cool. But yes to the style with Trent.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Yes, yeah, could you make that happen? Clear, We've kind
of gone around it with a couple of different programs, auctions,
fifty to fifty raffle. What is your game day routine? Like,
I feel like I just see running around.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
So we mentioned you mentioned Annie. So Annie is our
calls marketing and events manager and she is amazing And
one of the things that she's most known for is
her game day run of shows. Our game day run
a show is like a four page document that is
timed out by the minute, and so for for like
(34:51):
a one o'clock game, I think at least I'm getting
here around eight am. Some members of my team are
getting here like Annie, and others are getting here a
little bit earlier. But my game days start with a
stop at Stands Donuts. Pick up four dozen donuts, two
dozen for my team, two dozen for the production staff
(35:12):
up in the up in the booth because I gotta
again grease the wheel. I'm looking at the candy there.
I gotta give them donuts so they promote the raffle.
And then we have a team meeting to start the
day and we go over everything that's going on in
the day. So every game day we'll have auction winners,
so people who have won meet and greet packages to
(35:34):
field passes to sitting it. When the owners suite, we
go over all of that. Then we run a fifty
to fifty raffle. We have a huge fifty to fifty
raffle program, one of the biggest in the NFL. I
meet with the team, we go over the goal. Morgan
Cutter runs a tight ship down there and she gets
(35:55):
them all excited. Then we have a Dig for Gold program,
So if you're not familiar with Dig for it's a
super cool initiative where we get memorabilia straight from the
locker room and we are able to sell it and
raise money. And we have a team, so we meet
with them, get them set up, and then from there
I will normally go and meet with ownership. So I'm
(36:20):
just again being the unicorns that we are in sports.
Our owners are so involved in the in our work
in the community. So we meet a pre game normally
rape before kickoff, and then it is visits. It is
(36:40):
a series of laps around the stadium visiting anything from beneficiaries.
So we put on a Teacher of the Game program
presented by Chevron, so meeting teachers that were welcoming to
the stadium and honoring them on the field before the
game to students that we have our Student of the
Game presented by pg E, and we are I always
(37:03):
wear sneakers on game days because, like, you're on your
feet all day long, just lapping, and it is a
fast paced environment. I normally go home and watch the
game because I don't really get to watch much of
it during a game day. But it's just a blast.
I so look forward to game days that it just
(37:26):
makes There's so much energy in the building. It makes
me so excited to be here on a game day.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
We're gonna need you to make that three dozen stands donuts.
We don't sit very far from you, so it's an
easy drop off. I love stand I love it. I
got you which shout out you did once? Leave dunker
Rouse on my desk. I'll never forget that.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
I didn't even know dunker Ruse come back until Patty
put it on my radar.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Patty still talks about that. I have Like a couple
of weeks ago, she was like, do you remember when
Justin got me dunker Ruse.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
That was so nice.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Well that's the dad. When I starting grocery shopping and
I see the dunker Ruse, I was like, I got
Patty was the first thing, and then my kids.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You were I appreciate you. Do you have a favorite
memory since being with the Niners? You told usbout your
favorite foundation event? But what about just like a memory
being here?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
No hesitation? NFC Championship twenty nineteen was just bananas. That
was such a cool moment to have that as a
home game here and be able to There was so
much energy and everybody was celebrating. And I still have
(38:36):
a cup of confetti on my desk that I grabbed
from the field. And I remember the next season or
the next time I put on like the suit that
I wore, I like went in the pocket and there
was like confetti in the pocket, which was really cool.
So that was definitely That's one of the memories that
I'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
That's mine too, Haley. Is that yours?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I don't know if I have one. I haven't like
thought of it. I think for me, it's honestly not
NFC championship or yeah, NFC championship, because I didn't get
to do any of that really, Like I went from
the press box to do like publishing pressers to I
didn't stop and smell the roses. And that's my biggest
(39:18):
regret from that night where she's trying. Yeah, the rest
of you were having fun and I just took a
detour to the field on my way to my desk to.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Get back to it.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Yeah. I remember like going down to the field through
the tunnel and I was like, oh, there's little John
or little John Dad moment and it was just so
super so sorry, next time, I'll grab you all the way.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
I actually when we were going through the playoffs this year,
it was what I told my whole team was like,
you have to enjoy it because those are the moments
that you'll remember. Like I don't remember what I published
that night, but I do remember like when I did
get to go down to the field.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
So for sure. I just got back a couple of
weeks ago from league meetings in Nashville, and you take
it for granted, Like seriously, we've been to the NFC
Championship last three out of four years, and you know,
not throwing shade to anybody, but like there's some teams
who haven't made the playoffs in that in that amount
(40:22):
of time, so to be able to make it to
the NFC Championship, you really do like have to soak
it all in because it could be you know, gone,
you we didn't win.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
The Super Bowl, but you went to a super Bowl
with the forty nine ers. You've won a World Series,
which was more stressful. It's like there's more games in
a World Series.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Two World series, want to make sure do so, which
was more stressful. Definitely the Super Bowl, I think because
the World Series is like seven games and you're always like, well,
(41:04):
luckily knock them Wooden again, not trying to boast brag,
but the at the time they swept both the World Series.
That when I was a part of the Red Sox,
but in theory like there's always tomorrow with a seven
green game series, or you know, there is a tomorrow.
With the Super Bowl, it was like literally did not
(41:24):
sit down edge of your seat, like couldn't like leave
to go to the restroom. You're just like locked in
on every single play because it's just one shot. Every
single play matters. So definitely the Super Bowl that was
also an incredible memory. I can't believe I left that
off as one of the best. That was just again
first class organization. They flew out the entire org from
(41:47):
top down, and we were there in Miami having like
an incredible, incredible time. So it didn't come out the
way we want it, but that was like something I'll
never forget.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yeah, my parents still talk about it. I don't know
if I'll ever be able to give them such a
grand experience.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
My mom kind of reminds me that she wasn't invited
to the It's super well from time to time. But
next time, Mom, you're.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
It's it's on tape now, Yes, yes, it's Yeah, she
is a listener.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
She told me she would listen. That's why.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Hi, mom, justin. Do you have any advice for anyone
who wants to get into the industry.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Yeah. So I work with a lot of students and
college students and interns and whatnot. I think one really
important thing is to be okay coming in at an
entry level. I started as a volunteer, not even getting paid.
I don't even know if that's allowed now. I think
you have to be like a paid intern or whatnot.
(42:45):
But you know, I remember getting out of college and
like I have my degree, and I'm going to apply
to be the manager of this program for the forty
nine ers, you know, and it's like, no, there's there's
people who started off lower and work their way up
to manager. Just be okay coming in and taking that
(43:06):
entry level position. Learning you learn so much when you're
kind of just getting started in your career. You have
to be okay being a sponge. So I think my
biggest piece of advice would be be comfortable with taking
the entry level opportunity. Be comfort comfortable saying like I
(43:28):
don't know, And I think that's really a source of
pride for a lot of people, myself included. You never
want to say I don't know, but I much rather
appreciate or I much appreciate when people say I don't
know that work on my team. Then like try to
do something and we have to start all over. So
I would say, be comfortable saying I don't know, take
(43:49):
the entry level opportunity, and just remember, especially in sports,
if you're able to get in, enjoy it. Enjoy it.
There's so much work, but we do work in the
toy department of life, Like we work in the toy
department of life, and especially a year ago, like I said,
I was in the hospital with my daughter, and like
(44:09):
that is serious work, Like that is literally life or
death work. And we get to come to Levice Stadium
and make people happy, and people love going on forty
nine ers dot Com and going on at forty nine
ers and coming to events like we get to make
people happy. So we should love what we do. So
that would be my advice is try to love it
(44:31):
and enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
My favorite question I've asked it. I think on every
episode of this podcast, or almost every every job description
has other duties as a sign because a bullet point
at the very bottom. Have you done something with the
forty nine ers that probably wasn't on that initial job
description that would have been classified under other duties as assigned?
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yes, other duties as as assigned would be storage cleaning.
We have a lot because of the Dig for Gold program,
we have a lot of storage, and that sometimes requires
renting trucks to move stuff. So I've had the pleasure
of doing that. And yeah, the the the days that
(45:20):
you are sweating in like an off site storage facility,
those are not the days that you envisioned when you
were sitting in your interview, but it you know, you
don't raise the money without those days. And there's always
normally like a really good lunch or meal after that,
So that's something.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
It like definitely encompasses. Though when anyone asks me, like,
what's your advice for like it's my first job in sports,
mine is always like, no job is too small, like
you're gonna get a learning like experience out of anything.
Executive director doing storage clean out like embodies that, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Gotta do it, you gotta do it. You can't just
be the you know, person up there telling people to
go clean out the storage and then then inevitably they're
in the storage like like where's Justin? He's probably be
a eating shrimp cocktail somewhere. No, you gotta you gotta
do it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Well, Justin, thank you so much for joining the podcast.
I think you're a first Foundation guess yes, it's long
and long overdue.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
Well, I seriously, seriously appreciate both of you from the
bottom of my heart. The Foundation would not have half
of the success that we have without the eyeballs that
we get from both of what you guys do. And
I don't think you'all get enough credit for all the
hard work that you put in because you literally touch
(46:44):
almost every part of the organization and especially the community.
So shout out to you Patty, shout out to you Hayley,
and shout out to the Oval Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
You are our favorite.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Yeah, you really are. The bar has been set.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Enjoy the candy to
Speaker 2 (47:06):
The ca
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