THE POWER OF DOING GOOD

Susan Crown’s Million Coaches Challenge is transforming youth development and scaling social change nationwide.

Scaling social change has long been a passion for Chicago business leader and philanthropist Susan Crown. With more than 18 partner organizations, including the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, Crown led the creation of Million Coaches Challenge (MCC), a national initiative to strengthen youth development by transforming how adults coach, mentor, and lead.

Launched in 2021 through the Susan Crown Exchange, the premise behind MCC is simple but powerful: if coaches are better equipped to support the whole child, the impact can reach millions. Crown recognized that young people today face a set of intertwined challenges—problem-solving, grit and resilience, teamwork, emotion management, and empathy.

When classrooms closed, sports seasons were canceled, and community spaces disappeared during the COVID pandemic, young people lost environments where they could practice essential life skills. So, Crown focused on what she saw as the most scalable lever for change: coaching.

Across the United States, millions of coaches, including volunteers, hold trusted, influential roles in young people’s lives. By strengthening how coaches engage, listen, and respond, a single adult can positively shape dozens of young people year after year. Scale, Crown believed, would come from adding meaningful value and training for coaches.

MCC’s strategy centers on sports, not because athletic achievement is the end goal, but because sports offer a uniquely powerful context for learning life skills. Youth sport participation has been linked to the development of positive social relationships, increased motivation, leadership skills, improved mental health, and better academic performance.

“Athletes develop longer attention spans, a stronger sense of belonging, and a healthier relationship with feedback,” explains Crown.

Thus, sports become a living classroom for building confidence, teamwork, communication skills, and developing positive relationships. MCC works to ensure that coaches are intentionally reinforcing those lessons.

In just four years, the initiative has achieved a major milestone—training 1 million coaches nationwide in evidence-based youth development and mental health practices.

“Training 1 million coaches marks a turning point,” Crown says. “But it’s not the finish line. This next chapter is about making quality coach training the standard, so that every young person, everywhere, has the coach they deserve.”

The multiplier effect is central to MCC’s impact. One million trained coaches have the potential to reach 40 million young people and families.

Measurement at this scale is complex, and much of MCC’s data to date is empirical, drawn from observation, practitioner feedback, and real-world outcomes. After surveying 10,000 MCC-trained coaches, the American Institutes for Research reported that 93 percent feel more confident in their ability to support youth, and 94 percent believe every coach would benefit from youth development training. A majority of MCC-trained coaches reported that their athletes experience greater joy, stronger relationships, and are more likely to stay engaged in sports.

As the initiative moves forward, MCC is shifting from milestone to movement. New resources, including a practical coaching guide and a national set of calls to action, aim to align practitioners, funders, and policymakers around a shared vision—making youth-centered coaching the norm across the United States.

Looking ahead, Crown remains deeply focused on what young people need next. One growing concern is the impact of digital media—and how youth learn to navigate a world where information is constant, persuasive, and often contradictory. How do young people learn to discern what is true? How do they build judgment, empathy, and resilience both online and offline?

These questions are increasingly shaping Crown’s thinking and, along with her experience with MCC, may one day be the subject of a book—one that starts with people, invests in relationships, and designs for scale.

MCC embodies Crown’s enduring belief in the power of doing good. By elevating coaching, she has demonstrated that meaningful, large-scale change can be accomplished through thoughtful investment targeted specifically where growth happens. One coach at a time, the impact is reaching coaches, athletes, communities, and beyond.

For more information regarding MCC, visit millioncoaches.org. For more about the Susan Crown Exchange, visit scefdn.org.